Yes, domestic cats can eat eggs but there’s stuff to discuss and the answer should be qualified with a caution about cats eating raw eggs because of the danger of a bacterial infection.
Ingredients
Egg yolk makes up 30% of an egg and it is that part which feeds the embryo and therefore it is packed full of good ingredients such as fat, protein, vitamins and minerals. Egg white, on the other hand, is 90% water with 10% being proteins dissolved in the water. There is nothing to suggest that the ingredients of eggs are anything but beneficial to domestic cats except as mentioned: the bacteria Salmonella. CDC in the USA say that ingesting raw eggs increases the risk of being infected by this bacteria. When infected the cat or person will have gastrointestinal health problems including vomiting and diarrhoea. Eggs should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160°F before consumption by your cat if they want to eat it! Boiling water is at 212°F and therefore boiling an egg will kill the bacteria.
Supplement
It seems logical to conclude that if a domestic cat likes to occasionally nibble on a cooked egg, then they should be allowed to do so. Cats are carnivores and eggs are good sources of protein and fat, the kind of ingredients that carnivores eat. Although you can’t feed cats just eggs as it would be an unbalanced diet.
They say that if you want to give your cat some cooked egg as a supplement it should not make up more than 10% of their diet. It cannot, under any circumstances, be the only food that you give them as it would cause malnourishment.
Eggshells
Eggshells, it is said, are an excellent source of taurine so they can be added to a cat’s diet. Eggshells are mostly made up of calcium carbonate while the membrane is protein. It is about 94% calcium carbonate with small amounts of magnesium carbonate, calcium phosphate and other organic matter including protein. I see nothing wrong in a domestic cat eating some eggshell but I can’t envisage a domestic cat wanting to eat an eggshell for the pleasure of it unless somebody comments and tells me otherwise. They can be ground up into a fine powder and sprinkled onto wet cat food.
RELATED: Are broken egg shells digestible to cats?
Benefits
There’s quite a long list of benefits in eating a cooked egg for a domestic cat. As mentioned, there is protein, amino acids and taurine which is an essential nutrient for domestic cats. Eggs are carbohydrate free which is a good thing and there’s a range of vitamins such as vitamins A, D, E, B2 (riboflavin), B7 (biotin) and B12. Eggs also contain thiamine, iron, zinc, and selenium.
There’s nothing harmful in these ingredients in reasonable quantities and as I wouldn’t expect a cat to want to eat more than a small amount of a cooked egg so there should be no downsides.
Downside
Cholesterol and fat are ingredients of eggs and you don’t want to give your cat too much fat. Although, I can’t see this happening because as a maximum a cat owner is only going to give the cat a small amount of cooked if any at all.
Upside
My feeling is that if your cat has shown a liking for cooked eggs, I can’t see a problem in giving them a part of a boiled egg, that you’ve prepared for yourself, as a treat. And if given on a regular basis, I cannot see a problem either. What I would foresee is that it would benefit a cat.
Below are some more articles on food ingredients.
Raw eggwhite also contain avidine, which destroys the vitamin biotin. Therefore you also have to cook eggs before using them in pet food diets. Just boil them so the eggwhite coagulates, then the avidine is inactivated and you do not destroy the rest of the vitamins.