I have heard several people say that too much tuna is not good for cats, I mean occasional treat is fine but not to be fed regularly as the main meal. I only feed it to Oliver as treat now and then, the natural one not the oil soaked one, too, but I am just curious, does anyone know exactly what is the problem? Too much sodium from a salt water fish?

It does something to their brain, I forget what.

Maybe it is the preservatives in it? 100% fresh tuna can´t hurt surely?

I just aSsumed that too much tuna means that they don´t get all the necessary vitamins etc. I feed them tuna in spring water once a week and when I have fresh tuna I always give them a piece.

Marketa...you are right. Processed cat foods contain taurine and other nutrients necessary for our cat´s good health. However, an occasional can of tuna won´t hurt them, as long as it´s not their steady diet. My vet suggested one can every two weeks as a treat. But..that´s for 3 or 4 cats to share.

There used to be concern about mercury levels in fresh and canned tuna for both humans and animals. This seems not to be the case nowadays. The following is from a net article on cats and tuna:

"Canned tuna (all fish, really) is excellent quality protein, low fat, no carbs but it is not balanced vitamin wise. Again, one meal is not a problem; but if you feed regularly (more than 1X week) add veggies, E, taurine and a multi vitamin/mineral tab to balance out the fish."

"Does it matter whether I feed tuna in oil vs. tuna in water? For mercury levels- NO; for other reasons – YES. The oil has been shown to deplete vit E which in long term use (kittens 30 days, cats 13 months) causes steatitis or fatty liver disease. Giving 34-68iu’s of E daily prevented all lesions (signs of damage) in the control cats fed the same tuna in oil. Keep in mind they ate nothing else –just tuna in oil. Tuna in water did not lead to steatitis when fed for the same time lengths."

Sunny and Angie enjoy a can of "people" tuna between the two of them every Saturday night.

Oh thankyou everyone for this information about tuna! My cats love tinned tuna in springwater but I was concerned whether or not to give it to them more than once a week. I do give them an organic natural dry food now which has taurine and vegetables in them, so they are getting that every day. I will give them their other pouched food on the other days now.

Thanks for that marcatmm! I prefer tinned salmon anyways...and Tegan benifits a little from this...just a little though as Hubby loves it too lol.

Thanks for the detailed info Marsha, and all other inputs everyone... so tuna itself is not harmful but doesn´t provide a perfectly balanced diet... great to know, Oliver will continue to have a weekly small tin of tuna, perhaps a piece of real tuna or salmon steak when we have them, too

Hi everyone, I´m glad to hear that tuna is ok for the cats. My cats have a regular diet of a balanced dry, hair ball, for older cats...food. But every morning for over 10 years I have given Patches and Willy Boy about a tablespoon of tuna packed in spring water. The one can last the two cats 3 days. they really look forward to the daily treat, but still eat the dry food, so I guess they are´nt getting to much tuna.but I had heard awhile back that tuna wasn´t good for them, but by then they had gotten use to the daily treat and nothing else would do... I tried everything. they just cried for the tuna till I gave in. so I glad to hear it´s Ok for them.

I feed my little ones tuna in springwater once a week

When I read this my initial thought was the mercury levels. Large fish species have very high levels.

I don´t feed my cats fish anything, I cannot stand the smell. My Mum feeds her cat, Luigi, tuna when ever she has it for lunch. He drives her absolutely mad if she doesn´t.

I tink I read somewhere that tuna contains yes, mercury...then elsewhere said that its unhealthy if the main diet of the cat is mainly tuna, as cats need more than fish. So I guess treats of tuna should be ok...Every canned food mainly is Tuna aint it...My cats loved the daily can of tuna shared by the two of them on top of their usual kibbles..kinda like a daily treat... they love the variety, and i hope its healthy and ok for them...

My cats go crazy for fish - apart salmon, even organic salmon they don´t really like.

Oh what I read about Tuna is that cats love them so much they get addicted to them, then they´ll eat nothing else, which would affect their nutritional intake.

All i know is that there are tuna products specially made for cats so i guess they are ok to feed to your cats...? My common sense says not to feed any oil-based tuna for any animal...
Like with us humans too i would say any kind of organic food is better in any case..just make sure its versatile so they get all the needed vitamins and minerals and such.

And we cant deny the fact that cats looooove fish

Certainly, Oliver adores fish too, he is not a fussy eater he eats almost anything, but you can tell the difference of enthusiasm in those wild excited eyes he gets when fish (or prawns) is in the kitchen!!

Older cats are sometimes prey to urine problems and vets claim too much tinned tuna is bad for that condition.

I found in Switzerland tuna for cats that consists only of real scraps of tuna and nothing more - no oil or other additives. My cats loved it and Rangoon still gets a little bit from time to time - but only form time to time - since it was the vet who told me that it is not really good as a cat food.
But, then again, I´m not sure if she meant all cats or only Rangoon, who has a genetic kidney disease and has to be on a special diet.

My Smudge gets a tin of special cat tuna on rare occasion, like as a christmas or birthday present!
Also, a while back he was having a problem keeping down his dry food. We were all very worried. He might have had a really bad hairball, or a twenty-four hour stomach bug or something, I don´t know, but he just kept throwing up. If he wasn´t such a fat cat already, and if it hadn´t gone away in a couple of days, we would have taken him to a vet. We were worried though, that he wasn´t getting enough food, so we fed him just on cat tuna for two whole days. It was all he could keep down. After that, he got better, and went back onto his regular dry food without much complaint.
The only other time he gets tuna is when we open a tin of human tuna, and we feel sorry for him, seeing him so excited, so we let him lick the tin once we´ve scraped it out and removed the lid, so he doesn´t cut himself on the lid´s edge. It´s so funny! He pushes it all around the kitchen with his nose, licking it until it´s almost clean enough to eat out of! You just hear the little ´scrape scrape scrape´ noises, as the metal tin slides over the tiles! XD

The cat needs a complete and balanced food. The tuna out of box is too much salted (urinary problems, stones) and misses certain nutrients (taurine) except the food specialized for cat.

I found on a French site (whose source is 30 MILLIONS D’AMIS) a list of food prohibited for our friends the cats. I allow myself to diffuse it because iit is important to be informed.

Sugar , ice creams, cream dessert, sweetened yoghourts, pastry, chocolate, the food for dog, cooked greases (fish fried, sauces…), the row egg, “Meat for animals” (ray butchery), the fish with bonies, the row fish, internal organs of fish, chick-peas, beans dry, onions , bones, the pork-butchery, sandwich bread, viennoiseries, the row pig or badly cooked, coffee with milk, milk (except milk for cat), salt, the tuna out of box not rinsed (valid for the other seafood).