Can Cats Eat Turkey? What to Give and What to Keep Back
Plain cooked turkey is one of the better things a cat can have from the Christmas table. The bones, the skin and the trimmings are not.
The quick answer
Yes — plain, cooked, unseasoned turkey is safe for cats and is a good lean protein, since cats are obligate carnivores. Keep it to a small amount, take it off the bone, and leave the skin, stuffing and gravy. Cooked bones splinter, and onion and garlic in stuffing and gravy are toxic to cats in even smaller amounts than to dogs.
Cats are obligate carnivores, so plain turkey suits them better than most things on the Christmas table. It is one of the few foods where the honest answer is "yes, a little, and they will enjoy it".
The care is all in what comes with it.
What is safe
Plain, cooked, unseasoned turkey meat — breast or thigh — off the bone and cut small. A piece or two the size of your thumbnail is plenty for an average cat.
Cats are also much smaller than dogs, so proportion matters more. Treats and extras should stay under about 10% of daily calories, and an average cat only needs around 200–250 kcal a day in total. A generous plate of turkey is a substantial part of a day's food, and a cat who fills up on it and then skips meals is a bigger problem than it sounds.
What to keep back
Cooked bones. Turkey bones splinter, and a cat's throat is small. This includes the fine bones people forget are in a thigh.
Skin and fat. High fat, usually basted, and a common cause of a sickly cat on Boxing Day.
Stuffing and gravy. Onion and garlic are toxic to cats, and cats are *more* sensitive to allium poisoning than dogs are — a smaller amount does more damage to their red blood cells. It does not cook out. Signs are often delayed by a few days: lethargy, pale gums, rapid breathing, weakness.
Anything cured or smoked. Far too much salt.
Cats are fussier about change than dogs
A sudden new food is more likely to cause a stomach upset in a cat, and a cat that has an upset stomach is more likely to stop eating altogether. In a cat, not eating is genuinely serious — more than about 48 hours without food risks hepatic lipidosis, a liver condition that is much harder to treat than the thing that caused it.
So: small amounts, once, alongside their normal food rather than instead of it.
The bigger Christmas risk for cats is not the turkey
It is the tree, tinsel and ribbon, and lilies. Every part of a lily is potentially fatal to cats, including the pollen and the water in the vase, and lilies arrive in a lot of Christmas bouquets. There is no safe amount and no safe part.
If you want to give your cat something of their own on the day, a little plain turkey in a puzzle feeder or lick mat lasts longer and is more interesting to them than the same food in a bowl.
If something has gone wrong
Ring your vet, or the 24-hour Animal PoisonLine on 01202 509000. Do not wait for symptoms with onion, garlic or lilies — with lilies in particular, treatment within a few hours makes an enormous difference.
What else on the Christmas table is safe for a cat
Plain cooked chicken — same rules as turkey. Plain cooked white fish or salmon — fine, well cooked, bones removed. Not smoked salmon, which is heavily salted. A little plain cooked egg — fine. Plain steamed vegetables — harmless but cats have little interest and gain nothing from them.
Not safe: onion, garlic, leeks, shallots and chives in any form; grapes and raisins; chocolate; macadamia nuts; alcohol; anything with xylitol; cooked bones of any kind; and blue cheese, which contains a substance cats and dogs are sensitive to.
Milk deserves its own line. Most adult cats are lactose intolerant, and the saucer of Christmas cream is a reliable cause of Boxing Day diarrhoea. Water is the right answer, and cats drink more readily from a water fountain than a bowl.
Cats, Christmas and the litter tray
A change of diet plus a house full of visitors is the classic combination for a cat that stops using its tray, or stops eating. Two things help disproportionately:
- Do not move the tray to make room for the tree or guests. If you must, move it in small stages, well beforehand. - Add a second tray somewhere quiet if you have extra people staying. The general guidance is one tray per cat plus one, and that matters more when the house is busy.
How to give it without making it an event
The safest way to share is to put a small amount into their normal bowl at their normal mealtime, rather than hand-feeding at the table. Hand-feeding from the table for one day produces a cat that begs at the table for the next six months, and it makes it much harder to keep track of how much they have actually had.
*This guide is general information, not veterinary advice. A cat that stops eating for more than a day needs to be seen, whatever the cause.*
Common questions
Can cats eat cooked turkey?
Yes — plain, unseasoned, off the bone and in small amounts. Turkey is a good lean protein for an obligate carnivore. Leave the skin, stuffing and gravy, and never give cooked bones, which splinter.
How much turkey can I give my cat?
A piece or two the size of your thumbnail. An average cat needs only about 200–250 kcal a day, and treats should stay under roughly 10% of that, so a generous plate is a large share of their daily food.
Is turkey stuffing bad for cats?
Yes. Stuffing almost always contains onion and often garlic, both toxic to cats — and cats are more sensitive to allium poisoning than dogs. Cooking does not remove it, and signs such as lethargy and pale gums can take days to appear.
My cat has stopped eating since Christmas dinner — is that serious?
Potentially, yes. A cat that goes more than about 48 hours without eating risks hepatic lipidosis, a serious liver condition. Contact your vet rather than waiting for their appetite to return on its own.
Can cats drink milk or cream at Christmas?
Best avoided. Most adult cats are lactose intolerant, and a saucer of cream is a common cause of diarrhoea. Fresh water is the right answer — many cats drink more readily from a fountain than a bowl.
What Christmas foods are toxic to cats?
Onion, garlic, leeks and chives in any form, including in stuffing and gravy; grapes and raisins; chocolate; macadamia nuts; alcohol; anything containing xylitol; blue cheese; and cooked bones of any kind.
About the author
Matt Garnett — founder, Giddy Pets
Matt started Giddy Pets to make getting pets the good stuff simpler and fairer. Everything in these guides comes from real life with pets and a lot of trial and error — it's practical guidance, not veterinary advice. If a guide gets something wrong, tell him directly.
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