Why is my cat eating plants? Does this mean she’s missing something in her diet? Does she need probiotics or something else?
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To answer this question, we have to do a little bit of detective work. There are a few things we need to figure out first.
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First of all is your cat eating a meat-based diet like cats are supposed to eat? Did you know cats are carnivores? Ninety to ninety-five percent of their diet should be meat. That remaining 5 to 10% can be a little bit of vegetables and fiber.
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So if your cat is eating kibble or lousy canned cat food, she may be eating plants because she’s trying to cool off her stomach. Her stomach may be feeling really acidity because she’s having a hard time digesting food she was not designed to eat. So… we need to get you to switch your cat to a species appropriate diet. Check back for another post about that.
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If your cat is eating predominantly meat like she’s supposed to and still eating plants, it could be a number of things. She could have an acid imbalance in her gut. Could be that she likes plants or greens. Could be that she needs some fiber. Probiotics. Or some combination of all of this.
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How in the world will you figure it out?
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What plant is she eating? My animals won’t leave the hibiscus alone. They eat the flowers. They eat the leaves. It’s a delicious plant. I like tea from hibiscus. So they eat hibiscus simply because it taste good.
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Catmint? I tried to grow that once. In the garden. That was the silliest thing I could’ve done! Day one plant looked great. Day two there was no plant. And the cat was smiling.
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I have some clients who grow cat grass and share a little bit with their cats.
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One of my cats goes crazy for catnip. The other one’s kind of ambivalent.
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Some cats like to chew on things. Silver vine sticks can be a good thing to chew on.
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But what if it’s one of those medical things I mentioned above?
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Like the need for more stomach acid. How would we know?
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We could check urine pH. Very first urine of the day. Any samples after first meal are INVALID. We want acid urine pH 6 1/2 to 7. Cats are a bit of a challenge to get a urine sample from. But the manufacturers do make color changing cat litter that tells you about PH of what’s in the box.
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I don’t love these cat litters because they’re a bunch of chemicals. But for short term, use to see what’s going on in the intestines and ability to make acid, they are great tools.
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Need for acid? You know, because the first urine of the day was very alkaline, we can add stomach acid to the diet. (Betaine HCl) Sloooooooowly. Did I mention to add it slowly? (by the way, it’s stomach acid. It taste like. Well. Stomach acid. It’s not really the best tasting thing out there.)
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Probiotics? Sure. There’s some great probiotics. There are also a whole lot of pretty lousy probiotics. I’m looking for something with multiple strains in it…one that doesn’t have any fillers. We need something that does not come in a ridiculous chew treat. You could even use my best friend raw fermented goat milk to provide probiotics.
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And then there’s digestive enzymes. Again, I’m looking something with for something with high-quality ingredients that does not come in a stupid chew. And why am I so negative about chew treats? Because 99 out of 100 times in order to make something taste good in a chew we have added a whole lot of very low quality fillers to turn what’s healthy into a pop tart and it’s no longer healthy.
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The whole purpose of your question was wondering about intestinal health of your cat. Why would I recommend a low quality supplement? Makes no sense.
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If this were my cat at home and I were trying to figure out why she’s eating plants, where would I start? I’d probably start giving her some greens.
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She is still going after my plant? I’d check urine pH.
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Then decide if I need to give stomach acid and I’d probably do it in combo with digestive enzymes cause I just think they all work better together.
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Still seeing patients in Tampa, Clearwater, and virtually.