Are Incense Bad For Cats – 5 Things To Know!

Most cat lovers know that their feline friends are sensitive to many things that are safe for people. Cat owners need to be careful about their pet’s food, which cleaning products they use, and more. But, are incense bad for cats?

Yes, some incense are bad for cats. While low concentrations of some incense may not have profound effects, continuous exposure or exposure to high concentrations of incense smoke can be hazardous to cats. It’s best to avoid using incense around cats.

Don’t worry; we’ll cover everything you need to know about incense and your cats, why it can be dangerous, and alternatives you can use that are safer.

Reasons Incense Are Bad For Cats

Here are 5 of the main reasons incense can be bad for your cats and the main things to consider when you’re thinking about burning incense around a cat.

We’re focusing on the direct impact of incense on your cat, but we won’t be covering incense safety and fire prevention.

Remember, if you’re going to burn incense, you will need to think about fire prevention and safety, and also make sure your cat stays away from the burning incense since they may increase fire danger.

Many Cats Are Sensitive To All Smoke

Many people don’t know that domesticated cats can be very sensitive to smoke of all kinds. Their smaller lungs don’t necessarily handle small particulates, like smoke, in the air and our larger lungs.

That means that your cat may have a hard time breathing or feel lethargic in a room with a lot of incense smoke.

Over time, exposure to incense smoke may make your cat feel ill, tired, irritable, or lethargic. While the effect should wear off as soon as your cat can breathe fresh air for a while, it’s not good for their long-term health.

The Scent May Be Too Powerful For Your Cat

Cats have noses that are significantly stronger and more sensitive than human noses. That means that a subtle incense scent to you is probably very strong and distracting to your cat.

Imagine walking into an industrial compost heap, and how that might smell, that’s probably a similar intensity to the scent of the incense to cats.

That means that the scent may be irritating and bothersome for your cat, even if they don’t suffer any immediate health effects.

Some Types Of Incense Smoke Are Toxic To Cats

One problem with incense is that it can be hard to know what ingredients were used in the incense in the first place.

Certain scents are known to be toxic to cats, but the same ingredients might show up in other scents as well. That makes it hard to know which types are toxic and control your cat’s exposure to harmful ingredients.

Low-Quality Incense May Be More Dangerous

The lower the quality of your incense is, the harder it becomes to control for potentially toxic ingredients. Plus, some low-quality options may not list all the ingredients they use, which makes it impossible to control.

Additionally, low-quality incense may not burn the same way, producing more harmful types of smoke, larger smoke particles, or volatile organic compounds that are dangerous for both you and your cat.

Repeat Incense Exposure May Cause Health Problems

Exposure to high concentrations of smoke and small particulates, like regular incense burning, is one of the leading causes of asthma and other respiratory conditions in cats.

Even if the incense itself isn’t toxic for your cat, the smoke exposure from using incense may still have long-term health consequences. In addition to higher asthma rates, using incense is also correlated to higher rates of lung cancer and other severe health conditions in both cats and humans.

Can Cats Be Allergic To Incense

Yes and no. Cats can be allergic to certain ingredients in incense, and some cats may have more incense sensitivity than others, but not all incense reactions are allergic reactions.

It’s more likely for your cat to have a smoke sensitivity than an allergic reaction. Also, some reactions to toxic chemicals in your incense smoke may look like allergic reactions but need very different treatments.

So, while you can’t rule out the possibility of an allergic reaction to your incense, your cat is more likely to have other adverse health effects from incense.

Can Incense Kill Cats

Incense can be dangerous enough to kill cats, but that’s relatively rare. Much more likely, regularly using incense may worsen your cat’s quality of life and shorten their life from long-term health consequences.

So, while it’s relatively unlikely that exposure to incense will kill your cat without a known health problem or allergy immediately, using incense can have severe impacts on the length of your cat’s life and overall health.

Is Burning Frankincense Safe For Cats

Frankincense is generally considered ‘safe’ for cats, which means that it’s not a scent or essential oil (a common way to scent incense) that is known to cause immediate toxicity in cats. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s 100% since smoke is always a potential problem for cats.

In relatively low concentrations, infrequent burning on frankincense incense shouldn’t be too harmful to most cats.

Is Patchouli Incense Safe For Cats

No, patchouli incense likely isn’t safe for cats. While not explicitly studied, patchouli scents are often made from patchouli essential oils distilled from a plant related to mint.

Catnip, also a type of mint, might be safe for cats, but most mint-based essential oils and scents (like incense) are too strong for cats and contain high concentrations of chemicals difficult for cats to process out of their bodies.

So, while patchouli incense might not have been specifically studied, and patchouli scents aren’t listed as 100% known toxins for cats, the likelihood of strong adverse health effects from patchouli incense is high.

Is Vanilla Incense Safe For Cats

Vanilla is one scent that may be safer for cats than most since vanilla itself isn’t considered harmful to cats. While the smoke from incense still presents a problem, vanilla is a potent flavoring and scented product, so it doesn’t take much vanilla to create a sweet-smelling incense.

That means that vanilla incense is probably one of the better and safer options for your cat, but it doesn’t mean that it’s safe or healthy.

Incense Alternative For Cats

Many cat owners like scenting their homes with something to help cover the scent of litterboxes and just having a cat in general. While incense might not be a safe option, some options are better for your cats.

Scented sprays like Febreze are a good option. They provide a short-term scent and also help eliminate the sources of unpleasant odors. Plug-in diffusers are also a reasonable choice, but it’s important to check ingredients and toxicity to ensure the scent isn’t harmful.

Unfortunately, essential oil diffusers, burning herbs, and other natural means of scenting a space are usually as harmful as incense. One exception is using scented candles without burning them may be safer than incense, but it’s similarly harmful if you burn the candle.

Other tools, like cleaning litterboxes and vacuuming carpets and furniture more often, can also make your home smell better and less like your cats.

Scent absorbers are also a good option if you’re looking to take care of unpleasant odors without necessarily creating a new scent.