Cats are extraordinarily talented hunters.This natural behavior, displayed as soon as they have access to the outside, strongly affects their feeding patterns, with a preference for many small meals. Cats are strict carnivores with a much higher need for protein than dogs or humans.
CATS ARE SOLITARY HUNTERS
In the wild, cats can survive easily thanks to their hunting instinct. Unlike dogs, they are solitary hunters, capturing small prey that they decorticate and eat alone; as a result, they eat many times during the day and night.This activity requires maintaining optimum weight,which explains why active cats regulate their energy intake and are rarely obese. They hunt by instinct, not hunger. And since each prey covers only a small part of their needs, waiting to feel hunger before hunting might prove fatal! Domesticated cats have retained their hunting instinct and react to the presence of moving prey, even if they are in the process of eating.They also retained the habit of taking many small meals, delicately seizing their food.
CATS ARE STRICT CARNIVORES
Feline dentition (canines, carnassials) is adapted for seizing and eating prey. In the wild, cats do not have to make special choices to cover their very high protein requirement. They do not have the capacity to select foods on the basis of their protein content, which makes them more vulnerable to nutritional errors.
Cats display normal eating behavior only if they feel safe in their environment. Inappropriate arrangement of living space or lack of room may alter eating patterns regardless of the palatability of the food provided.
CLEARLY SEPARATE SPACES
The need for room is observed exclusively in cats, which have a spatial social organization. In their environment, cats must be able to feel perfectly safe in pursuing all their activities (exploring, observing, hiding, perching, playing, grooming, eating, sleeping, marking their territory, using their litter tray, etc.). Thus, owners must make certain to provide them with sufficiently distinct and well-identified areas. If these different zones are too close to each other (less than 50cm apart), cats may refuse to eat, even very palatable food.
THE NEED FOR A REFUGE
Cats also need to be able to isolate themselves to control their stress levels. In a home with built-in closets, where everything has its own place and there are few holes to hide in, cats may find themselves constantly exposed, which makes them feel very vulnerable. Faced with stress, they may develop oral soothing behavior patterns, like constant licking or bulimia.
Dietary preferences in dogs and cats are acquired through social influences and experiences after birth.
The imitation of the mother’s behavior in particular plays a key part.
THE WEIGHT OF EXPERIENCE
Animals’ lifestyle, diet and experience influence their choices. Thus, dogs in kennels and dogs in the home, like house cats and farm cats, display different dietary preferences.
Although a well-balanced regular diet tends to orient animals towards neophobia (rejection of unknown food), it is not possible to assert that an animal will continue preferring the food on which it was raised throughout its life.A recent study shows that feeding a cat the same food will make it sensitive to differences in palatability,while a highly varied diet will encourage it to eat all types of foods indiscriminately.
THE INFLUENCE OF THE MOTHER’S DIET
Before birth, fetuses are sensitive to the flavors in amniotic fluid.The composition of their mother’s milk, influenced by the mother’s diet, shapes preferences.What is most influential, however, is the weaning diet: when eating their first solid food, young animals imitate their mother’s behavior down to the slightest detail, regardless of the food.Thus, in the mother’s presence, the acceptance of new food is virtually instant.A preference for the food on which young animals have been weaned in their mother’s presence persists at least until the age of 4-5 months.