So, why do cats puke?

[xiphias]

I bought a spider plant for the house. And I left it on the floor while I was re-potting other stuff, and Boopsie wandered over and started munching happily on it. As spider plants are non-toxic, and apparently delicious, to cats, I didn't worry too much about it.

And then, a couple minutes later, Boopsie walked over to the corner of the room, did that "spinning around and hurking" thing that cats do, and puked up a big spider plant leaf.

Do cats deliberately eat plants as emetics? Or are they just dumb?

Comments

[navrins]

The two are not mutually exclusive.

I don't think I quite get to say "I told you so," but I do get to say I told you something like that.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Well, I was expecting it. . .

[hangedwoman.livejournal.com]

I know that dogs do that - deliberately eat plants as emetics. Can't say I know for sure whether or not cats do it. But since my general supposition going in is that cats are not dumb, I'd say it wasn't that.

Re: So, why do cats puke?

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

yes, deliberately. well, for some value of "deliberate" that doesn't necessarily imply conscious thought. but grass and the like helps cats to bring up hairballs.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Ooooh! choose me, Mr. Gladius! I know! Sort of ...

Cats are meat-eaters; they lake the gastric enzymes to digest plants, even the ones that aren't downright toxic. And they have a highly efficient vomit response; if something they can't digest goes down, it comes right back up, and the cat barely bats an eye.

But they like plants, and like chewing on them, pretty much regardless of variety. Just as they like chewing on things like party ribbon (bad idea).

My vet tells me nobody's actually done a rigorous study of the subject of plant-eating cats yet, and though some people do speculate cats of "self-medicating" for emesis, she doubts it. Her evidence: Her own cat, who will chomp on the leaves of any plant within its reach, any time, regardless of other factors.

So I'd go with the "just dumb" explanation. As much as I love my kitty and think her clever, I'm reminded often that her brain is the size of a walnut.

[redbird]

The problem with that explanation is that julian_tiger is ridiculously fond of certain fruits and vegetables--notably tangerines and cucumbers--and as far as we can tell never vomits them back up.

Is my fine purring kitty an alien infiltrator?

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Well, that shoots my vet's theory all to hell. (-:

Maybe she meant leaves? Which, come to think of it, are mostly silicon and damned hard for anyone but a ruminant to digest...

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Is my fine purring kitty an alien infiltrator?

Quite probably.

But many cats I've known have been fond of one or more fruits or vegetables. We used to have a cat who was bribable with rasins. Lis once had a cat who loved frozen peas.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

My first boyfriend had a cat that would sit up and beg for lettuce.

[amberdine.livejournal.com]

My kitty loves all vegetable matter. She tried to eat a pine tree. She has nibbled hopefully at silk flowers. She somehow got to the top of a 7' wire shelf to eat a rose bush.

She throws up almost every morning, but it doesn't have anything to do with plant ingestion.

She does have big digestive problems. I suspect that greens may ease her tummy ache.

[marquisedea.livejournal.com]

*cracks up* frozen peas!!!

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Our dear departed Olivia once stalked, killed and ate a frozen green bean.

[marquisedea.livejournal.com]

Brilliant. My cat Rema swallowed a red ant in her day.

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Bet she only did it once.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

They are supposed to eat grass to aid digestion, yes.

Spider plants and other interesting nibbleable green things are just more for fun, I'm thinking, and cats never seem to mind about puking (though our cat PC isn't too sure about it as she tends to suddenly find herself floating through the air at top speed heading outside in my dads outstretched arms as soon as he hears that prelimanry "hurk hurk" noise ::giggle::)

[mattblum.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you remember Gustav, but he used to have a big thing for leafy greens--lettuce and spinach, especially. It wasn't safe to put the salad on the dining room table then go back into the kitchen for the rest of the food, because you'd come back into the room and there would be Gustav, on the table, head in the salad bowl, munching away.

I remember once Sharon (my ex-wife, for those who may not know) was making miso soup with all sorts of things you could put in it to make your own bowl. These "things" included cooked shrimp, tofu cubes, raw spinach, and pickled radish, if I recall correctly. Somehow, stupidly, we left the bowls of things unguarded in the dining room for a minute.

We came back in to find Gustav, on the table, happily munching on the spinach.

[cheshyre]

As you're probably aware, the Passover Seder requires at least two dishwasher loads after the meal (plus more during prep, and possibly one after soup & appetizers and before the main course, depending on what's being served).

One Pesach, we discovered our kitten Tigger on the table after the meal. There wasn't much meat still out, but some. Plus the shank bone on the seder plate.

But no. We found him munching on the shmura matzah.

Dumb cat. [Another time, after a normal meal, he opted for the (formerly) frozen corn niblets in preference to fish.]

[red-frog.livejournal.com]

I've been told that they (and dogs) deliberately eat plants as emetics.

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

Ours eat, and bring up fairly regularly, grass. Before we got them the grass, it was just about any other long stringy plant material they could find, which they invariably brought up. At least some of the time, they bring up hairballs with the grass.

One of our cats, Nemrut, has very long fur, and had a golf-ball sized matt in his fur when we got him (he hadn't had enough care for some months). He was bringing up hairballs left right and centre the first few weeks. It seems to be much less severe now he has regular access to grass. Mind you, he also gets regularly groomed. And you have to watch him, because if you leave the bits of fur lying around, he will try to eat them.