Can cats have lemon pepper tuna? Lemon pepper tuna for cats may be one of the worst mistakes you can engage in. Although, this spice produces one of my favorite tastes in grilled foods and the versatility of the seasoning used is beyond mere explanation as it can be used for many things, from popcorn, pasta, poultry, and fish such as tuna, but is lemon pepper tuna safe for cats?
I am mostly off to work. To compensate for my absence for most of the week — I engage my family in a scintillating experience of grilled tuna or poultry, depending on their preference. It doesn’t just end here; my little girl loves the zesty-peppery flavor, especially when I add lemon pepper to popcorn.
With all this said, lemon pepper has become a staple Spice in my household since we have grown to love the taste and enjoy it in almost sixty-two 75% of things we eat; it is good to note that we have pets also(two cats) and you can’t be eating, and they’ll be watching from afar, but should you give them some?
Can cats have lemon pepper tuna? No, your cat should not have lemon pepper tuna. Lemon pepper tuna for cats can be dangerous since it contains salt, black pepper, onion and garlic, and lemon zest. These four ingredients are a total catastrophe for cats when inhaled or ingested. At the same time, tuna is known to have the highest mercury content among fish.
Table of Contents
- What Is Lemon Pepper Tuna?
- Can cats eat lemon pepper tuna?
- Is Lemon Pepper Tuna Safe for Cats?
- Is Lemon Pepper tuna Toxic for cats?
- Is lemon pepper tuna Poisonous to cats?
- What Are Some Alternative Foods I Can Feed My Cat?
- Can Cats Have Lemon Pepper Tuna? – Final thoughts
What Is Lemon Pepper Tuna?
Lemon pepper tuna is a tango of taste where pepper meets citrus and tuna. It is a delicacy made of tuna and lemon pepper seasoning, a mixture of lemon peel zest, cracked black pepper, salt, onion, and garlic.
When it is homemade, you can decide what to exclude, either the salt or onion and garlic. However, doing that may reduce the imposing taste that makes lemon pepper seasoning more alluring.
Most store-bought lemon pepper seasoning contains more ingredients than what gets listed on the body. The manufacturers will claim it’s just lemon and pepper, but they may end up including unwanted preservatives that could harm your cat.
Can cats eat lemon pepper tuna?
No, your cats should not partake of this tasty human treat. While fresh or canned tuna in water is safe for cats in small amounts, the inclusion of lemon peel, salt, onions, and garlic makes it a dangerous treat for your cat.
Many people love feeding cats fruits like guava and human foods like tuna. The tuna flavor has evolved over the years as manufacturers keep finding ways to keep making sales. The lemon pepper tuna is one of the available tuna flavors on the market.
While most cat owners will argue that cats should eat lemon pepper tuna, but in small quantities, I will advise you to avoid it as much as you can. In the following subheading, I’ll explain why lemon pepper tuna is bad for your cat.
Is Lemon Pepper Tuna Safe for Cats?
No, lemon pepper tuna is not safe for your cat contains lemon peel which contains a compound known as the Citrus Limon, which is toxic to cats. It also contains piperine, a compound that makes black pepper pungent—this means it will irritate your cat’s gastrointestinal tract, leading to vomiting, diarrhea, and other symptoms of lemon poisoning.
Also, the black pepper could irritate your feline friend’s sense of smell as soon as it inhales. Below are the ingredients used in making lemon pepper and how they affect your cat’s health.
Lemon peel
A little amount of lemon, including the seed peel and juice, can be toxic to your cats. To understand this further, lemon is a cat repellent for feral and domestic cats. If you rub or sprinkle the juice of a lemon on any part of the house, upon contact, your cat will pull back and run away somewhere else.
Psoralenslimonenee and linalool are toxic compounds found in lemon. Psoralens are considered phototoxic, which means after your cat comes in contact with it and is exposed to sunlight, it will likely experience sunburns.
Cats known symptoms of lemon poisoning include:
- Vomiting
- depression
- tremors
- low blood pressure
- photosensitive
- weakness
- lethargy
- excessive drooling
- cold limbs
- diarrhea
To resolve lemon poisoning in cats, your vet must determine if your cat is reacting to the lemon or other components in the lemon pepper tuna. For phototoxic lemon exposure, wash your cat’s skin and fur with clean water and mild soap. For ingested lemon poisoning, your vet will perform an IV fluid flush.
Tuna
Irrespective of feeding your cat fresh or canned tuna, if you give your cat too much tuna, it can be harmful to the cat’s health. As a stand-alone dish for cats, tuna is inadequate; it cannot provide everything your cat needs nutritionally.
Tuna has a high amount of mercury which could cause make it poisonous for your cat despite not being a frequent occurrence. If your cat suffers from mercury poisoning, the following symptoms will be observed loss of balance and coordination, difficulty in walking, and other severe symptoms.
Tuna has proven to be addictive to cats; if you keep feeding your cat tuna regularly, it will likely dump its Quality Foods and nibbles. Hence, if you must give your cat tuna, make it an occasional treat.
Besides the adverse implications of consuming much tuna, your cat could benefit from its rich protein, and Omega-3 fatty acids are essential in maintaining the coat and skin of your cats.
Black pepper
Cats can eat pepper, but it strongly depends on the type of pepper. Bell peppers, which are vegetable-like, are healthy for cats, and it, doesn’t have pungent flavors or aromas, and they won’t give your cat a burning sensation.
Black pepper, on the other hand, has a pungent odor that irritates a cat’s nostrils. A minimal amount of black pepper may not harm your cat, but it can be hazardous to your kitty if consumed in a large amount or inhaled.
As humans, we sneeze as soon as we inhale black pepper; how much more is a cat that has a heightened sense of smell that is 14 times stronger than that of humans?
Black pepper has essential oils and terpenes as its constituents. These compounds can lead to damage to your cat’s kidneys when ingested. There is no measurement of the amount of black pepper that could be given to your cat that would make it react. Cats are individuals, and different kitties will respond in different ways.
There is no point in giving your cards black pepper since the nutrients are unimportant to your cat. The fact that black pepper irritated the cat’s nose and stomach
It is also an effective cat repellent. I mix black pepper and lemon to spray around some areas of my garden to keep feral cats away.
Salt
While little salt will not harm your cat, it provides its required sodium. A little above the amount necessary could become poisonous to cats. Cats that suffer from sodium poisoning show the following symptoms:
- diarrhea
- before meeting
- lack of coordination
- excessive thirst and urine
- loss of appetite
- body weakness
Salt is one of the three tastes a cat can detect. Your kitty will likely be drawn to salty flavors and will consider salty flavor treats anytime. However, it doesn’t know what is suitable for itself; that is where you come in as a responsible cat owner— you should do your best to ensure your cat doesn’t get above its daily sodium requirement.
As a rule of thumb, a small cat only requires 21 mg of sodium/per kg. Larger cats may require slightly more. If your cat has urinary tract or kidney problems, you should consider reducing sodium intake by your vet’s instructions.
Onion and garlic
Garlic and onions are toxic for your cat, but garlic has proven to be more harmful to cats. For canned lemon pepper tuna, the manufacturers use powdered onions, which are more damaging to cats because it is concentrated onions and are used in snacks like funyuns.
The effect of garlic and onions on cats can be very severe and lethal— causing anemia ( low red blood cells). Red blood cells transport oxygen through the cat’s body; a depleted red blood cell can lead to your cat not getting enough oxygen as it should.
Is Lemon Pepper tuna Toxic for cats?
Yes, lemon pepper is full of ingredients that are known to be toxic to cats and if your cat already has health complications, lemon pepper can cause more severe illness in your cat.
Is lemon pepper tuna Poisonous to cats?
Yes, but this highly depends on the amount served and the individual cat. The constituent of lemon pepper tuna is used as a cat repellent(lemon and black pepper) which goes to show how cats hate and react badly to these ingredients.
Toxicity in cats will vary; you can refer to the ingredient section to familiarize yourself with the toxicity symptoms of individual ingredients.
What Are Some Alternative Foods I Can Feed My Cat?
In the world of humans, there are endless treats (and ridiculous ones) that we can make at home and then share with our cats. But for some reason, it’s a little more challenging to find a similar array of cat-friendly snacks.
Sure, you can buy packaged biscuits, treats, and even flavors of cat food… but there aren’t many easy ways to make them at home. But making your cat treats is easier than you might think! These five recipes are simple enough that anyone can do them with ease and they will also have your kitty begging for more.
Pancake Bites
Let’s start with a classic: Pancakes. Who doesn’t love pancakes? But are pancakes healthy for cats? The short answer is yes. Oatmeal, wheat flour, and a few other ingredients in pancakes are good for cats (although the butter, syrup, and other toppings may not be).
So if you’re craving some Pancake Bites but don’t want to share, we don’t blame you! These are as simple to make as pancakes themselves. Just add a couple of tablespoons of oat flour and wheat flour to one cup of whole wheat pancake mix and stir to combine. Once you pour the batter into a pan, you can either let it bake in the oven (350 degrees) for 20 minutes or fry them on the stovetop until they’re golden brown.
Then, give the pancakes a few slices with a knife and let them cool. Sprinkle a bit of cinnamon on top and serve warm. Easy, right?
Chicken, Rice and Veggie Muffins
Muffins can be tricky to make, but these savory muffins are super easy. You can add any mix of veggies and protein that you want, but we recommend including at least some carrots and chicken.
To make these savory muffins, all you need is a few cups of shredded chicken, a cup of shredded carrots, a cup of cooked brown rice, and a cup of veggie mix (we recommend a mix of zucchini, bell peppers, onion, and carrots), a cup of cornmeal and a cup of whole wheat flour.
Mix everything in a bowl, spoon the mixture into a muffin pan and bake at 350 degrees for around 30 minutes.
Oat and Salmon Balls
Cats love fish so much that they’re often called “fish” cats. So, when we make a cat treat that has salmon in it, it’s no surprise that even the fussy eaters will gobble it up.
You can make these salmon balls in a few different ways, but we recommend using your food processor or blender to make the mixture super smooth. These salmon balls are simple to make. Just combine one cup of salmon, one cup of oatmeal, a tablespoon of salmon oil, and a tablespoon of salmon oil.
Once you’ve blended these four ingredients, you can either form the mixture into balls and freeze them or put them in a baking dish and let them sit in the fridge until they’re solid.
Easy Dried Bean Mixture
Now, dried beans are a great treat to make in the summer months when you’re growing your veggies in the garden. But if you don’t have your bean plants yet, you can use a can of beans as a substitute.
Just make sure that they’re plain beans with no added salt, sugar, or other ingredients that might be bad for your kitty. This easily-dried bean mixture is so simple to make. Just combine one can of beans, a tablespoon of butter, and a pinch of salt. If you want to fancy it up a little bit, you can stir in some chopped herbs or a dash of cayenne pepper. Scoop it into a baking dish, let it harden, and then break it up into bite-sized pieces.
Easy Wet Mix: Tuna, Egg, and Cheese Mix
This simple wet mix is great for kitties who have sensitive stomachs or don’t do well on dry food alone. Just combine two cups of water with one can of tuna, two tablespoons of oat flour, a tablespoon of butter, and two eggs (crushed).
We recommend mixing this wet mixture with some protein powder, which you can find at any health and nutrition store. Protein powder is easy to digest, so it’s a great additive to this wet mix.
This list only scratches the surface of the simple recipes you can make at home. And the good news is that, with a few simple ingredients, most of these treats are good for both cats and dogs! So next time you feel like baking, try baking for your cat. We promise they won’t complain.
Can Cats Have Lemon Pepper Tuna? – Final thoughts
Tuna alone may not cause many health issues except if delayed as a staple meal, but the onions, garlic, lemon, and black pepper will cause so much harm to your cat. This is why all about cats won’t recommend you feed your cat lemon pepper tuna.
There are multitudes of ways you could make tuna for your cat without harmful seasoning that could threaten your cat’s existence. There are a lot of other options out there for simple cat treats. You can try these 5 simple cat treats – they are all easy to make at home and your kitty will love them.
