can cats eat chicken

Finally, a food question with a pleasant answer. Yes, cats can eat chicken, and most cats would sell you for a piece of it. Plain cooked chicken is one of the better treats you can give a cat. There are a few rules to get right, but this is a rare case where the cat's begging and its actual interests point the same way.

Cats are obligate carnivores, which means their bodies are built to run on meat and they genuinely need animal protein to be healthy. Chicken is lean, high in protein, and easy to digest, which makes it a natural fit. It is gentle enough that vets often recommend plain cooked chicken for a cat recovering from a stomach upset, and appealing enough that it works as a treat, a topper, or a way to tempt a fussy or unwell cat back to eating. On its own merits, chicken is a good thing to feed a cat.

how to serve chicken safely

The catch is all in the preparation. Chicken is good for cats only when it is plain and cooked properly, and a few things need to be right.

Cook it thoroughly. Raw chicken can carry salmonella and other bacteria that make cats, and the humans around them, ill, so unless you are following a properly formulated raw-feeding plan with veterinary guidance, cook the chicken all the way through. Serve it plain. No salt, no garlic or onion, no oil, no seasoning, no sauce, because many of the flavourings humans add, garlic and onion in particular, are toxic to cats. Boil, poach, bake, or grill it with nothing on it at all.

Remove the bones. Cooked chicken bones can splinter and cause choking or internal injury, so give only boneless meat. Skip the skin and trim the fat, which are greasy and can upset the stomach or add unnecessary calories. And let it cool, then cut it into small, bite-sized pieces the cat can manage. Plain, cooked, boneless, unseasoned, cool, and small. Get those right and chicken is close to an ideal treat.

how much, and how often

Here is the part cats will not want you to read. Chicken is a treat, not a diet. As appealing as it is, plain chicken on its own is not nutritionally complete for a cat, and a cat cannot live on it healthily. Cats need specific nutrients, taurine chief among them, in the right balance, and a good commercial cat food is formulated to provide exactly that. Chicken does not.

So keep it in proportion. Treats of any kind should make up only a small share of a cat's daily food, and the bulk should stay a balanced, complete cat food. A little cooked chicken mixed into a meal, or offered as a reward, is a fine addition. Replacing proper meals with chicken, day after day, is how you end up with a nutritional deficiency in an animal that seemed perfectly happy about the arrangement. Moderation is not the cat's department. It is yours.

the verdict

Chicken is one of the safest and most cat-friendly human foods there is, provided it is plain, cooked, and boneless, and provided it stays a treat rather than the whole menu. If you want to give your cat something it will genuinely love without guilt, a few pieces of plain cooked chicken is hard to beat. I will not pretend to objectivity here. I have strong feelings about chicken, and all of them are favourable.

Related reading from my desk: can cats eat cheese and can cats drink milk, two the cat wants far more than it should.

This is general guidance, not veterinary advice. If your cat has a health condition or a special diet, or you are considering raw feeding, talk to your vet first. I am a cat with opinions, not a veterinarian.