Can cats eat this? 37 foods checked

Name: Meowledge Cat Food Safety Dataset
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Every verdict below is checked against a veterinary or regulatory primary source — never guessed. Search or filter, or download the full dataset.

Name	Verdict	Category	Summary
Chicken	Safe	meat	A few small, bite-sized pieces of thoroughly cooked, plain chicken (skin and bones removed, no seasoning) as an occasional treat or food topper — keep chicken and other treats under about 10% of daily calories.
Turkey	Safe	meat	A small cube of plain, cooked, skinless, boneless turkey breast (about the size of a thumb tip) as an occasional treat — not the skin, bones, deli meat, or seasoned/salted turkey.
Salmon	Safe	meat	A small pinch or two of thoroughly cooked, plain, boneless salmon mixed into food as an occasional treat.
Shrimp	Safe	meat	Half a shrimp for a small cat, up to one whole shrimp for a large cat, once or twice a week — fully cooked, shell and tail removed, no seasoning.
Eggs	Safe	meat	About a tablespoon of cooked, plain egg white (or a teaspoon or two of whole cooked egg) added to food occasionally.
Pumpkin	Safe	vegetable	A teaspoon or two of plain, 100% canned pumpkin (not pie filling) mixed into food occasionally — never spiced or sweetened pumpkin.
Carrots	Safe	vegetable	A few small, cooked and cut (or finely grated) pieces of plain carrot as an occasional treat — cats can't use carrots' beta-carotene as a vitamin A source, so treat it as a low-calorie snack, not a nutrient supplement.
Broccoli	Safe	vegetable	A pinky-nail to thumb-sized piece of plain, cooked, chopped broccoli once or twice a week.
Corn	Safe	vegetable	Less than a tablespoon of plain, cooked corn kernels a week — never the cob or husk.
Celery	Safe	vegetable	A few small, finely chopped pieces of plain celery as an occasional treat.
Rice	Safe	other	Less than a tablespoon of plain, well-cooked white or brown rice per week, mixed with a balanced meal — not a regular dietary staple or a substitute for veterinary-recommended food.
Bread	Safe	other	A thumbnail-sized piece of plain, fully baked white or wheat bread once or twice a week at most — never raw dough, and never bread containing raisins, xylitol, garlic, or onion.
Bananas	Safe	fruit	A roughly 1-inch square piece of peeled banana every few weeks — never the peel.
Blueberries	Safe	fruit	Up to about three fresh or frozen blueberries at a time, a few times a week — washed, and mashed or cut for smaller cats to reduce choking risk.
Strawberries	Safe	fruit	One small strawberry (cut into pieces, stem and leaves removed) or less, a couple of times a week at most.
Watermelon	Safe	fruit	A small piece of seedless flesh, occasionally — always remove seeds and rind first.
Apples	Safe	fruit	A few small, peeled, cored, seedless pieces, offered occasionally.
Peaches	Safe	fruit	A couple of small, peeled, pitted pieces of ripe peach flesh occasionally — never the pit, leaves, or stems.
Pineapple	Safe	fruit	A couple of small, bite-sized pieces of fresh, peeled pineapple occasionally — never canned pineapple in syrup, dried pineapple, or the skin/leaves.
Tuna	Caution	meat	Thiaminase — an enzyme present in raw fish that destroys vitamin B1 (thiamine) if fed regularly and not destroyed by cooking. Large predatory tuna species (e.g. yellowfin, ahi) also accumulate mercury over time.
Raw Meat	Caution	meat	Bacterial contamination — Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, E. coli and other pathogens are significantly more common in raw meat than in cooked or commercial cat food, and can sicken both the cat and the people handling its food or litter.
Bacon	Caution	meat	High fat, salt, and nitrate/nitrite content from curing and cooking. The direct link between high-fat food and pancreatitis is better established in dogs than in cats (per Merck Veterinary Manual), but bacon's sodium content and fat load can still cause digestive upset in cats.
Ham	Caution	meat	High sodium content — cured/processed ham is very high in salt relative to a cat's small size; excess sodium can cause GI upset and, in large amounts, sodium ion poisoning.
Milk	Caution	dairy	Lactose intolerance — cats lose most of their lactase enzyme after weaning, so adult cats generally cannot digest milk's lactose properly.
Cheese	Caution	dairy	Lactose intolerance plus a high fat/salt content relative to a cat's size — most adult cats digest dairy poorly.
Yogurt	Caution	dairy	Residual lactose — fermentation breaks down much of the lactose in yogurt, making it easier to digest than milk, but some remains and many cats are still lactose-sensitive. Flavored/sweetened yogurts can contain xylitol, which is toxic to cats.
Ice Cream	Caution	dairy	Lactose, high sugar, and high fat combined, plus a real risk that certain flavors contain ingredients toxic to cats (chocolate, coffee, or xylitol in sugar-free versions).
Potatoes	Caution	vegetable	Solanine — a glycoalkaloid concentrated in raw potato flesh, green-tinged skin, sprouts ('eyes'), and all above-ground parts of the potato plant. Cooking substantially reduces solanine, so plain cooked potato flesh is the caution-not-toxic exception; raw or green potato is a genuine toxin exposure.
Tomatoes	Caution	fruit	Solanine/tomatine — concentrated in the unripe green fruit, leaves, and stems of the tomato plant. Toxin content drops sharply as the fruit ripens, so ripe tomato flesh is not toxic.
Mushrooms	Caution	vegetable	Toxin varies entirely by species — plain culinary mushrooms sold for human consumption (button, cremini, portobello) pose no expected toxicity, while wild/foraged mushrooms may contain a wide range of potent toxins that can cause severe organ damage. The two categories cannot reliably be told apart without expertise.
Popcorn	Caution	other	Not a toxin concern itself — the risks are physical (choking or obstruction from hard kernels) and from typical additives (butter, salt, and toppings like caramel or chocolate).
Avocado	Caution	fruit	Persin — a compound in avocado leaves, skin, and pit. Persin is well-documented as toxic to birds, rabbits, horses, and ruminants, but cats and dogs are considerably less sensitive to it (Pet Poison Helpline lists avocado as non-toxic to cats via persin). The more realistic risks for cats are the pit as a choking/obstruction hazard and the fruit's high fat content.
Dog Food	Caution	other	Not a toxin — dog food is nutritionally incomplete for cats. It lacks adequate taurine (an amino acid cats cannot synthesize in sufficient quantity, unlike dogs), and typically contains too little vitamin A and arachidonic acid for feline needs.
Chocolate	Toxic	other	Theobromine and caffeine (methylxanthines)
Grapes & Raisins	Toxic	fruit	Unknown mechanism; tartaric acid is the leading suspected toxic principle, associated with acute kidney injury
Onions	Toxic	vegetable	Organosulfur compounds (N-propyl disulfide, thiosulfates) causing oxidative damage to red blood cells (Heinz body hemolytic anemia)
Garlic	Toxic	vegetable	Organosulfur compounds (thiosulfates, disulfides) causing oxidative damage to red blood cells (Heinz body hemolytic anemia); more concentrated than in onion

Download JSON Download CSVCC BY 4.0

How verdicts are made

Every row above traces to a source listed on that food’s own page. See our full methodology for the source tiers and what we refuse to publish.