Mystery Solved? Why Cats Eat Grass?

margd

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That's the title of an article in the newsletter put out by Science yesterday, 8/8/19. Mystery solved? Why cats eat grass. It's based on research reported at the annual meeting of the International Society for Applied Ethology in Bergen, Norway by Benjamin L. Hart, Lynette A. Hart and Abigail P. Thigpen from the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine. Their abstract, Characterization of Plant Eating in Cats, is published on page 106 in the proceedings.

From the Science article:

"Their theory—based on research in chimps and other wild animals—is that grass munching helps animals expel intestinal parasites (p. 106) by increasing muscle activity in the digestive tract. Except, today’s cats likely don’t have these parasites anymore. The authors argue that the strategy probably first evolved in a distant ancestor. (The scientists did not test another common assumption: that eating grass helps cats throw up hairballs.)"

The article ends with the following:

"The team’s advice to cat owners: Buy or cultivate some indoor grass for your pets to chew on. This will give them a chance to exercise this innate behavior with a safe source of nonpoisonous plant life. And if your cat throws up afterward, at least you can take solace in your knowledge that it wasn’t on purpose or out of spite … probably".

Ignoring the snide remark about spite :mad2:, (grrrr) (okay, NOT ignoring it)...anyway, I periodically plant some grass seed for Paul and Chula and they both love it, especially Paul who would make an effective lawn mower. They prefer to munch on a mixture of oats, wheat, rye and barley as opposed to a single grass species.


Just thought people might be interested....
 

smosmosmo

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Smo's the same as Paul, when we buy her cat grass she's constantly munching on it. Then comes the vomit...oh, the vomit. We try not to have grass around all the time because we're constantly having to clean piles of grassy cat puke off stuff. She does love it though.
 

Mamanyt1953

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I found that quite interesting! So...to get rid of parasites, even ones they no longer have...isn't instinct a wonderful thing?
 
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