Hi, every morning I have breakfast with unsweetened soy milk. My cats kill me if they can't empty my bowl, but because I add stuff like raisins which include sugar, I give them some plain soy milk instead. The vet said it's "probably fine", but I want to know for certain. Does anyone know for certain soy milk is or isn't bad for cats? Thanks!

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[–] nesc@lemmy.cafe 51 points 4 months ago (14 children)

In short soy isn't great for cats, but just giving them a bit of soy milk won't be harmful.

https://bedforpetprague.org/tpost/fxoxsd4211-why-soy-is-not-the-best-choice-for-cats

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10778487/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4967369/

[–] LordWiggle@lemmy.world 49 points 4 months ago (13 children)

Wow, this is exactly the answer I was hoping for, thank you.

I had vegan friends who fed their cat vegan food. I'm a vegan too, but humans are omnivores, cats are carnivores. Feeding cats vegan food is bad in my opinion, I see it as animal abuse. It comes with a lot of health risks which are similar to what I read in the articles you posted. It all makes sense.

From now on, they will get a little bit of unsweetened soy milk once in a while, not every day. (I have to find a middle ground, otherwise they will kick me out)

Thanks! I really appreciate it :)

[–] nick@midwest.social 28 points 4 months ago (12 children)

Your opinion is fact: feeding an obligate carnivore vegan food is actual animal abuse.

Also please dont feed them (or anything or anyone else) raw food right now, kibble is safest until this bird flu shit is done with.

[–] QualifiedKitten@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

I've seen at least a few kibbles that include some freeze dried raw meat in them, so I don't think "kibble" is 100% safe unless you're paying close attention. For example: https://www.chewy.com/instinct-original-recipe-real-chicken/dp/693326

I also just want to note for anyone reading here that the venn diagram of "raw" food and "wet" food has very minimal overlap, especially in terms of what's sitting on the shelves in stores. Most canned food is not raw, and should be safe from bird flu.

In order to maximize shelf life, most raw food is generally sold either freeze dried or frozen. In the case of freeze dried, it's often stored at room temperature, and you can either reconstitute with water to serve "wet" or serve "as is" in it's dry, crunchy form. Something else to be aware of is that a lot of treats at the "fancy" pet supply stores are freeze dried and raw, so it's worth paying very close attention if your cat is immunocompromised (very young, pregnant/nursing, senior, FIV+, etc.) and/or if you're concerned about bird flu.

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