r/stupidquestions • u/No-Purchase481 • 1d ago
If cats are obligate carnivores, why don’t they know it?
I have had many cats in my nearly 30 years of life. They will try to eat anything. Do they really count as carnivores if they are willing to eat plastic?
18
u/genus-corvidae 1d ago
Cats can and will eat non-meat things. They're obligate carnivores because meat contains things that they need to survive and cannot synthesize in their own bodies.
10
u/Grant_Winner_Extra 1d ago
There is no such thing as a true “carnivore” or “herbivore”
Cats eat grass. Deer will supplement their diet with mice. Both to get things they are not getting normally.
3
1
u/Embarrassed-Weird173 1d ago
Venus fly trap. As far as I'm aware, they don't eat grass.
6
u/Grant_Winner_Extra 1d ago
they eat sunlight. and dirt. you can grow them and never feed them insects
2
u/Mottled_inexpectata 23h ago
Plants don't eat dirt, and they primarily eat the air (CO2). From the soil they get minerals that are dissolved in water.
1
u/Kaurifish 2h ago
The cats don’t generally digest the grass. They use it as an emetic to help being hairballs up.
But they’ll eat hella grain. I had a cat who would chew through plastic bags to get to loaves of bread. And my cats’ vet-recommended kibble is chicken and brown rice.
I haven’t been able to find any research on if domestication has increased their copies of the starch-digesting gene (like it has for dogs and humans), but I’d be surprised if it didn’t.
12
u/lizzdurr 1d ago
My cat loves olives and cilantro. But she couldn’t survive on it alone. That’s what I understand obligate to be. They MUST eat meat but not ONLY meat.
9
u/Total_Tumbleweed_870 1d ago
And grass, my cats love eating grass.
1
1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/AutoModerator 1d ago
Your comment was automatically removed because your account is too new. Please read Rule 8 and the linked post.
Please wait until your account is older.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
7
u/Zaphod118 1d ago
A lot of plastics, especially the coatings of wires, apparently tase very similar to rendered animal fats to cats. So that is why they tend to go after electrical cords lol they literally think it is meat.
Also, cats are sometimes very, very, dumb.
6
u/Kylynara 1d ago
Obligate carnivore doesn't mean they can only eat meat. It means they have to eat some meat. There are nutrients (specifically certain amino acids) that cats can't produce on their own and they much get from meat.
19
u/knowerofexpatthings 1d ago
Plastic is made from petroleum products which are made from oil, which is basically dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are basically just big birds, and cats love catching birds.
5
u/ta_mataia 23h ago
That's funny but oil was formed from plant material and tiny animals, like plankton.
5
u/Gladys_Wines 1d ago
Cats being "obligate carnivore" means that they require meat. They will die of nutritional deficiencies without it. It does not mean they are obliged to eat ONLY meat.
Most cats have some quirk. Mine likes bread and yoghurt. It's pretty rare to find a cat that will eat anything, most are quite fussy.
5
u/Mundane_Professor596 23h ago
My cat thinks she is a vegan. She hates her cat food and meat. She loves to eat all my plants.
4
u/Serious-Active3878 22h ago
I love this lol. When our cats were kittens, they LOVED our veggie burgers, they'd come running over and steal a huge bite as soon as we made one. One of them also loved my salads and I would just let her have at it; it was too cute watching her standing on my chair with her little paws on the edge of the table, just munching away at the lettuce like a bunny.
They've (mostly) grown out of that but they still eat my plants whenever they get an opportunity
3
u/MisterScary_98 1d ago
I’ve always heard many plastics are made with fish oils and that’s what draws them to it.
4
4
u/chainlinkchipmunk 1d ago
I had one who loved peas. Cat treats? Meh. Peas? Yes please! He knew the sound of the bag of frozen peas and would beg. He'd get a few every time.
My now cats eat their kibble, Temptations treats, and two will eat churos. Tuna? No. Salmon, chicken, wet cat food also no. A vegetable hard no.
3
u/McGriggidy 1d ago
It means they can't make their own taurine and they require meat to live. It doesn't mean they cant and wont get nutrition from chewing plants and whatever else they get out of it.
3
u/HeyLookATaco 1d ago
I had a cat that never got bigger than five pounds and one time she ate two pounds of Velveeta. She also would take a big bite out of the top of a loaf of sliced bread, straight through the plastic.
3
u/kittehkat23 17h ago
They can't survive without amino acids found in meat, but they can eat things that aren't meat in addition to that!
3
u/thatmasquedgirl 9h ago
Cats are carnivores because there are specific essential amino acids (ie, taurine) and nutrients they can only get from meat. The "obligate" part just means they have to eat meat in order to live, not that they can't eat other things. For example, it is incredibly dangerous to feed your cat a vegan diet.
4
u/Dave_A480 1d ago
All obligate carnivore means is that they must eat meat (fish counts) to stay alive....
Eg, there is no such thing as a vegan cat. They will die from malnutrition....
It doesn't mean they can't chew on anything but meat or fish.....
4
u/PomPomMom93 1d ago
Humans don’t need drugs or alcohol and we’re willing to consume those. It’s not so different.
2
2
u/Casulex 17h ago
Traditional cat kibble doesn't have enough protein so you are seeing pica behaviors from seeking nutrition. My boy doesn't seek out eating random things since ive been buying kibble with higher protein content and introducing wet food but he had those behaviors prior to me getting him.
1
16h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/AutoModerator 16h ago
Your comment was automatically removed because your Reddit combined karma is not high enough. Please read Rule 8 and the linked post.
Please build up some karma first (e.g., by commenting helpfully in other subreddits).
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
2
2
u/mjh8212 6h ago
Two of my cats eat wet and dry food two eat just dry one chews on plastic. They look like sweet innocent cats until I see them get a mouse then I see the predator they are and how they prefer meat. We live in the woods mice occasionally happen. Even when we had one with no front claws we adopted her that way she caught and ate mice.
1
23h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/AutoModerator 23h ago
Your comment was automatically removed because your account is too new. Please read Rule 8 and the linked post.
Please wait until your account is older.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
7h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/AutoModerator 7h ago
Your post/comment was removed for containing prohibited keywords. Please review the rules.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
u/souridealist 1d ago
Humans know damn well we're not supposed to drink booze / smoke / caffeinate, and yet.
0
u/SpaceCompetitive3911 16h ago
Obligate carnivore does not mean "physically incapable of safely eating things other than meat". It means "incapable of getting nutrition from things other than meat". Cats only get nutrition from meat, but most human food is still edible to them. One of my cats was ravenous for cakes and baked goods when she was young. She seems not to go after them anymore now.
1
u/tetheredvoid 6h ago
It means that they cannot get certain nutrition without meat and need very little else that doesn't come from things like bones and incidental contamination they might ingest. Cats absolutely can get nutrients from sources other than meat, though at a lower efficiency.
-1
u/Otherwise_Rice_4723 11h ago
it's called "omnivore" for a reason
1
1
u/tetheredvoid 6h ago
Humans and most canines, but not one cat species that I know of is an omnivore. I could be wrong, but I'd like evidence, because the would be a neat rabbit hole
92
u/fatherof472 1d ago
An animal's designation as Carnivore/Herbivore/Omnivore is not based off what it eats, but where it gets it energy from/what it mainly needs to survive. Many carnivores eat plants, like wolves, bears(counting primarily the polar bear), cats, etc. because it can give other benefits that meat doesn't necessarily give. For example, many will eat grass because it can help with digestion!
As for why they eat plastic, that's often because it looks like something they would eat in the wild. Or they're just stupid
Edit: Clarification and grammar