Why do cats eat grass?

Statistics say that 90 percent of cats, including those we keep as pets, eat grass. But why are cats, despite not being herbivores but carnivores, avid grass eaters? The answer lies in natural medicine, namely, the fact that cats use grass for a series of preventative measures to protect their health.

Grass mildly irritates the stomach and can cause vomiting. This helps eliminate:

• hairballs
• bone or feather debris (in hunting cats)
• food that bothered me

Basically, cats use grass to clean their stomachs and intestines.  In some cases, the herb is not vomited but passes into the intestine, aiding transit and facilitating the elimination of feces.

Some studies highlight a second reason that explains why cats so frequently use grass as food.

In these cases, and always as a preventative measure, the herb can provide natural nutrients, and in particular small quantities of:

• folic acid (Vitamin B9)
• fibers

Particularly a 2021 study confirms in detail the use of herbs by cats as sources of essential dietary fiber in a balanced feline diet.

Another aspect, much studied in recent years, concerns the reasons why cats don't eat leaves, but bite and lick them to break them: they cause the plants to release varying amounts of iridoids, chemical compounds that repel mosquitoes. In this case, too, cats practice a sort of self-prevention, protecting themselves from mosquitoes with their own natural repellent, obtained simply by breaking and licking the leaves.