When the temperature is sweltering you may be tempted to give your cat an ice cube.
But will it cause problems?
Some owners give their cats ice cubes with no trouble at all.
But don’t take advice from other cat owners. Individual results do not matter. Only a vet has sufficient experience from seeing enough cases of owners giving their cats an ice cube.
Cat ownership is really too simple and too hard at the same time.
Luckily it’s only when we start tinkering with the easy stuff that a dilemma can arise.
The truth is your cat needs little more than cat food and a fresh water dish to be happy.
Ice cubes only introduce an unknown into their otherwise blissfully mundane existence.
Can I Give My Cat an Ice Cube? Answer: Not Recommended
A compromise would be to give ice chips rather than ice cubes.
This will prevent them from getting a big chunk of ice in their mouth and trying to crush it up.
Another solution is to just put the ice cubes into their water dish keep their water nice and cool and make it harder for them to get the ice cube all in their mouth.
It’s much harder for a cat to bob for an ice cube floating in water than it is to have them pick it up off the floor.
Tooth Concerns
Vets see lots of broken teeth come in from pets that decide to chew the ice cube rather than lick it.
This might happen with dogs more than cats, and you’ll know what your cat is more likely to do than anyone else, but it’s best not to take the chance.
You may think that your cat looks pretty miserable with their body covered 100% with cat hair. But any discomfort they are experiencing will pale in comparison if they end up breaking a tooth.
Cold Water and Cats
You don’t want to make your cat’s water too cold by putting too many ice cubes into their water dish.
A cat digestive system and metabolism run pretty hot, and ingesting very cold things will only slow their metabolism down and cause stomach discomfort, and also weight gain if continuously given to them.
Do this:
Give your cat room temperature or cool water from the tap.
Getting Through Summer
As long as you keep your cats water dish filled with cool water that should be all they need to survive the summer.
They’ll likely shed like crazy, so be sure to try to keep their hair well groomed, and also clean up the hairballs from around the house so they don’t have an excessive hair that they’re trying to swallow.
If your cat is like most cats they won’t appreciate a nice cold dip in a kiddie pool, or kitchen sink or bathtub.
You may be hard-pressed to find ways to cool your cat off, and you may think that if they could talk they would say they wish they could be cooled down, but there aren’t a lot of sensible or feasible options when it comes to this request.
Wild Cats and Ice Cubes
A good rule of thumb is to think about what your cat would be receiving out in the wild, and holding up the item in question to that standard.
Cats would not encountering an ice cube. If they did, they probably wouldn’t be licking it.
The closest they would come is a cool stream, and that is what you should provide them in the form of a constantly filled water dish. They even have watering systems will make sure your cat never goes without water.
It’s great that you want to give your pet the best experience possible. While we like to suck on ice cubes to stay cool, this isn’t something that translates to the feline world.
It is actually a healthy way to help your cat regulate his or her urinary tract system.
Yeah, you can do it.