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Cats don't "chew" but they do chop their kibble with their teeth. Usually you can hear the crunching. One time I did notice Mickey just swallowing it, I don't know if he was extra hungry? I thought it might come right back up but it didn't.
I give Carly a high grade, non-grain dry kibble 2-3 times a day as a snack. I mean, I give her only 3-5 bits at a time. I would never put out a whole bunch in a dish. . . She somehow crunches each tiny piece; I can hear it! Each piece is about the size of a small pea, so we're talkin' small, here.
So yes, it might not be a chewing action as some other animals are able to do, but she doesn't swallow them whole. Even if she did, it wouldn't hurt her.
She loves her little kibble treats and I don't think I would ever stop giving them to her. Of course her main food is wet cat food which is almost all meat.
I've always heard most cats crunch crunch crunch. This one only does one crunch about every 3rd or 4th bit. I do think the Iams is pretty thick and solid. Maybe its too hard? He is a young cat, his teeth are fine.
He has access to Blue Wilderness and Taste of the Wild but prefers the the IAMS I buy for the ferals. After these bags of the high end stuff I'm probably not going to replace. I can't get him interested. Same with the EVO canned. I put some out for him, he licks it for awhile, then later I put it out for the ferals. The ferals go straight to the high end stuff wet or dry if I put some out - they aren't stupid! One will actually nervously creep into the room for the Blue Wilderness if I leave the door open. She makes really odd almost but not quite gulpy noises when she eats. Not sure if something is wrong or that's just her.
So, my cat is a little odd in his swallow tongue it up and swallow whole.
One reason that cats like dry food so much is because the pet food companies do not play fair when manufacturing this sub-optimal food source. They coat the kibble with extremely enticing animal digest sprays which are very pleasing to a cat - making a poor quality diet very desirable to the target animal.
In addition to the aforementioned coating of dry food with animal digests, another issue is one of a crunchy texture which is very different from canned food. Cats are very resistant to such a drastic change in the texture of their food.
"[A]nimal digest"? That sounds like Reader's Digest for animals. What is it?
Basically it's animal tissue treated with chemicals and other processes to make it very concentrated. A small amount will make the food taste like 'chicken' or 'beef', even if a very small amount of real chicken or beef is involved. So the pet food can be made of mostly grain and other ingredients that cats wouldn't typically eat, but it'll still taste like a meat based product.
As an aside, JJ once choked on one of those Greenie treats- he tried to swallow it whole and it got lodged in his throat. He can't eat any hard food, period...half of his face in paralyzed, and he can't move his tongue well in that direction. Any large piece of food is dangerous for him.
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