Cats tend to be a lot pickier than dogs when it comes to food and as cat owners ourselves we have witnessed this first hand. One of our cats will eat anything you put in front of him, but besides from sniffing around the odd yoghurt and meal of fish or meat, he isn’t interested in what his owners have. The other one is the opposite, turning his nose up at actual cat food and meat/fish in order to greed over everything from pizza and fruit.
One of his favorite foods to greed over is watermelon. We’ve been asking, Can cats eat watermelon a lot lately because of this, so are we right to ignore his demands and his big, black eyes, or are we doing him a disservice and should we be allowing him a little bite every now and then?
Can Cats Eat Watermelon?
Our cats are actually a great example of how cats rect to watermelon and other melon, because some will greed for it and will eat it, others will show no interest. For the ones that do express an interest you can give them a little bit and test their reaction.
If they don’t eat it, they’ll probably not greed again. If they do, then they can enjoy occasional bits of watermelon without issue. There is nothing in the fruit that will do them any serious harm, but of course it’s high in sugar so you should not give them a large amount and you should definitely not feed them it on a regular basis.
Strangely enough, cats probably don’t like watermelon because it’s sweet. In fact, research has suggested that they don’t even taste sweetness like we do. This may be a little baffling to cat owners—it certainly is to us—but it doesn’t matter whether they like it for the sweetness or because of its water content and texture, what matters is that they get a little sample of this great fruit every now and then.
Can Cats Eat Watermelon Seeds?
Some fruit seeds can be poisonous as discussed on our page about Dogs and Apples. But thankfully, watermelon seeds are not one of them. You should still lean more toward the flesh of the melon and not the seeds as they will likely ignore the seeds if they can, but it’s not going to do any harm if the odd seed is consumed.
Of course, you’ll have a hard time feeding a cat watermelon and trying to avoid the seeds. They’re everywhere. But they shouldn’t be tucking into a huge slice anyway and should only be getting little bits you have carefully picked out for them.
Can Cats Eat Watermelon Rind?
They likely won’t eat the rind and you probably shouldn’t give it to them. It’s bitter, it has a low water content and there is little to no nutritious value in it. So, by all means let them tuck into a little watermelon every now and then and don’t worry if there is a seed or two there, but don’t give them any watermelon rind if you can avoid it.