Can Cats Eat Rice Pudding?

With golden raisins and a bit of cinnamon, the creamy, classic rice pudding makes a fast and simple dessert that everyone loves.

While sitting cozily in an evening and enjoying your dessert, you will see your darling kitty staring at you with big eyes and meowing and purring to have a bite of the yummy dessert. How can you say no to that face? So, you’ll be giving a teeny bite.

If so, did you worry about its protection all the way through? What’s going to happen to your cat when you feed rice pudding with big quantities? If not, then this post is for you.

Yes, cats can eat rice pudding. Rice is not on the official list of foods that are harmful to cats, so you do not have much to worry about if your cat tries to snatch a mouthful from your dish, but it shouldn’t be given daily.

For rice pudding there are lots of different recipes available from many countries.

Kheer (Rice Pudding) – Kheer is an Indian rice pudding made with only three important components: rice, milk and sugar. However to make it even more delicious, few spices and flavors are also added to the kheer like raisins, ground cardamom, rose water, almonds.
Japanese Banana Rice Pudding – This dessert or comfort food from Japan can be served cold or hot. Japanese desserts are more like European-style desserts – not too sweet. Bananas, sugar, milk, rice, egg yolks, butter, salt are the ingredients used.
Scandinavian – Style Rice Porridge (Risengrynsgrøt) – This is a main dish in Norway at Christmas Eve Lunch and leftovers are used to make traditional dessert called “Riskrem”. This porridge or risgrøt is usually topped with sugar and cinnamon, and a dab of butter in the middle.

See also Why Do Cats Eat Cake?

They all use dairy products that do not look good for your pet, as you can see from the form of rice pudding above.

However, you can give rice pudding with a little warmed sardine or meat. Not the best combination but as long as your furry ball is happy and content that’s all that matters. Make sure to prepare the pudding with low salt and sugar if you’re concern about the diet of your cat.

As rice pudding contains proteins, many cats won’t be able to digest as it contains eggs, milk and butter. Therefore giving small quantities as a snack will be fine as long as it’s not day to day.

A high-quality cat meal should be their daily food. Speak to your vet about what and how much you can apply to their diet if you give them food that’s intended for humans. Overfeeding can lead to an overweight cat and problems with health.

Kittens are not allowed to eat rice pudding. In particular, kittens need a formulated diet, and rice pudding does not provide kittens with nutritional value.

In their stomachs, kittens have an enzyme that helps them to break down lactose from the milk of their mother, but adult cats do not have this enzyme and lose the capacity to digest milk sugars. Instead as it starts to ferment, the lactose in the milk can cause an upset stomach.

Dairy items and cats don’t get along well. Same goes to kittens as well. Most cats are naturally lactose intolerant, which means that their stomachs can be disturbed by any milk products, causing vomiting and diarrhea.

Rice pudding uses uncooked white rice, milk, sugar, salt, egg, butter, vanilla, raisins (if preferred and a pinch of cinnamon). Most of the products that are used are not good for your cat’s health. As they consist of dairy products it can cause digestive distress. Don’t forget the amount of calories in the pudding. It contains 119.8 calories which is way high for your cat. Too often, eating too much will do the same to cats as it does to humans. It can lead to obesity and even diabetes.

As long as your cat is not lactose-intolerant, it will be okay to give a bite or two once in a while as it would do no harm to your pet. But don’t worry if you’re giving a few already.