I was just curious. Is it okay to feed a cat a little bit of tuna or other canned meat? I read somewhere on here that it isn't good at all, and after my mom presented me a can of tuna to use as a treat, I was wondering whether or not it was alright.

Thank you!

I always thought that canned tuna was too high in sodium for cats. Maybe there's some sodium-free canned tuna available, I don't know.

Hmm.. I doubt it's wonderful for them, what with all the mercury and other creepy things lurking in fish.. but I doubt it's a whole lot worse for them than commercial cat food with all the preservatives and chemicals and stuff in that. We feed kitty some canned tuna or fresh baked/grilled fish every night because the doctor said it's fine and she gives it to her cats every night too. Also, my cat would morph into a 6-foot tall, red-glowy-eyed, fang-toothed demon beast from hell if we didn't :D

However, I wouldn't give kitty anything other than some daily tuna or fresh cooked fish or MAYBE some fresh, plain grilled chicken once in a looong while, simply because... how often in nature do you see a little alley cat chomping on a fresh cow carcass?

Oh I bet if there was a fresh cow carcass available in an alley that those little alley cats most definetely would be chomping down on it. :P

As for tuna, I hadn't heard it being bad for cats. I know they sure LOVE the smell.

the sodium is probably not so good, and apparently too much fish of any kind can cause vitamin e deficiency, but it looks like you can give them a small amount of water packed tuna.

I've heard from a few different sources that too much fish can cause thiamin deficiencies. So, as a snack every once and a while it's probably fine.

My three cats get a tin between them once a week - I try and buy the stuff in spring water, otherwise they have the tuna in oil. Avoid tuna in brine and it shouldn't be too high in salt. All the cats love it but one in particular goes bonkers for it - tuna night is definitely his favourite night of the week!

The majority of your cats diet should be a balanced cat food. Tuna can be a part of that balance or just little treats. A whole can of tune should go bad before your get to feed all of it to your cat or you are giving too much at once. A diet of fish (especially fatty ones) is bad. Fats are oxidents and the fish have little to no antioxident to counter that damage.