? COCONUT OIL FOR CATS

Do you give your cat coconut products?
Coconut oil is very trendy now, every food guru tells how good it is and of course I use it a lot and I found out that Rocky really likes it, specially the cream.
I wonder whether anybody has any experience with giving it to their pets.

 

I have never used it personally because my one kitty has chronic pancreatitis and coconut oil is very high in saturated fat. My girlie kitty won't eat it...she is a very basic and fussy eater and trying to disguise it in food would never get by her

However this is a good article on the pros and cons of coconut oil for kitties.

http://www.petmd.com/cat/nutrition/coconut-oil-cats-it-good-idea

 

I would try not to use use it. Cats cannot process it.
Salmon oil would be a better choice

 

It is very controversial. I would not use it either, particularly with diabetic cats since their pancreas is already compromised by diabetes. It's not uncommon for our sugar cats to also develop pancreatitis.

 

My kitty Figgie loves coconut oil. I am not sure where his affinity for it came from; but every time I open my jar to use it as a moisturizer, he goes nuts and wants some bad.

I did a little research on coconut oil and see that there are a lot of controversial opinions on it. I would not feed it to my newly diagnosed diabetic cat Ozzy -but he never showed any interest in it anyways. But my Fig- he is a small tuxedo cat who has only weighed about 8-9 pounds all of the 13 years of his life and he has no known health problems that we are aware of. He has always had a very shiny and silky coat. Since he wants the coconut oil so bad, I will usually give him a few (like 1-3) licks off my finger once or twice a week. I have noticed that his already shiny coat is even shiner. He looks very pretty. I haven't noticed him having any digestive or other problems, but then again, I give him a VERY small amount not very often.

Hope this helps.

Here's some links below on giving your cat coconut oil -

http://www.petmd.com/cat/nutrition/coconut-oil-cats-it-good-idea
http://www.thedrakecenter.com/about-us/in-the-news/risks-and-benefits-coconut-oil-pets

 

I have been to many of Dr Chris Bessent from herbsmith conferences
She is a big advocate of coconut oil and 1 of the reasons is that it does not get digested thru the pancreas it goes to the liver so dogs or cats with pancreatitis can have it. It is a medium chain fat. You do want to use a high quality brand as you want a high amount of lauric acid. Many holistic vets actually say it helps prevent or manage diabetes.

 

http://www.littlebigcat.com/nutrition/coconut-oil-and-cats/

 

It looks like it depends what Dr you ask

From what I can tell most conventional vets do not use it and many of the holistic vets use it regularly.

(the quality of the oil is a important factor)

 

I haven't used coconut oil with my cats...but do give my 2 Great Danes a teaspoonful in their dinners about 3 times a week and it has really improved their coats.

 

My cats love extra virgin coconut oil. It's so good for their coats and it helps with hair balls. I'm not sure about how it works with diabetic cats though. My healthy cat begs me for it.