Many people tend to think that dogs and cats are specifically looking for and eating medicinal plants and thus “heal”. Another common opinion: with the help of grass, animals make up for the lack of certain vitamins.
In fact, everything is much simpler – the grass is needed in order to induce the act of vomiting.
This is why dogs and cats need to cleanse their stomachs this way:
- In the natural environment, predators eat caught prey, without ceremony – they swallow large pieces together with bones, wool, feathers, pebbles, and earth. Anything that cannot pass into the intestines and be digested remains in the stomach.
- Dogs, and especially cats, when licking themselves, swallow hair, which rolls into lumps and also remains in the stomach.
- In case of poisoning with poor quality or stale food.
Therefore, animals find harder grass (sedge, cereals), and swallow it without chewing, which provokes the act of vomiting. This is a perfectly normal instinctive action.
At the same time, a small part of the grass remains in the stomach, passing further along the digestive tract, stimulating peristalsis and cleansing the intestines from the same undigested food and hairballs.
If it is winter outside, or your pet (especially cats) does not go outside, it is recommended to buy special weed for him. And someone even arranges a special “cat garden” of several types of plants.
