Have you gone to fix yourself a slice of delicious, homemade pie and plopped a dollop of whipped cream on the piece before realizing your kitty is staring at you? Their food might seem less than appetizing, what with its crunchy tuna-flavored bits.
As your cat’s eyes peer deep into your soul, you’re probably wondering, can cats have whipped cream?
Before you share a bite with your feline friend, stop, and let’s go into this topic in a bit more detail.
Is Whipped Cream Bad for Cats?
Technically cats can eat whipped cream, but they really shouldn’t eat it, or at least not much of it. If your cat gets a quick lick of the whipped cream floating on top of your mocha or hot chocolate, it’s not going to be the end of the world (but make sure they didn’t drink any of your coffee or chocolate drink).
Unfortunately, giving cat whipped cream isn’t a healthy way to treat your cat. There’s everything from excess sugar and higher fat content to potentially toxic additives like citrus zest.
What Is In Whipped Cream?
As the name would suggest, whipped cream is a dairy product produced mainly from cream. You get the light, airy consistency of whipped cream by mixing or whipping heavy cream.
Typically, other ingredients are added to the cream, including sugar and even flavor-enhancing extracts like vanilla. Some whipped cream isn’t made with much, if any, cream but uses oils instead.
The Problem with Dairy
One of the biggest problems with whipped cream is its dairy content. While you’re wondering if cats can have whipped cream, you might ponder why dairy products would be bad.
After all, most of us have the picture in our heads of a cat lapping at a bowl of cow’s milk or cream. Cats love cream, don’t they?
As kittens grow into cats, most of them lose the ability to break down lactose, a sugar found in high quantities in dairy products.
Lactose intolerance can be a very serious issue. Are you lactose intolerant, or do you know someone who is? Your cat is likely one of those! Unfortunately, there’s not an easy supplement you can give your cat that will help her digest lactose-containing products.
Lactose is a sugar found in high quantities in cream and other dairy products. While our bodies — and our cats’ bodies — can easily break down simple sugars like glucose that fuel our daily lives, your body needs a very specific enzyme known as lactase to break down lactose.
While babies and kittens need to be able to break down milk from their mother’s milk and therefore typically make enough lactase to help them digest milk products, adult cats don’t eat dairy products. As such, their bodies don’t need to produce lactase. To be efficient, they don’t.
If your cat eats dairy products, she may develop bloating and odorous gas as the lactose gets fermented by bacteria in her gut. Some cats will even develop diarrhea, which may or may not be related to bacterial overgrowth as the fermented lactose feeds gas-producing bacteria and worsens GI upset.
Why You Shouldn’t Give Sugar to Cats
Lactose is a type of sugar that also contributes to other health issues for kitties. In addition, whipped cream may have added sugar designed to sweeten it.
While your cat might seem to like sweet-tasting things, cats don’t really crave “sweet.” In fact, they can’t even really taste sweet, although there might be some cats that are an exception. Interestingly, cats don’t have all of the genes to encode for specific protein molecules that act as taste receptors for “sweet.” (*)
Cats are also obligate carnivores, which means that most of what they eat should be meat and protein, with some low levels of fats. Cats just don’t digest carbohydrates very well.
You’ll find that cats eating higher carbohydrate diets tend to be more likely to become obese. These cats will also be at a higher risk for developing conditions such as diabetes mellitus.
Unfortunately, obesity and diabetes are also linked to other health problems, including joint disease and heart disease. To try and keep your cat living a long and healthy life, you’ll want to stick to high-protein foods rather than peppering your cat’s diet with cream and sugar.
There’s another worry with your cat eating lots of carbohydrates. Eating sugars may contribute to periodontal disease in cats. Kitties are already prone to dental problems, including resorptive lesions, which often need to be surgically extracted and affect an estimated 60% of cats.
The Calories Are A Lot for Cats
We’ve already covered that high-sugar foods like whipped cream aren’t good for cats. This type of cream is also really calorically dense due to fat. Most of the calories from heavy whipping cream come from fat, an estimated 94%. Therefore, allowing cats to have too much whipped cream is a terrible idea. (*)
According to the Animal Medical Center of Chicago, a 14-pound healthy adult cat needs 336 calories daily. An overweight cat would only need 280. (*) An average cup of whipped cream has over 400 calories in a single cup.
Other Potential Problems with Whipped Cream
This product can have a variety of different ingredients as well as components to help keep the product stable. You should consider different things that may cause issues for your cat eating whipped cream.
Nitrous Oxide
Nitrous oxide propels whipped cream out of cans, so it’s not something you have to worry about in every product. Did you know that in addition to its uses in food, nitrous oxide is used in dentistry and medicine to help sedate patients and reduce their anxiety?
Some people also abuse it with “whip-its.” Can you imagine what a little bit could do to a cat with a smaller body size?
Carcinogen Carrageenan
As crazy as it might sound, there’s a known carcinogen found in most whipped cream that you can buy. It’s also found in the cream itself in some products, so it may even be in the whipped cream you make.
Carrageenan is used to help stabilize cream products, so the whipped cream ingredients don’t separate. It is considered a carcinogen in more significant amounts, but exposure could certainly build up over time. In addition, a cat’s much smaller body mass means that what is a small amount for you comparatively isn’t such a small dose for them.
Orange Zest
Some whipped cream products use citrus zest for flavor as an ingredient. That’s a big no-no for your cat because citrus has essential oils that are toxic for kitties. These compounds can cause contact irritation, but they also can cause gastrointestinal problems such as vomiting and diarrhea.
The good news is that many cats will avoid citrus, so you don’t often need to worry about cats seeking it out. The citrus zest, made from citrus peel, is incorporated into the final product with whipped cream, so your car probably can’t smell it.
All Varieties of Chocolate
It might go without saying, but chocolate is toxic to cats. Some whipped cream, usually of the homemade variety, has chocolate added to it to make a (probably) delicious chocolatey cream.
In addition to sugar that your cat doesn’t need, chocolate has some toxic components for cats, namely methylxanthines, basically caffeine and theobromine. In small amounts, these can cause hyperactivity in cats and vomiting and diarrhea. Unfortunately, they can cause heart problems, seizures, and even death in larger amounts.
To outline how toxic chocolate can be, a 13-pound cat ingesting 0.5 ounces of cocoa powder used in baking is at risk of dying due to complications from eating the chocolate. (*)
Vanilla Extract
Another thing you might not think about is vanilla extract, which contains ethyl alcohol. This chemical can lead to alcohol poisoning in your cat, particularly if you’re making the whipped cream fresh. It’s likely of minimal concern in store-bought whipped cream, but it’s important to keep in many regardless.
Do Cats Even Like Whipped Cream?
You can usually find an exception to any rule. Still, most cats are much more likely to crave something with a lot of protein, like that tuna you’re making tuna salad with, rather than a sugary snack like whipped cream.
Because their taste receptors are different from ours, they don’t generally get the same jolt of excitement from a lick of whipped cream.
Can Cats Have Non-Dairy Whipped Cream?
Just like with Cool Whip, non-dairy whipped cream could still pose a problem for cats based upon what other ingredients are in the product.
Cats don’t need much as far as carbohydrates go, and even a tiny amount of cream can accumulate calories pretty quickly.
What About Cats and Sugar-Free Whipped Cream?
You have to be really careful with sugar-free products in pets because some contain toxic sugar substitutes like xylitol. Xylitol can cause severe blood sugar fluctuations, as well as liver disease.
Suppose your cat ingests anything with xylitol in it. In that case, you need to contact your local veterinary hospital to see if they need medical intervention immediately.
Can Cats Eat Cool Whip?
Many varieties of Cool Whip and similar products are made with skim milk or contain milk casein protein. Casein is a protein that contains lactose molecules. As such, these foods aren’t appropriate for people and pets that are lactose intolerant or can’t break down lactose in their gut.
You can find lactose-free Cool Whip, but it’s still not a good idea to give your cat. It has hydrogenated oils that can lead to heart disease.
Cool Whip also is high in sugar, so that it can contribute to health issues like obesity and diabetes.
Now, if your cat gets a quick lick of Cool Whip while you’re fixing a dessert on the counter, it’s not likely to cause much of an issue. You might see some stomach upset, like bad gas or diarrhea, but a tiny amount shouldn’t cause any real harm.
Can My Cat Have Any Dairy?
Ideally, it would be best if you didn’t give your cat anything with dairy in it. While a small taste of milk, cream, whipped cream, and more isn’t likely to cause any lasting harm if there’s not something overly toxic, it’s not worth the potential consequences.
If your cat does develop a taste for whipped cream, you don’t want to have to hide the container when you go to fix a slice of pie or a cup of hot cocoa. It’s just as easy for them to train us (sometimes even easier) as it is for us to teach them.
Like whipped creams, other dairy products can cause GI upset, ranging from bad gas to explosive diarrhea. As the bacteria in their gut ferment the lactose, they probably can’t digest themselves well, you could see other problems such as gut bacterial overgrowth that needs antibiotics and probiotics to help correct.
Conclusion
It might seem like your cat will enjoy a lovely little taste of whipped cream, but there are a lot of health considerations to keep in mind. As responsible cat owners, there are plenty of other healthy options for a snack for your furry friend, from a taste of canned cat food to a dental treat to help keep their teeth in good shape.
*image by valphoto/depositphotos