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I am talking to a friend whose vet recommended dry food only and I am trying to explain how they chew differently from us and are unable to crunch up the cat food (dry) in the way that we can chew up our food. It is not helpful for their teeth, not better nutrients.
Some carnivores, called obligate carnivores, depend only on meat for survival. Their bodies cannot digest plants properly. Plants do not provide enough nutrients for obligate carnivores. All cats, from small house cats to huge tigers, are obligate carnivores.
The cat’s teeth are adapted to three functions: stabbing (canines), anchoring (canines), and cutting (molars). Cats have no flat-crowned crushing teeth and therefore cannot chew their food; instead, they cut it up. Except for the canines and molars, the cat’s teeth are more or less nonfunctional; most of the cheek teeth do not even meet when the mouth is closed. The dental formula in all cats, for either side of both upper and lower jaws, is incisors 3/3, canines 1/1, premolars 3/2, and molars 1/1.
Like all members of the Felidae family …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…. The cat's tongue has sharp spines, or papillae, useful for retaining and ripping flesh from a carcass. These papillae are small backward-facing hooks that contain keratin and assist in their grooming.
Wish they could donate one of these (from this museum http://www.museumofosteology.org/ )
to every vet saying these animals should be eating cereal as a strict diet -- they should honestly know better:
Quote:
Carnivore skulls are heavy with strong jaw attachments. The articulation of the lower jaw permits only open and shut movements (not side to side). Carnivores teeth are always rooted. Most carnivores have six incisors in the top jaw and six incisors in the bottom….
Last edited by Pamina333; 02-09-2013 at 04:32 PM..
They use their teeth like nut crackers - is the way I describe it.
You're right, they can only shatter it, due to the shape of their teeth, and their jaws not even being able to move sideays -- only up & down. So most times, they just swallow it whole.
I couldn't imagine trying to swallow a Cap'n Crunch or a Frito Lay corn chip whole, or (probably even worse), trying to swallow it shattered]
Us humans know how hard it is just to swallow a pill, such as an antibiotic horsepill. And at least they're SMOOTH-coated!
You're right, they can only shatter it, due to the shape of their teeth, and their jaws not even being able to move sideays -- only up & down. So most times, they just swallow it whole.
I couldn't imagine trying to swallow a Cap'n Crunch or a Frito Lay corn chip whole, or (probably even worse), trying to swallow it shattered]
Us humans know how hard it is just to swallow a pill, such as an antibiotic horsepill. And at least they're SMOOTH-coated!
Please. For god's sake they eat MICE, rats, birds, fish, snakes, and who knows what else in the wild. They can certainly CERTAINLY handle a Cap'n Crunch. Give me a break please.
Please. For god's sake they eat MICE, rats, birds, fish, snakes, and who knows what else in the wild. They can certainly CERTAINLY handle a Cap'n Crunch. Give me a break please.
20yrsinBranson
Those are foods they are designed by nature to eat. They do not have the proper teeth to eat little hard squares of grain.
Here is a video of my cats enjoying some cornish hen wings. Observe how the jaw goes up and down, not side to side.
Click on picture to play video, it's in photobucket
<edit> it seems videos are not working in the "new improved" photobucket. I will try reloading it. Someone please tell me if you can view this video, as I cannot view ANY of my videos on the "new improved" photobucket.
Last edited by catsmom21; 02-09-2013 at 10:05 PM..
So Mother Nature's a liar, and the PFI in all their honest wisdom, is correct. Perhaps you should be the one to inform National Geographic that they've been just making stuff up all these years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 20yrsinBranson
Please. For god's sake they eat MICE, rats, birds, fish, snakes, and who knows what else in the wild. They can certainly CERTAINLY handle a Cap'n Crunch. Give me a break please.
I know that when KK was eating dry food, if he brought it back up, it came in whole pieces.
Thanks. That's too bad. I wonder what else isn't working any more since the "new improved" photobucket. All my raw transition videos are in there. Infuriating.
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They do not have the proper teeth to eat little hard squares of grain.
