I can’t get over how much this cat likes carbs! It’s crazy. It doesn’t make any sense to me. He’s a full-on carnivore, so why would he rather eat a zinnia flower, a croissant or a piece of toast than a slab of bacon or an egg?
The only thing I can think of is that his old dry food (Hill’s Science Diet) contained whole grain wheat and other veggie fillers, which I didn’t think twice about at the time, but then a few years ago Tabs was diagnosed as pre-diabetic, and his vet said he should lay off the carbs.
These days he mostly eats low glycemic grain-free Nutrisca crunchies and grain-free wet food, which he eats…reluctantly.
Well, he loves his nightly wet food (mostly Sheba Paté, but sometimes he gets $$$ ZiwiPeak), but I don’t think he loves it as much as he used to love regular Fancy Feast, which has wheat in it to make that delicious gravy.
I’ve asked a couple different vets why some cats like to eat grass, other plants and flowers, and they weren’t sure. I guess there are different schools of thought. Some vets think cats do it as an instinct to clean their teeth, because the plant fibers can get down in there between their teeth and gums, or to supplement their diet with certain nutrients that they don’t get from meat, or to force themselves to barf, because it helps them clear out their digestive system. Even wild cats do it.
I don’t know the reason, but I do know that Tabs is a fiend for grass. He’ll eat grass and flowers till he barfs every chance he gets if I let him, which I do sometimes.
It’s weird. How about your cats? Will they eat greens if left to their own devices?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Hi Karen, Coco eats grass too, sometimes so much I think she must have been a sheep in a former life! Every cat I have ever had has loved Marmite, which is made from yeast, and one of my mum’s Siameses loved potato peelings.
Re the UK programmes, if you enjoy a good whodunit I can thoroughly recommend Unforgotten. We’ve had two series so far, both really gripping, and a third is in the pipeline.
One of my cats LOVES broccoli! We have a 9 month old, and have been doing Baby Led Weaning, and broccoli was one of the first foods she dropped on the floor. Darwin now hovers and waits for some to fall every time we eat it!
Mina used to eat spinach with Quincy when I would give it to him… She tried carrots but was not a fan. I’m not quite sure she realized she wasn’t a bunny (shhh don’t tell her). Jiji has a sensitive tummy. They both get Blue Buffalo Basics grain-free food for sensitive tummies. Mina is a bit overweight but I can’t find a way to limit her food without starving Jiji, who eats less. Jiji isn’t into carbs except that he’s a fiend for cereal milk.
Hettie enjoys grass, and pulling food out of the trash.
One of the kitties I had when I lived in NYC used to love celery tops. Go figure. I thought it was the weirdest thing. Not sure if she liked grass as she was an apartment cat.
No grass in our neighborhood, but Nora does love to roll in the cat mint out front until she’s drooling like a stoner! She once managed to get under the sink and get the lid open on the compost bucket and get into that. I now have a toddler proof latch on that cabinet door.
Nora has allergies and tummy issues and I’m finding it increasingly more difficult to find a food that she will eat and not barf up.
My likes to chomp on flowers in a vase
also Marmite is brewers yeast and cats love that stuff, not sure why but they do
The Natural Cat book recommends it, mixed with oil to get things moving KWIM
Yes, our cats will definitely eat grass if they get out. Of course, one of them eats everything (Nerf darts, shoe laces, etc) and the other is a “people food” fiend. She’s always trolling around, hoping someone drops a crumb of anything. I’ve always heard that pets (including dogs) eat grass when they have an upset stomach, since it makes them vomit. Who knows?!
Elvis will chomp on all of the plants so we had to move the plants out of the house. However, he keeps wanting to eat the petite palmiers that you get from costco. He’s been trying to break into the plastic container. Someone recommended that I try giving him turkey tendon and I bought some from Amazon and I cut it up and he seems to love it.
We grow oat grass from seed we get at the vet’s office. If it doesn’t grow fast enough I pick up a wheat grass from the grocery store. The cats LOVE grass and we are never without it!
If Tabs doesn’t mind eating pate, many of the Fancy Feast Classic flavors are grain free. They don’t advertise it as grain free on the front of the cans. You have to read the ingredients to get that information. On a side note, I have a weird cat that will eat almost anything you put in front of him, including roasted broccoli.