Should Indoor Cats Eat Grass?

The short answer to that question is no. It’s not something they need or require to be healthy and happy.

Despite being obligate carnivores (full on meatatarians!) cats seem to gravitate to grass, and munching on it, when available. Why do they do this? Is it bad for them? Is it good for them?

Well, unfortunately, there don’t seem to be any solid answers to those questions. We do know that there’s no evidence that eating ordinary grass is harmful to them in anyway. (There are plenty of plants that ARE harmful, or even poisonous, to them – but grass isn’t one of them.) We also know that eating grass tends to make a lot of cats vomit if they overdo it. But we don’t know WHY they do it, or if they’re getting anything useful out of it. There are some theories…

They use it to help vomit up hairballs

Certainly sounds reasonable. Cats can vomit when they eat grass because, as carnivores, they don’t have the enzymes needed to properly breakdown and digest vegetable matter. So, sometimes it just comes back up. You’d surmise that if they keep going back to something they know from experience is going to cause stomach upset, that they must be getting something out of it.

They use it as a vitamin supplement

The only problem with this theory is that cats aren’t able to properly break down and digest vegetable matter like grass. So, however many vitamins there may be in grass, they’re not going to properly absorb them.

They use it as a laxative

Sounds possible. Though we’d really have to interview a few cats to determine if they’re that self-aware and possess that kind of instinct for natural remedies.

So, if your cat seems to enjoy grass, there’s absolutely no harm in buying a pot of it for him to enjoy at his leisure. You can even buy special little pots of “cat grass” in many stores. If your cat doesn’t have any interest in eating grass, that’s perfectly fine,  too. There’s no evidence or research to indicate that you need to provide it for health reasons.