Hunting and diet
Relative to size, domestic cats are very effective
predators. They ambush and dispatch vertebrate
prey using tactics similar to those of leopards
and tigers by pouncing; they then deliver a lethal
neck bite with their long canine teeth that severs
the victim's spinal cord, or asphyxiate it by
crushing the windpipe.
The domestic cat can hunt and eat about one
thousand species—many big cats will eat fewer than
100. Although, theoretically, big cats can kill
most of these species as well, they often do not
due to the relatively low nutritional content that
smaller animals provide. An exception is the
leopard, which commonly hunts rabbits and many
other smaller animals. On the other hand, it can
be argued that cats have an abundance of smaller
species available.
A cat yawning, showing characteristic canine
teeth.Cats have highly specialized teeth and a
digestive tract suitable to the digestion of meat.
The premolar and first molar together compose the
carnassial pair on each side of the mouth, which
efficiently functions to shear meat like a pair of
scissors. While this is present in canines, it is
highly developed in felines. The cat's tongue has
sharp spines, or papillae, designed to retain and
rip flesh from a carcass. These papillae are small
backward-facing hooks that contain keratin and
assist in their grooming. Unlike most carnivores,
cats eat almost no vegetable matter apart from
that found in the digestive tracts of their prey.
Whereas bears and dogs commonly supplement their
diet of meat with fruits, berries, roots, and
honey when they can get them, cats feed
exclusively on meat, usually freshly killed. Cats,
including the great cats, have a genetic anomaly
that prevents them from tasting sweetness [9],
which is probably related to their meat-only
habits.
In captivity, cats cannot be adapted to a
vegetarian diet because they cannot synthesize all
the amino acids they need from plant material.
Specifically this applies to Taurine, the absence
of which causes the cat's retina to slowly
degenerate, causing eye problems and (eventually)
irreversible blindness. This condition is called
central retinal degeneration (CRD). Cow's milk is
a poor source of taurine and adult cats are
generally lactose intolerant. Lactose-free milk is
perfectly safe, but still not a substitute for
meat. This contrasts with domesticated dogs, which
commonly are fed a mixture of meat and vegetable
products and have been adapted in some cases to a
vegetarian diet. Despite this, however, the
majority of brand-name cat foods are primarily
grain based, often containing large amounts of
corn or rice and supplemented with meats and
essential vitamins.
Cats are also known to munch on grass, leaves,
shrubs and houseplants. They do not eat a lot in
one sitting, but prefer to have it as a snack.
Eating vegetation in this way may aid the cat's
digestive system and can prevent hairballs. [10].
Cats can be fussy eaters. This mostly happens when
the vomeronasal, or Jacobson's, organ becomes
sensitized to a specific food, at which point the
cat will reject any food that doesn't fit the
pattern it is expecting. Additionally, cats have
been known to develop a fondness for "people food"
such as barbecued chicken, french fries, pepperoni
pizza, ice cream, tomato soup, carrot juice, and
carnitas burritos, as well as cat diet exotica
such as corn kernels and diced cantaloupe. Many
"people foods" are not good for cats; chocolate,
for example, can be fatal.
Domestic cats, especially young ones, are known
for their love of string play. Many cannot resist
a dangling piece of string, or a piece of rope
drawn randomly and enticingly across the floor.
This notorious love of string is often depicted in
cartoons and photographs, which show kittens or
cats playing with balls of yarn. This propensity
is probably related to their hunting instinct.
However, string is more often being replaced with
a red dot laser pointer. This is because, if the
string is ingested, it can be caught in the cat’s
stomach or intestines causing illness or, in
extreme cases, death. Some people discourage the
use of laser pointers for play with pets, however,
because of the risk of eye damage and the loss of
satisfaction (especially for cats) associated with
the successful capture of prey.
Because of their small size, domestic cats pose
almost no danger to humans—the only hazard is the
possibility of infection (or, rarely, rabies) from
a cat bite or scratch.
Cats can be destructive to ecosystems in which
they are not native and whose species did not have
time to adapt to their introduction. In some
cases, cats have contributed to or caused
extinctions — for example, see the case of the
Stephens Island Wren |
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