yes cats can eat raw egg yolks
and they're actually very nutritious but what about salmonella what about avidin and raw egg
whites hey friends it's jess and jericho and first we'll tackle salmonella now i personally
eat eggs sunny-side up every day so the egg yolk isn't really cooked that much even the
fda says that salmonellosis in cats and dogs is very uncommon the fda and the cdc both say that
healthy individuals will shed salmonella through their feces the problem is with adults that are
over 65 years old or young children or those with compromised immune systems so the solution here is
healthy adults practicing food safety measures that you would practice when you prepare eggs
or raw meat for yourself so buy clean eggs from companies that you trust i personally like to go
to the farmer's market because then i can talk to the companies about their practices how their hens
are raised and how they produce their eggs keep eggs in the refrigerator until you're going to
feed them i would suggest using a large food mat to feed the egg yolk so that you can keep your
surfaces sanitary don't let it sit out for longer than 20 minutes because longer than 20 minutes at
room temperature bacteria is more likely to grow clean it up right after your cat eats don't let
it dry out and sit around on the mat all day and if you want this is what i do i use a different
sponge for my food and a different sponge for jericho's food and remember since salmonella will
shed through the feces you'll want to use gloves and a face mask covering when you clean the litter
box so this is really basic food safety practices and litter box cleaning routines that all of us
should be doing anyway now let's talk about the benefits of offering raw egg yolk to your cat
so egg yolks contain all of the essential amino acids except for taurine taurine comes from
hard-working muscle meats like thighs and hearts and also the secreting organ liver and protein
amino acids for the most part are water soluble so when you cook it it's going to leak out into
that moisture that's why offering raw egg yolk and a raw meat based diet is optimal for your
cat egg yolks also contain b vitamins which are super beneficial those are also water soluble
and the egg yolk is very rich in biotin which we're going to talk about when we talk about avid
some of you have asked me about nutritional yeast as a source of b vitamins i personally think that
egg yolk is better because if you think about it cats are more likely to eat eggs in the wild than
they are nutritional yeast egg yolks are also rich in some trace minerals and fat soluble vitamins
and essential fatty acids so it's kind of like a whole foods supplement and it's also considered
the perfect protein because it has all these things and it's also very easy to digest now i'm
sure that you might have read about avidin in raw egg whites and how it can be detrimental to your
cat's health so avidin is a protein that binds to the b vitamin biotin that we just talked about and
it can prevent the absorption of that specific b vitamin but as i also mentioned egg yolk is very
rich in biotin biotin is also found in meats and liver which should already be part of your cat's
diet anyway you may also read that cooking the egg whites can destroy avidin but one study actually
proved that cooking the egg whites in three different ways still resulted in between 30
to 70 percent of avid and activity compared to raw egg whites so cooking it will not destroy avidin
and there's a lot of biotin in the egg yolk there was one study with kittens that were fed either 18
or 32 percent of the entire diet was egg whites it was dried raw egg whites and
this did lead to biotin deficiency which led to skin lesions and dermatitis but 18 and 32
is a big part of the diet i mean if you think about it typically with pre-model raw you would
only go between seven and ten percent for bones so that is a lot of egg whites to be feeding
in the diet eighteen or thirty-two percent that's massive amounts i mean 32 is 30 is a
third of the entire diet ideally your cat's diet would contain a variety of different proteins
because apparently wild cats eat between five to seven different proteins and you want to have
different cuts of those meats so you would have a large amount of muscle meat like i said seven to
ten percent bone and then around ten percent of the secreting organs because you have the brain
eyes the spleen kidneys liver stuff like that is a small amount compared to the entire prey so if
you have 18 or 32 percent egg whites that's a that's a big portion of the entire diet so of
course it's going to lead to a deficiency because the rest of the diet isn't in a proper balance
but if you're still worried about raw egg whites then just feed the yolk only so let's discuss
how much egg yolk to feed so just like anything that's new to your cat's diet start off with a
very very very small amount because eggs are very rich and anything that's new can upset your cat's
digestive system you don't want your cat to get sick so start with a little tiny tiny amount
what i did when i introduced it to jericho was i just scooped out a little 1/8 teaspoon of the yolk
from what i made for myself that day and then gave it to him with his meal and i gradually increased
the amount that i was giving until i reached one whole egg yolk i personally don't feed egg whites
to jericho because i've tried it before i cracked the entire egg out onto his food mat he went for
the yolk and left the whites behind so i just do the egg yolk so i feed jericho one egg yolk
once a week and i give it to him with the rest of his meal again because egg yolks are very rich
you want to give it with your cat's food and not separate even if i was to feed the entire egg like
the egg yolk and the egg whites to jericho once a week that would only be about four percent of his
entire diet for the week which is significantly less than the 18 or 32 percent that was in that
study with the kittens the egg yolk looks so nice and pretty too when you put it out on the mat
typically what i'll do is i'll just tap it with the spoon and then it'll just ooze out and spill
out and that's how jericho will will lap it up and he really enjoys it and if you want to
check out the rest of jericho's diet check out this video right over meow thanks for watching