cats eating dried fruit

[Alex Hunsley]

I was eating some soft dried fruit today (raisins etc.) and accidently
dropped a bit. My two cats (6 months old) started eating what I'd
dropped. Their dietary needs are well catered for, but I'm just curious,
is dried fruit harmful for cats?

[Ollie Clark]

Mostly not. There's a list of poisonous plants on this page:
http://www.cfainc.org/articles/plants.html

Having said that, I've never seen (or heard of) a cat eating a plant which
is poisonous to them. Except one of ours who loves mushrooms. They've
never seemed to harm him and the vet just laughed about it when we told
him so we've let him carry on. It's only the skins he likes though.

--
"Fighting terrorists with a military invasion is like trying to kill
a bee by shooting its beehive with a shotgun." - Anonymous, USENET
http://www.ollieclark.com/acronyms.html

[pak...@localhost.private.neotoma.org]

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 12:45:54 +0000 (UTC) in <slrnd45dk2....@cslin-gps.csunix.comp.leeds.ac.uk> Ollie Clark <oli...@comp.leeds.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> Having said that, I've never seen (or heard of) a cat eating a plant which
> is poisonous to them. Except one of ours who loves mushrooms. They've
> never seemed to harm him and the vet just laughed about it when we told
> him so we've let him carry on. It's only the skins he likes though.

My cat, Maxtor, has been known to chew aloe vera, which is supposedly
poisonous to cats. No ill effects came of it aside from the mess
from a cat tearing up aloe leaves and spitting out the goo.

I keep aloe in the house and he pretty much ignores it now that he has
wheat grass and spider plants to munch on.

And thankfully he hasn't taken to munching on the orchids.

http://www.cat-world.com.au/cat-worldtoxic.htm
is a somewhat more comprehensive list.
Also keep in mind that some of the non-toxics can still lead to puncture
wounds in the mouth.

--
Chris Dukes
Suspicion breeds confidence -- Brazil