Is cilantro safe for cats and dogs?
Coriandrum sativum · Herb
Non-toxic to cats and dogs
Coriandrum sativum is confirmed by species, whether the label says cilantro or coriander. The two names describe one plant with one answer.
Source: ASPCA Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants.
Nothing to worry about with this one. Coriandrum sativum is on the ASPCA's non-toxic list for cats and dogs, and cilantro and coriander are two names for the same plant: the leaves are cilantro in American shops and coriander almost everywhere else, and both come off the pot on your windowsill. The plant it is easiest to confuse in a herb rack is chives, which the catalogue records as severe for both animals, and the two arrive in identical green plastic pots.
Worth knowing anyway
The plant carries no poisoning risk. A cat that eats a mouthful of any leaf can be sick from the volume alone, and a bout of vomiting that carries on is worth a phone call to your vet. Cilantro bolts and flowers quickly indoors, and the seed heads that follow belong to the same non-toxic plant, so a chewed stem at that stage is no different from a chewed leaf.
Living with one
Cilantro is a short-lived plant pretending to be a houseplant. The catalogue schedules it around every three days with an easier winter, and it wants full sun between 15C and 24C, which is why it collapses on a hot kitchen sill in July. Sow a fresh pot every few weeks rather than nursing one along, and let the cat have the old one once it has bolted.
How to care for cilantro
The starting schedule and conditions Kounts Care sets up for this species. Watering adapts from there based on the daylight where you live.
- Water
- About every 3 days, less in winter
- Light
- Full sun
- Humidity
- 40% to 60%
- Temperature
- 15C to 24C
- Soil pH
- 6.2 to 6.8
- Family
- Herb
Let the app remember this for you
Kounts Care holds your plants and your pets in one household, so it checks every new plant against the cats and dogs you actually own, names them in the warning, and runs the check again over your existing plants the day a new animal arrives. Toxicity warnings are free at every tier.
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Questions people actually ask
Are cilantro and coriander the same plant?
The same plant, Coriandrum sativum, under two names. Cilantro usually means the leaves and coriander the dried seed in American usage, while British shops call the whole thing coriander. The safety answer does not move with the label, because the ASPCA list returns non-toxic for the species, so the leafy pot and the plant that has gone to seed are both fine around cats and dogs.
My cat keeps eating the cilantro. Is that a problem?
Not a poisoning one. Some cats are drawn to soft, strongly scented leaves, and cilantro is soft enough to be an easy target. A large amount can come back up, which is a volume issue rather than a toxic one, and repeated vomiting deserves a vet call. If your cat is hunting for greenery in general, a pot of cat grass usually takes the pressure off the herbs.
Why does my cilantro flower and die so quickly?
Because that is what it does. Cilantro bolts when it is warm and dry at the roots, and a supermarket pot is already crowded, so it often flowers within weeks of coming home. Water it around every three days, keep it below 24C, and start a new pot before the old one gives up. Cutting the flower stems delays the end rather than preventing it.
How does the app handle a herb pot with no label?
Point the camera at it. Supermarket herbs arrive with a price sticker and little else, and identifying from a photo gives you the species, the watering interval and the toxicity answer for your own cats and dogs in one go. Cilantro comes back clear. Chives, which look like a pot of chopped grass, come back as a severe warning naming the animals in your household.