What do you tell your child when they come to you with the question…why do cats eat grass mom? (Or Daddy, if that’s the case.) Kids asked the most innocent and unarmed questions, right? They are so young and innocent, and as they say, from babies’ mouths comes the wisdom of all ages.
You don’t have an answer to this innocent and rather observational question of nature, well we do. It may surprise you, it will certainly disgust you to some degree, but it’s the real deal.
A cat’s natural diet consists of meat, raw meat, prey – mice, birds, anything they can catch, kill and eat is your cat’s natural diet. Well, when a cat eats a bird, for example, it just swallows down the suction cup, everything comes off at once, the feathers, the beak, the claws and so on and so forth. Hey, we said it was going to be pretty gross.
Anyway, some of the “bird stuff” your cat can’t really digest, shall we say. So, in order not to destroy their digestive system, cats have an instinctive behavior where they eat grass to regurgitate this material from their stomach, this is very healthy for them, in fact it is essential for their health.
If you have a cat that’s outside all the time and you suspect she’s chewing on Tweetie birds, you’d better let your cat munch on some grass, too. Remember, it’s all natural and good for the animal. If you don’t let them eat the grass, they will chase your houseplants, which are often poisonous to the cat, and then you’ll have a huge mess on your hands.
You don’t want to kill your cat, do you? Let them eat the grass if need be, you’re doing them a favor. Humans shouldn’t eat grass, but cats should, now you know the facts of life.
You may be wondering about the big cats. Do lions eat grass? Indeed they do, but not for the same reasons as our domesticated friends. Lions and other big cats eat grass and leaves to neutralize the acid in their stomachs after a particularly large and greasy meal, such as a whole antelope. And all this knowledge from a simple children’s question, thank heaven for children.
Thanks to Kevin Highfill
