Are ham treats bad for cats?

The answer is Yes and No depending on what sort of ham you are feeding your cat as a treat.

Processed, off the supermarket counter, ham in various guises may contain too much salt. Salt intake should be limited both for humans and cats.

The Association of American Feed Control Officials state that the sodium content in cat food should be limited to 0.2% and the National Research Council guidelines state that 42 mgs of salt should be the daily maximum.

Sarah Hartwell of messybeast.com says that if you properly cook raw pork it’s okay as a treat. It is best to avoid feeding raw pork because it may be contaminated with tapeworm (not sure how prevalent that is, probably quite rare).

I feed my cat the odd processed ham treat. The amount is limited and given infrequently. The conclusion is that it is alright to give a ham treat to your cat as long as the amount is restricted to avoid excessive salt intake. I’d suggest that if pork is cooked by the cat’s owner and no salt added then clearly more ham can be given to a cat. But even then the amount would have to be restricted because the diet would be unbalanced.

My thanks to Diana Hutchinson of tinpaw.com.

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Comments

Are ham treats bad for cats? — 3 Comments

Harvey Harrison on May 16, 2017 at 9:27 pm said:
PS. To get nutritional information on almost any food just type nutritiondata.self followed by the name of the food. http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/finfish-and-shellfish-products/4114/2
There are some surprises waiting for you like chicken which is quite a poor food from every point of view. .
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Harvey Harrison on May 16, 2017 at 9:12 pm said:
One of the main problems, if not the main problem with most dry cat foods is the almost complete absence of high quality protein. Feeding them daily some ham or other meat would go a long way to alleviate that serious problem. The concern that ham products contain too much salt, and can therefore be harmful, is unfounded. The baloney about the importance of dietary salt reduction stems from flawed research which failed to control all factors in a recommended diet particularly fructose, sugar, and carbohydrates. The diet did reduce blood pressure a little but did not improve mortality or longevity. In fact there was a 36% increase in cardiac events in patients consuming a low salt diet. Be warned. Don’t let your doctor or dietitian kill you and please do not deprive your cats of much needed high quality protein because of flawed scientific research. By the way the humble sardine is a much superior food to beef, fish, tuna, pork, chicken, soy, etc. It has 5 times the protein content of beef ounce for ounce, and an impressive array of vitamins and mineral. It falls into the category of a super food. You needn’t bother with ham or pork if you don’t want to. http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/salt.shtml
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Dee (Florida) on May 16, 2017 at 7:48 pm said:
I never feed any sort of pork to my cats. Worse than the salt content is the fat content. We all know that a cat’s liver health isn’t compatible with the consumption of a lot of fat.
Actually, I have been mostly led to my “no pork” conclusion when trying to think of any very good cat food that contains bacon, ham, etc. I couldn’t think of any.
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