Cat-Safe Easter Eggs to Treat Your Kitty
Why should humans have all the Easter fun? This year there’s more choice of treats for your cat than ever
It’s nearly Easter and, considering that Easter eggs have been on the shelves since January, you probably have a pretty good idea of which egg(s) you’d like to find yourself in possession of come Easter Sunday.
But, as you settle down to dig into your chocolatey treat, you might catch sight of a small, mournful presence out of the corner of your eye. If, like me, you’ve shared a house with cats for the better part of 35 years, then you know that mournful presence is a sad little kitty who heard the rustle of food wrappers and emerged on to the scene only to find themselves without an Easter treat of their own.
As the loving cat parent you are, you’d do anything to prevent this sorry scenario and so, to help, I‘ve done the hard work for you and rounded up the best cat-safe Easter eggs on offer so you both you and your cat have something to tuck into on the big day.
Your cat will (absolutely not) thank you for it.
How much do you spend on your pet per year?
How to choose an Easter egg for your cat
The very first thing to know is that cats can absolutely not have a human Easter egg, not even a little bit. Cats, just like dogs, cannot, under any circumstances have chocolate. Chocolate contains methylxanthines, which are toxic to cats. The darker the chocolate, the higher the methylxanthine content and the more dangerousopens in new tab it is to your cat.
Theobromine and caffeine are the primary methylxanthines found in chocolate. They have similar effects and can cause symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhoea, hyperactivity, elevated heart rate, elevated blood pressure, heart arrhythmia, muscle tremors, seizures, coma and even death.
The severity of the symptoms will depend on the amount and type of chocolate ingested and the size of the cat. Together, caffeine and theobromine create a particularly bad combination for cats, because the caffeine takes effect quickly (within an hour or two) and doesn’t wear off until after the theobromine starts causing problems (within four hours).
Your best bet, then, when it comes to choosing an Easter egg, is to head to a pet store for a specialist cat Easter egg. Luckily, this year there’s more choice than ever for cats – last year pet stores mainly catered to dogs (rude). Any Easter egg made for cats should have a gigantic ‘cat safe’ sign on the packaging to make sure that there aren‘t any mix-ups between the Easter egg for your cat and the Easter egg for you.
If the fear of mixing up edible eggs is too great, there are plenty of Easter egg shaped cat toys which can do the trick instead. Infused or filled with catnip or treats, the toys can combine play with treats, meaning your cat will be getting a workout as well as a gift.
