Why Don’t Cats Chew Their Food?
One of my cats, Nashville (aka Bug), does not
properly chew his food. I would guess, with his
dry food, he maybe chews two out of every 10 pieces
he eats. The rest of them he just swallows whole.
He doesn’t usually eat particularly fast, just
one piece at a time. I’ve had to avoid giving him
certain kinds of treats because he has choked on
them due to not chewing them. Could there be any
particular cause for him not wanting to chew food?
He does not have any dental problems that we are
aware of, and this has been going on since he was
a kitten (he’s now almost 2). Thanks!
Sabrina
Spokane, WA
Bug’s behavior is not abnormal. People still debate whether dogs are natural predators (they appear to share a common ancestor with wolves) or scavengers (dogs in the wild (wild dogs are common–they roam freely in towns and cities in developing countries) obtain most of their food by scavenging). Please pardon the double parenthesis.
Cats, however, are carnivores. Although they will scavenge if afforded the opportunity, their main source of sustenance is prey animals. They capture and kill their prey. They use their teeth to tear off pieces of meat and internal organs. The pieces are swallowed whole.
Cats’ teeth are designed for this purpose. They have few molars. Their molars, unlike ours, aren’t designed for chewing and thoroughly macerating food. It isn’t normal for them to spend much time chewing.
It generally isn’t harmful for cats to swallow food without chewing it. In fact, I know several cats who have no teeth. These cats often consume hard food and swallow it whole.
I always recommend avoiding treats or foodstuffs that cause difficulties for individual pets. But, for the most part, swallowing unchewed food is normal feline behavior.
Some people may use this fact to discourage feeding dry food or any form of commercial cat food as “unnatural”. However, I have yet to see any reputable evidence that dry cat food is bad for cats. I have seen theoretical evidence, I have seen plenty of material published on thoroughly biased advocacy websites, and I have seen anecdotal reports from forums that are not scientifically run. But I haven’t seen any solid studies that scientifically document health problems caused by commercial cat food. At least not yet.
Photo: Duchess digs in.
You have questions. 
If most cats don’t chew their food, why do pet food companies make tartar control treats for cats? Just wondering?
Who is going to pay for scientific studies about whether dry food is bad for cats? Are any feeding studies done besides those paid for by the companies who make the dry food?
You want proof that dry food is bad for cats, check out http://www.catinfo.org by Dr. Pierson or the book “Your Cat” by Dr. Hodgkins
I thought I noticed my cat inhaling her food. The explanation makes perfect sense. To me, cats always have seemed closer to their wild counterparts.
I feed my cats wet food, since I had read before something about them actually scraping the food up with their tongue rather than chewing. When I give them treats, I do hear them bite into the treat, but then just swallow.
Hi I am the mom of Terucan Trouble and Autumn Rainbow I don’t know about anyone else but my cats actually do chew their food believe me I know only thing is they will not eat crumbs ugh which means i must throw the end of their food in the garbage because their are crumbs.
I have watched them chew their food and you always hear the crunching when they are eating. They leave tons of tiny pieces which they then will refuse to eat. But if you’re cats don’t chew well that’s hard for me to believe because every cat I have had has always chewed their food and the same with family cats growing up.
I rarely chew my food. I bite the dry food piece, but don’t really chew it. My sis was the same way, and the kitty mama had before me had very little teeth in her old age but still loved dry food.
Mama used to work for a vet who told her she was silly for buying us tarter control food, because cats don’t really chew it. But he also said that the teeth foods are usually bigger, so that we will be more inclined to bite it a lil bit before just swallowing it.
That was when mama really started watching us eat, and she was surprised to see how lil we chewed. We eat dry and canned by the way.
Purrs~
Um, people, I’m a bit disappointed with the lack of critical thinking going on here. catinfo.org is a website with an agenda. It is no more reliable than Iam’s website. If you want to honest information, you need to look for sources that are unbiased.
Critical thinking indeed. How can someone say “Hey, cats are carnivores and meant to eat fresh raw meat…”. Then 3 paragraphs later say, “But hey, the over baked concoction of dubious quality meat and undigestible grains is not bad”…
If one were to be truly objective, one would acknowledge the bias of the commercial pet food “studies” financed by big commercial pet food companies, and follow the science of biology.
Cats do not have the proper enzymes to break down grains and plant matter. That is a simple biological fact. When you try to say that dry food isn’t bad, read the label and count how many grains and plant fillers are in it. None of it is getting used by your cat’s digestive system. It’s just going out the pooper.
And it’s no big secret that dry food is so over baked that they have to coat it with all the nutrients that got cooked out… then they have to coat it again with “appetizing” oils in order for the cats to even touch it.
Tell me again who needs to employ “critical thinking”.
Indeed, cats only chew the food until it’s small enough to swallow; and if it’s already small enough, they swallow it.
I do want to point out how shocked I was to read the beginning of the vet’s response. Who exactly is debating whether dogs are carnivores? Can you give me one example of why they are not? And how can a vet state that dogs “appear to share a common ancestor with wolves” when dogs ARE wolves? Genetically, they are the same animal. They are the same species – Canis lupus! Dogs are domesticated wolves, and only recently have been given a sub-species name to note that they are a separate variety of wolf – so now they are Canis lupus familiaris. Just like wolves, they are carnivores. Wild dogs in developing countries are nothing more than stray domestic dogs. They are not a separate species. If you want to give an example of an actual wild dog, that would be something like the African wild dog, Lycaon pictus, which is a separate species of canine, and just like the rest of them, a carnivore.
This is extremely shocking coming from a vet who is to be trusted on his knowledge of pets!
P.S. Two blogs down, in an entry called “Dogs May Help to Cure Human Hereditary Disorders”, the vet cites an article that says “Over the centuries selective breeding has pulled at the canine body shape to produce what is often a grotesque distortion of the underlying wolf.”
So, Dr.Barchas, do you or do you not know that dogs and wolves are the same species? How can you, in one post, quote a statement that says dogs are wolves, and in another claim that they might just have a common ancestor? How can we trust what you say?
don’t forget, parts of many of his posts are quoted. anyway, i think chewing depends on the cat. all three of mine chew, although they will also swallow the crumbs. they eat one kernal at a time, chew four or five times, swallow, pick up another kernal, until they are full. i think eating one kernal at a time might help keep them thin, because i’ve seen outside cats who eat several kernals but are overweight. it’s like if humans eat slower, you can trick the part of your brain that tells you you’re hungry into thinking you are full.
Quote by Dr. Barchas:
“Some people may use this fact to discourage feeding dry food or any form of commercial cat food as “unnatural”. However, I have yet to see any reputable evidence that dry cat food is bad for cats. I have seen theoretical evidence, I have seen plenty of material published on thoroughly biased advocacy websites, and I have seen anecdotal reports from forums that are not scientifically run. But I haven’t seen any solid studies that scientifically document health problems caused by commercial cat food. At least not yet.”
The question is where is the reputable, substantial and unbiased evidence that dry food is good for cats, beneficial and should be called “prescription” food or have ‘Science’ in it’s name. Since this is the food that is most often recommended and sold (how about that conflict of interest) by Veterinarians. We need a study not funded and supported by the pet food industry.
This is a rather sad argument/discussion (but something I’m passionate about) because when you look at the basic physiology and biology of the cat, why would anyone – let alone a vet – recommend feeding a processed grain-based dry food to a cat. Convenience? Why would you feed any living being mainly processed, compressed (often very poor quality) pellets?
Certainly you know that just because a large study hasn’t been done, doesn’t mean something isn’t true. And aren’t most studies started and/or motivated by anecdotal and theoretical evidence and/or dare I say even intuitive ideas? Please someone do a study! Will that create a change in what vets promote and sell as proper nutrition for cats?
I asked this question in your blog about raw diets: why do vets promote and sell food that isn’t backed up scientifically (as far as I know) . Can you show me one of these unbiased studies – maybe I’m wrong? And isn’t there a conflict of interest when selling these foods and calling them “prescription” when there is no “science” behind them as far as I know.
And Dr. Barchas, it’s not that any and all “commercial” food is unnatural or bad, it’s the unnatural carb and grain-based (not to mention low quality and again processed) commercial foods that can be a problem and thus “unnatural”. I feed great commercial grain-free quality canned and a commercial raw food to my cats. Commercial foods are not all the same! Commercial foods can be wonderful when they have ingredients which are natural for the species they are meant to nourish.
I feel like at some point there is going to be a huge outcry from feline owners about this issue. I think there has to be. The truth always comes out.
And another point I want to make is about how dry food began as a convenience type food and that continues to be a big part of it’s desirability. As if people can’t take the time and effort to feed a species appropriate canned diet (grain-free quality canned preferably) or even properly prepared raw (there are commercial raw foods).
Again it’s about the quality and appropriateness of commercial food.
I am so glad I found one of those sites with an agenda (Dr. Pierson’s site) when my cat was diagnosed with diabetes and had DKA. The info on catinfo.org hit me like a ton of bricks. What had I been feeding my precious, beautiful and now ill cat all those years??? Oh the anger I felt.
I am passionate about this subject after all I have gone through with my cat. I don’t mean any disrespect, but simply feel strongly about this issue. And cats are too precious to be feeding food that may eventually be harmful -evidence or no evidence. Common sense.
Thank you for reading, I am grateful to have been able to say all of this.
Best wishes and healthy purrs to all.
I don’t chew my food. Mom never thought too much of it, until I got Tartar. She then had to change my food to a really expensive one that had these enormous kibbles that forced me to chew so that some of the tartar will come off. She has since swithched me to another diet (long story) which also has larger kibbles and I don’t have so much of a problem with tartar and the new food is half the price of the old food.
So to the person who asked why some one would pay the prices for the dental formulas, it is to avoid for as long as possible the trauma of going under at the vets for a dental cleaning. If mom did not change me then I would have to have gone through a yearly cleaning where as know I could wait – probably like 5 years before I have to go through the trauma.
So a DOCTOR needs proof that dry cereal is not a good diet for an Obligate Carnivore?
http://tedeboy.tripod.com/drmichaelwfox/id88.html
Way past time that the veterinary profession got out of bed with the commercial pet food industry.
Oh, and Doctor:
Need more “Proof”?
Pick up any encyclopedia in a THIRD GRADE LIBRARY and look up “CAT” or “FELINE”.
It will state that the species is the strictest of ALL CARNIVOROUS MAMMALS.
How is this so hard to comprehend?
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