Can Cats & Dogs Eat Honey?

Honey has many health benefits for us humans. Eating honey can help prevent cancer and heart disease, just to name a few. If you have a dog or a cat, then you might be interested in giving some honey to your pet as well, hoping it will benefit his health as well. However, with so many things that are good for us being bad for our pets, you are not sure whether it’s even safe to share honey with your pet.

So, can cats and dogs eat honey? The short answer would be yes, honey is not toxic to cats or dogs, so in small amounts both cats and dogs can enjoy some honey.

Can Cats Eat Honey? Only In Small Amounts

It is safe for cats to eat some honey, but only in small amounts. It is very important that you only give your cat a small amount of honey, half a teaspoon would be an okay amount. Honey is not a natural food for cats — it’s not something they would eat in the wild. Also, honey is high in calories and sugar, which makes it difficult for cats to digest.

Can Dogs Eat Honey? Dogs Too Can Eat Small Amounts of Honey

While dogs can cats are very different, they do have the same tolerance for honey — a small amount is okay. As dogs are generally a lot bigger than cats, you might thin that it’s okay for them to have a lot more honey than cats. That is actually true, a large size dog like a German Shepherd or a Doberman can definitely eat a bit more than half a teaspoon of honey, but you do still want to moderate the amount of honey you feed your dog. As I already mentioned above, honey is high in sugar, and a dog’s digestive system is not designed to process foods high in sugar.

An okay amount of honey for a medium or large size dog would be half to one tablespoon. Feeding your dog more than that could upset his stomach and cause diarrhea.

Honey Benefits for Cats & Dogs

As cats are unable to taste sweetness, they won’t care for the sweet taste of honey. Dogs don’t have this problem, and a lot of dogs actually really enjoy sweet things. However, honey is not something to eat for its taste, but for its health benefits.

While there’s no scientific evidence that honey is beneficial for cats and dogs, honey is very popular in integrative veterinary medicine.