Cats are often seen chewing and eating blades of grass, which many cat owners interpret as a bad habit or a sign of a deficiency. After all, grass has virtually no nutritional value for cats as carnivores.

So what does it mean when cats eat grass?

 

Worried cat owners often misinterpret their cat's grass eating as a vitamin deficiency or a sign of illness. The cat is observed eating grass and then vomiting.

Cats ingest a lot of indigestible substances with their food, such as hair, feathers and bone parts from mice or birds. If too much indigestible matter has accumulated, the cat eats grass, which acts like an emetic for it to flush these substances out of the body. The cat's digestive system does not have the necessary enzymes to digest plants, so these are removed from the body and with them the indigestible parts that they have ingested with their prey.

Even cats that do not eat mice or birds and are fed exclusively on cat food follow this cleansing process to regurgitate fur hairs from their stomachs that they have swallowed during grooming.

Indoor cats should have cat grass available, otherwise they will chew on other plants that may be harmful or poisonous. You should provide your cat with a small trough of grass plants, but these must not be chemically treated. It is best to use wild grass and not turf. If you want to be on the safe side, you can buy special cat grass from a pet shop.