Can Cats Drink Lemonade?

Last week I had a glass of lemonade sitting on the table. I walked away for a few minutes only to find my cat Reginald drinking lemonade out of my cup. I found this very weird since he rarely takes any interest in anything I eat or drink. At first I wasn’t concerned and was more irritated that I had to get a new glass of lemonade. But then I started to wonder if he would throwup or get sick from the lemonade. There is a few things I discovered.

Cats shouldn’t drink lemonade for a variety of different reasons. Lemonade contains a lot of sugar, and has a high acidic content. There is also no benefit for a cat to drink lemonade over water. In fact, the only thing cats and kitten should ever drink is plain filtered water.

In my case, a small amount of licks my cat decided to take of my glass of lemonade wasn’t going to hurt him. But it should definitely not be a daily occurrence. Keep reading to findout some of the health risks that comes when a cat drinks lemonade and more.

Types Of Lemonade

As many of you probably know, lemonade is a sweet lemon flavored drink that is loved by millions of people, and is very popular in the summer. Typically there are a 2 different types of lemonade with the most popular being Commercial and Homemade.

Homemade Lemonade

Homemade lemonade can very greatly. This is because there isn’t an exact recipe to be followed. However, typically it consists of fresh lemons, water and sugar. If you like a sweeter lemonade, add more sugar. And if you desire a more bitter and tart lemonade, add more lemons and less sugar.

Commercial Lemonade

Commercial lemonade is much more controlled but there are also many different kinds. But most have a lemon flavor (sometimes artificial flavoring, water and sugar. Keep in mind that sometimes commercial lemonade contains more sugar than you would expect. So if your kitten or cat decides to take a drink expect super zoomies.

Risks to Your Cat If They Drink Lemonade

A couple drinks of lemonade when your not looking isn’t going to hurt or injure your cat or kitten. However, if you consistency let your feline drink lemonade there can be some serious health risks.

Mouth Sores

There’s a good chance your cat can develop painful mouth sores. The sugar and lemon creates is very acidic and could cause damage to their mouth. Especially if they already have an open sore.

Tooth Decay

Tooth decay is one of the biggest concerns and is most likely to occur if you decide to let your cat consistency drink lemonade. This is because of the high sugar content in the drink.

Heartburn

Yes just look humans, cats can get heartburn. Unfortunately there don’t make tums for cats so if your feline friend gets heartburn from too much Lemonade, he/she is going to have to wait it out.

Can You Feed Your Cat Lemons?

I don’t think feeding your cat lemons would be a good idea nor or is something you should do. Besides, odds are your cat isn’t going to want to get near it. Here are some reasons why.

They Hate The Taste

Odds are your cat is going to hate the taste of lemon. This is because of the harsh acidic taste. Go ahead and take a big bite out of a lemon, then you’ll understand why no cat will come close to eating one.

Smells Weird

I’m willing to bet a cat will take one sniff of a lemon and immediately back off. To them, it doesn’t taste like food at all. It’s a harsh smell that might signal to the cat “hey this isn’t food and it might hurt me if I come close to it”