What is kangaroo cat?

Can Cats Eat Raw Kangaroo Meat?

It is not recommended for cats to eat raw kangaroo meat.

Cats are known for being obligate carnivores that need animal-based protein to survive and thrive. Animal meat found in commercially sold wet cat food and dry kibble are typically chicken, turkey, and beef, but some brands also offer kangaroo meat. Produced in Australia, this type of meat is strictly harvested from wild kangaroos in specific zones by licensed people.

Though kangaroo meat is high in protein and low in fat, it is not advisable for cats to eat it in raw form. Generally speaking, bacterial and parasite contamination are two main reasons why raw meat should not be fed to cats. Pathogens such as E. coli, listeria, campylobacteriosis, and salmonella may be found in raw kangaroo meat. Similarly, roundworms or tapeworms may be lurking in raw kangaroo meat.

What to do if your cat accidentally eats raw kangaroo meat: A cube of unflavoured raw kangaroo meat may not harm your cat. However, she may experience poisoning if it is seasoned with salt, garlic, onion, and other toxic ingredients. Poisoning symptoms may manifest as vomiting, diarrhea, salivation, difficulty in breathing, shock or collapse, twitching and fitting, depression or coma, skin inflammation or swelling, and changes in urinating, drinking, and appetite.

For cats that have ingested spoiled or contaminated raw meat, they may exhibit various symptoms depending on how much they ate. Vomiting, abdominal pain, watery diarrhea with blood or mucus, gastritis, lack of appetite, weight loss, and gas are all possible side effects. Contact your veterinarian immediately if your cat exhibits any of these signs.

In summary: Lean, nutritious, and organic, kangaroo meat may be a viable option for cats who are allergic to other meat types. Raw kangaroo meat should only be given with your vet’s approval. To be on the safe side, serve your cat fully cooked and unflavoured kangaroo meat.

Aside from meat, learn which human foods you can safely feed your pet cat. Check out our “can cats eat” blog category.

References:

Mimi Tiu

A freelance editor based in the Philippines, Mimi Tiu is a proud paw aunt to a family of Terriers and a Ragdoll-Persian cat. When she isn’t creating meaningful content for Waldo’s Friends, she finds pleasure in chronicling her ice cream discoveries and coming up with meticulously detailed plans for her next getaway. Follow her adventures on Instagram @nicetomitiu.

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Cat-kangaroo Hybrids

Cat with a tame wallaby.

Note: It has been my policy in listing reports of hybrids to include all serious allegations, especially those of scholars, whether or not the hybrid alleged seems possible or likely to me. This policy, I think, helps to eliminate subjective judgment on my part, and therefore should remove at least one source of systematic bias from my work. It also helps to fulfill the ethical obligation of telling not just the truth, but the whole truth.

C at-kangaroo hybrids and wallaby-cat hybrids are occasionally described in old Australian news reports, some of which are quoted below (wallabies are small and medium-sized kangaroos).

One such report appeared in the Queanbeyan Age and General Advertiser (Jan. 26, 1865, p. 27), a newspaper published in Queanbeyan, New South Wales. It reads as follows:

LUSUS NATURAE.—One of those extraordinary vagaries which nature occasionally permits, is now to be seen at the Prince Imperial Hotel, at Castlereagh Street. It is of the feline species, in colour a dingy black, with the hind quarters of a pussy, but with the legs of a wallaby, the head of a cat, and claws similar to a kangaroo rat. It is quite young, and, if kitten it may be called, was the sole progeny of Mr. Barkhausen’s large black cat. It is one of the must extraordinary animals that has ever come under our notice.—Empire

The Empire, where this story originated, was a newspaper published in Sydney. Note that the direction of the cross is specified in this last report (male wallaby × female cat).

A longer report, with a good bit of detail, appears on page 2 of the issue of The Uralla Times and District Advocate (Jul. 31, 1920, p. 2), a newspaper published in Uralla, New South Wales. It reads as follows:

Wallaby-Cat

Allied Rock-wallaby (Petrogale assimilis), one of the various wallabies native to the vicinity of Brandon. Image: David Iliff

Mr W. Bardsley writes: “Am sending copy of a letter received today from Mr Kelly of Brandon (Q[ueens]l[an]d) on a freak sort of wallaby-cat, more wonderful than the man-woman of Sydney. It seems a cross between a wallaby and cat—an extraordinary thing, and something I thought impossible. I wrote to Mr Kelly through seeing it briefly referred to in ‘Smith’s Weekly.’
Mr Kelly’s letter is as follows:—The cat, which I possess now, was caught when a kitten in the Burraka C[ree]k country. Regarding the shape of the head, it shows characteristics of both wallaby and cat. He has only a few odd whiskers. His toes are certainly a cat’s, but he uses the claws after the manner of a kangaroo. He has a short bushy tail, on which he rests when sitting up. His color is black and white. We have trained him to eat meat, but he is unable to catch birds like an ordinary cat. He is very fond of milk and will eat grass. When sleeping or resting, he generally rests his little front paws on the lower rung of an Austrian chair, where he will remain for hours. He is exceedingly intelligent, and will not allow another cat in the house where he is. His method of putting them out is laughable. On his hind legs, with outstretched arms, in apparent boxing manner, he is a lightning hitter, and no ordinary cat can withstand him after the opening hits. At all times of the day he is sitting on his hind legs, and enjoys being petted by anyone he knows. On a stranger touching him he will bite viciously. He has no progeny. I have been approached by two men to dispose of him for show purposes, but I have hesitated, as he is a great pet of the children. I will have his photo taken and send you a copy.”
Mr Bardsley adds that he will send along a copy of the photo when received.

The earlier article, in Smith’s Weekly, (Jun. 19, 1920, p. 18) referenced above, read as follows:

CAT FREAK
At the Imperial Hotel, Brandon (N.Q.), I came across a cat which led me to believe that its mother had mated with a wallaby. Its two front legs were short, as in a wallaby, its tail was thick and bushy, and it had a distinct liking for lettuce, radishes and celery. Other cats gave it a wide berth. Its method of locomotion was the same as that of a marsupial.—“Sucre.”

Two years later Kelly, the owner of the ostensible wallaby-cat hybrid described in the previous two transcripts wrote in to the Brisbane Daily Mail with further information about this strange creature, including its mode of demise. His communication appeared on page 9 of the November 4, 1922, issue of that publication (source). The relevant portion of his letter reads as follows:

A couple of years ago I was the fortunate possessor of a wallaby-cat. I secured him when very young from a lengthsman at Hodel (near Townsville), who originally picked him up in the scrub. With careful nursing the freak developed into an extremely intelligent animal. He was the size of an ordinary tom cat, being black and white in colour, and possessing a bushy, though short tail. He was imbued with something uncanny that made him an object of fear to dogs and cats alike. Seated erect on his hind legs, he would box like a miniature Jack Johnson with anybody and everything. His usual manner of resting was to place his two little front paws on the lower rung of an Austrian chair, and in this erect position go to sleep. Almost any period of the day would find him squatted on his haunches in wallaby fashion or, when getting about, wallowing like a walrus from place to place. Music had a peculiar fascination for him. When the piano was being played, he would indulge in kittenish antics, and usually ended up by planting himself on the piano keys.
I was offered £50 for him by a travelling showman at Townsville, but refused to part with him, thinking he would be invaluable to the Brisbane museum authorities. However, a couple of nights before I came away. I found him lying dead at the front steps of the house where I was staying. He had been bitten by a snake. My explanation of his death, is that, noticing the snake on the ground, and not knowing what it was, he started to play with it.

Article continues below
A recent sighting
Wallabies move only by hopping because their hind legs are much longer than their forelegs. However, in January 2015, an infra-red night cam in a forest north of Sydney captured an animal that in most respects looked like a wallaby, but that moved with a catlike gait. The forelegs were larger in proportion to the hind legs than in a wallaby (this animal is, however, much different from the alleged cat-wallaby pictured in the old news photo below). This is the video:

Above: Picture of an alleged cat-wallaby hybrid copied from an old newspaper. The image, obviously, is of poor quality, but it shows the animal combined a kangaroo-like posture with a generally catlike physical appearance. The original caption read, “FREAK FELINE — At Vera Park, Charleville, can be seen this ‘cat-wallaby.’ Its front legs are shorter than the hind legs and it always sits in the position shown in the picture. Puss, too, was born with a protruding tongue.” Source: The Week, (Sep. 6, 1933, p. 24), Brisbane, Queensland.

In the Bendigo Advertiser (Sep. 26, 1912, p. 7), an Australian newspaper published in Bendigo, Victoria, a description of the Bendigo Jubilee Show mentions that “A freak of nature, viz., an animal that is half kangaroo and half cat will be amongst the live stock exhibits.”

The next two reports and the picture at right, all from Queensland, were published in Brisbane newspapers, and were close enough together in time that they may all refer to the same animal.

One is a brief mention of a cat-kangaroo in Brisbane’s Sunday Mail (Apr. 28, 1940, p. 2), a description of garden party held by the Catholic Youth Movement says that “On the lawns the ‘wobbegong’—an amazing animal, half cat and half kangaroo—attracted a large gathering.”

Another, much longer report, in The Telegraph (May 9, 1935, p. 2), reads:

HALF WALLABY HALF CAT

“Kanga’s” Strange Characteristics

Meet Kanga the Cat!
Most of his physical characteristics point to a feline parentage. Yet he has some astonishing characteristics that suggest his ancestry has some of the marsupial in it.
He squats like a wallaby, his front legs are shorter than the hinder, and at a distance when he is sitting, invariably in the squatting position always adopted by kangaroo rats, he looks far more like a kangaroo rat than a cat.

M R. R. D. JEMMETT, of Pratten, near Warwick, is the proud owner of this remarkable animal. When this animal sits, he always sits like this, upright, with tail, curled neatly behind him. and with the two front paws resting sedately on the hip joints of his hind quarters. He eats bread, provided there is nothing on it. He will eat meat too, but he is rarely treated to this as it appears to affect his health.

UNUSUAL PAWS

Perhaps the most curious feature of his anatomy is the front paws. He uses the whole of the leg up to the first joint as a paw, and strange as it may seem, the under side of each paw is padded right up to the first joint in order to justify its use in this way. Another peculiarity is that when Kanga does walk using his front legs, these first joints used as paws are pointed inwards, the cat being more or less pigeon-toed.
Mr. Jemmett’s theories about these marsupial characteristics in a cat, are that when his mother was carrying him before birth, she was given a severe fright by a kangaroo or wallaby. The mother was found in a hollow log outside Maryborough before the birth of Kanga.
Mr. Jemmett has been made many offers for Kanga, but he refuses to part with him.

Maternal impressions

In the past, it was widely believed that the exposure of a mother to a particular animal, especially an exposure that frightened her, could result in a child within the womb taking on the characteristics of that animal. Thus, it was thought that a woman frightened by a dog stood an increased chance of giving birth to a dog-faced baby. This notion was applied also to animals that gave birth to strange offspring with mixed characteristics. But no scientist today would accept a psycho-spiritual explanation of this sort.

So again, the direction of the cross here is male wallaby × female cat. Maryborough is on the southern part of Queensland’s coast.

A list of cat crosses

The following is a list of reported cat crosses. Some of these crosses are much better documented than others (as indicated by the reliability arrow). Indeed, some might seem completely impossible. But all have been reported at least once. The links below are to separate articles. Additional crosses, not listed here, are covered on the cat hybrids page.

The Granville Island Pet Treatery|Dehydrated Protein Kangaroo Treat For Cats Slowly Dehydrated Raw Single Ingredient to Maintain Nurtients Vitamins and Healthy Oils Made in Canada|88860 40g

Kangaroo makes a fantastic dog and cat treat. It is an ideal source of protein and is considered to be naturally the leanest red meat protein available which makes it ideal for any cats and dogs that suffer from conditions, like pancreatitis, that require a low-fat diet. The levels of fat that kangaroo carries are not only low, but they are also unsaturated, which, although not as important in pets as it is in humans, is a bonus.

In addition, kangaroo meat has among the best levels of zinc and iron of any meat on the market. The importance of zinc is that it is critical for the correct function of cell membranes. It also supports a pet’s immune responses to disease, making sure they quickly recover from any wounds they may suffer in the rough and tumble of life. Zinc also assists pets to metabolize both proteins and carbohydrates. In a pet’s diet, zinc boosts the health of their coats and helps to toughen their paw pads. Zinc can also enhance a pet’s energy levels.

Our kangaroo is sourced from Australia.

Our meat and seafood comes from Federally inspected facilities. We only use single ingredients in our dried treats. They are either 100% Fish or 100% Meat. We use no fillers, artificial flavourings or preservatives in the making of our treats. Our treats are dehydrated over a long period of time. Most for over 20 hours. Due to the long drying time almost all the moisture is removed allowing the treats to remain in perfect condition for over 2 years.

Composition:
Crude Protein 70% (min.)
Crude Fat 18% (min.)
Crude Fiber 1% (max.)
Moisture 6% (max.)

Ingredients:
Kangaroo

Calories per 8g treat: 36

Shelf Life: 24 months

Feeding Instructions: