However, you should never deliberately feed your cat fish with bones in. Most canned fish has already been cooked, meaning that any bones left in there are likely to be brittle and could splinter apart. However, if you are concerned about fish bones you can just chop the pilchards into smaller pieces and put them in his food plate. If your dog has a sensitive stomach, it’s best if you spread the recommended fish portion on several days, to avoid him consuming too much fat in one go. Is mercury in pilchards a concern? Still, small amounts of mercury can pose a risk to young children, unborn babies and the babies of nursing mothers, so the recommended servings of even low-mercury canned light tuna and salmon are no more than 2 to 3 servings per week of 3 to 4 ounces for folks who fall into those categories. Is eating canned fish bad for you?

Pilchards - tinned in tomato sauce - CheckYourFood Pilchards - tinned in tomato sauce - CheckYourFood

However, it’s typically not something that cats need in their everyday diet – even though cats eating fish is a cliche.Pilchards are syn free on the slimming world as long as they are stored in tomato sauce and not oil, oil adds syns to this fish since it increases the fat content. Pilchards also stored in brine are syn free.

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall - The Guardian Tinned fish recipes | Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall - The Guardian

However, your cat may actually like tomato sauce instead. This is a no-go in terms of a cat’s diet. Tomato sauces aren’t always made for pure tomato. To cater to human taste buds they also contain lots of sugar, salt, and flavorings. This means that, although you offer your cat a nice fish and tomato dish, they may turn their nose up at it. If they were to eat fresh tomatoes though, there would be no harm done. Bring a pan of water to a boil, salt it generously, add the spaghetti and cook until al dente. Meanwhile, heat the oil very gently in a small pan over a low heat (if you really like that anchovy taste, use some of the oil from the anchovy tin). When the oil is hot, add the anchovies and chilli, and cook for two minutes, crushing the anchovies gently so they "melt" into the oil. Add the garlic, cook for 30-60 seconds – don't let it colour – and remove from the heat. It will be a sorry day when I turn to my larder and discover that there is not a single tin of fish to be found therein. But I guess if we continue to empty the seas at the rate we are doing, it may happen. The thing is, the kind of small, oily fish that fit so obligingly in tins and jars are the very species that, if managed properly and fished responsibly, could continue to feed us sustainably well into the future. If however, we continue to vacuum them up by the millions of tonnes, and process more than half of them into animal feed and fertilisers, then they won't be around for long.

1. Pilchard curry recipe

These metal fragments are swallowed by the fish and passed along to your cat. This issue has been seen most often with tuna, but having sardines each day could pose a risk. Although the sodium content in the tomato sauce really isn’t good for your cat, a single meal with extra salt shouldn’t cause any long-term damage. However, if you look at the label you’ll notice that a regular can has 1.55 g of salt. According to the manufacturer, that’s roughly 26% of the recommended daily intake (RDA) for the average person. That’s quite a lot for a dog, especially if we’re talking about small breeds.