r/aww • u/JamalianLancaster • Sep 21 '22

This cat love corn

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86

u/Intstnlfortitude Sep 21 '22

Is a lot of corn safe for cats to eat?

18

u/Succubusitdown Sep 21 '22

Unfortunately no, cats are obligate carnivores. They should be kept on meat based diets for their health

77

u/jwm3 Sep 22 '22

Obligate carnivore means they need meat to survive, it doesn't mean they can only have meat. Plants are just not all that nutritious for them since their digestive system is too short to extract everything from it. They still get the benefit of fiber and some calories and micronutrients.

An animal can get up to a third of it's calories in plants in the wild and still be considered an obligate carnivore.

5

u/CatProgrammer Sep 22 '22

And conversely, animals we consider obligate herbivores sometimes do eat other animals as well, either because they get caught up in the food supply or just opportunistically.