Raw Eggs?

[furryfriends50]

Last night i gave the farm cats a few raw eggs just to see what they would do. a few of them would only eat the shells, is that okay? i tried to cook the egg whites a little bit, but to do that all i can do is put it in really hot water. is that good enough? the egg yolk i left raw and a few of them loved that too. alaska was the one that went craziest over the slightly cooked egg whites.

are eggs okay to feed to cats? just don't want to do that again if it is not i had forgotten to get some meat out the night before and didn't want to give them frozen so i gave them a few eggs instead.

basically what they got: raw egg yolk, slightly cooked egg white, and then egg shells that had been washed it hot water.

[mschauer]

From all I've read that is a very yummy and quite acceptable, occasional meal for them. Lots of high quality protein. Also there is considerable question about whether it is really necessary to cook the egg whites. Some think the amount of biotin that is prevented from being absorbed is negligible.

If you were including egg in their food on a regular basis you might want to cook the whites to be safe but for just an occassional thing I wouldn't bother.

[sharky]

I only give farm fresh eggs raw anymore ... as a kid all animals got one raw egg a week

[missymotus]

Mine get eggs from a friends chooks. They have eggs about once a week.

[DWMeowMix]

We just dealt with this question on another forum I'm on, so let me share with you the post I wrote there. It may help clarify some misinterpretations about eggs and cats:

Raw eggs are not in any way dangerous, nor do they lead to skin or hair coat problems. You would have to feed your kitty an egg white only diet daily for a long length of time for it to become a problem. The raw egg deal is a "people" problem not an animal one.

Raw egg yolk contains biotin which is indeed a B-Vitamin, the raw egg WHITE contains avidin which will indeed bind to the biotin rendering it useless. Cooking the egg white breaks down the avidin so if you want to add it back to the raw egg yolk you can without having it interfere with the biotin absorption. I'm sure that none of us feed our animals an egg only diet. Biotin is also found in organ meats, oatmeal (no I would not recommend oatmeal for cats), egg yolk, brewers yeast for example. http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/health/2809001/. It is also a supplement that the better pet foods will add to their wet foods (I don't know about dry I won't feed kibble). http://articles.mercola.com/sites/ar.../raw-eggs.aspx

As far as the Salmonella question, only 0.003 percent of the 69 BILLION eggs produced in this country every year are infected. That's like 1 egg in every 30,000. You have as much of a chance of getting trichinellosis from eating pork. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/ar...-part-two.aspx

So, if you want to feed kitty a supplement of eggs, go for it! It's a wonderful, healthful source of protein. I myself include raw egg yolk in the mix that I make for my kitties and trust me their coats are GORGEOUS, soft and silky and all my babies are extremely healthy.
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[jennyranson]

Almost all cats love eggs, and will often rob nests if given the chance. I have always fed egg yolks to sick cats or kittensn avoiding the whites so they get the benefit, beating the yolks up in water or KMR or goat milk. It is so easy to feed in a syringe and I believe has saved the life of more than one kitten.