Judy Kei can tell when her cat, Kit-Kat, isn't feeling well. It moves around less than normal, seems lethargic and then nibbles on a planter of cat grass in her apartment. 'Occasionally, Kitty would get an upset stomach, so it would eat the grass and make itself sick,' Kei says. 'I think sometimes the food is too rich for it. And it seems better after vomiting; it's like taking natural medicine for cats.'
Some cats can't seem to resist the odd blade of grass, while other felines will turn their noses up at anything green. Veterinary surgeon Kylie Griffin, at The Ark Veterinary Hospital, shares some insight into which household plants are edible, and which ones are highly toxic and harmful for your four-legged nibbler.
'Some cats like eating plants. They seem to enjoy it, investigating and smelling it,' Griffin says. She adds kittens tend to explore their environment with their mouths.
Often long foreign bodies, such as string, needles and thread, are consumed out of curiosity, the veterinarian says. Most of the time, these items are vomited out or pass through the body. On rare occasions, however, a piece of string or thread can get caught in the mouth and loop around the tongue.
Griffin says there isn't any scientific evidence that suggests eating grass or plants is a necessary part of a cat's diet.
'Some cats do seem to need to chew grass, but others don't chew at all and still stay nice and healthy,' she adds. Many theories try to explain why cats eat grass. Some say grass helps cats to vomit fur balls, or the fibre in grass is nutritional. As cats ingest their fur, while licking their coat, some will vomit up fur balls more frequently than others.
In addition, through selective breeding, domesticated cats with 'unnatural coats' of very long or very fine hairs may have trouble digesting their fur. It's possible that grass helps the fur pass through the digestive tracts, Griffin says, but as only some cats eat grass it doesn't seem essential for survival.