this post was submitted on 15 May 2026
284 points (97.7% liked)
me_irl
7675 readers
2298 users here now
All posts need to have the same title: me_irl it is allowed to use an emoji instead of the underscore _
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
cats have super effective kidneys, in theory they could survive with sea water*
pure salted meats diet would more likely first kill a human than a cat.
the tradeoff is that the super efficient kidneys of cats are quite prone to fail and die making it the leading cause of death in cats after physical trauma(only by 0.1% (12.2%vs12.1%))^[1]^
*provided that the cat is eating fresh meat where they get majority of their hydration normally
^[1]^: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aging_in_cats
Yes, I said "thought" - literally that meme (origin) showed me how much better cats are vs eg dogs in regards to salt (and don't forget some spices are still toxic to cats, and we like to spice our wieners).
Some nuance debate still surrounds sodium content tho, cats can still get salt poisoning & high sodium in the blood affects all other organs (cells) too. Being able to survive vs good for them. Iirc they also require a bit less salt compared to humans.
(Also being accustomed to low sodium diet & then consuming large amount of salt in a short time period causes headaches & vomiting in humans too - the same shock can happen in a cat, especially not a very young one.)