The Most Poisonous Fruit For Cats
In 2016, Colorado drink company Apollo Peak rolled out two non-alcoholic wines for cats: the purrr-fectly named MosCATo and Pinot Meow. Those names alone make the beverages worth buying and reading about, which we suppose technically makes them fee-lines. But corny puns aren't the only reason bring up these drinks. Apollo Peak founder Brandon Zavala explained to the Huffington Post that these drinks are brewed like tea and, more importantly, devoid of grapes.
The absence of grapes distinguishes Apollo Peak's punny drinks from a brand of Japanese cat wine called Nyan Nyan Nouveau, which is made from grape juice. Per CNBC, taste tests showed that only 1 in 10 cats would even attempt to dip their sandpapery tongues into Nyan Nyan Nouveau. And even that percentage is too high because grapes may be poisonous to cats. So if you heard it through the grapevine that your cat likes grape-based wine, just understand that not only is "in vino veritas" not true in this case; it's potentially deadly.
Would curiosity about grapes kill the cat?
Cats might seem to have nine lives, but you can quickly reduce that number to zero if you feed them certain foods. Per PetMD, one of those digestive threats is alcohol, which can badly damage a cat's brain and liver. With respect to fruit, the site identifies grapes and raisins as possibly being toxic but claims that cats aren't likely to consume them (which may also explain why so few of them drank Japan's grape wine during testing). Furthermore, PetMD found "no reports" of cats falling ill from these fruits but note that grapes are extremely toxic for dogs.
The Hill's Pet pet food company paints a different picture, writing that grapes and raisins can cause kidney failure in felines just as it does in dogs and that symptoms may appear within 12 hours of consuming the fruits. It's also worth noting that felines' digestive systems are at least somewhat similar to canines' in that they shouldn't chow down on chocolate because the theobromine can wreak havoc on their hearts and muscles and cause seizures. To be on the safe side, don't add any raisins to the Whiskas.