My cat prefers vegetables to cat food. I'm worried about him!

[Sunnsoo]

Whenever I'm cooking, my cat loves watching, and is right under my feet when I drop something to eat it up. I'm vegetarian, so never cook meat. After dinner, he always snacks on my leftovers too. He only does this with vegetables, never anything else, like rice.

He has a constant bowl of cat food, so he isn't doing it out of hunger.

Should I discourage him from doing this? He seems to like it!

[clarrrp]

my cat is obsessed with broccoli and courgette and goes off her rocker for olives.

[RubbishMantra]

Cats in the wild get their veggies when they eat the stomach contents of their prey.

Unless you use a lot of soy sauce, yeast extract, onions, garlic, I wouldn't worry too much. I think tomatoes are not good for them either, but may be wrong.

Has he got access to grass? Mine love chowing down on the stuff. Vegemite has to be hidden from MCat at all times,

[cozietoesie]

I take it he's still eating his meat though?

[JennyBunn]

We had a cat who was obsessed by cucumber. My mum would do the weekly food shop, leave it in the bags on the kitchen floor whilst she had a drink prior to putting it away. We'd hear the bags rustling and find the cat dragging out the cucumber. She'd ignore the meat.

[cozietoesie]

Well that's just plain weird!

[TimeIhadaNameChange]

One of my nan's cats loved it when she made salmon and cucumber sandwhiches - she would nick the cucumber and leave the salmon! Very odd!!!!!

[RiverTam]

As long as he has meat in his diet I think it's fine.

[cozietoesie]

They have to eat meat, Yes - as to the rest? Some cats have very weird tastes.

(Cucumber is among them, I reckon. )

[MardAsSnails]

My dogs go bonkers for baby spinach. Weirdos.

[cozietoesie]

In my book, anyone who goes bonkers over baby spinach is a weirdo.

(Not my favourite vegetable, I'm afraid.)

[NeedACleverNN]

Odd but cute

My cat when I lived with my parents loved ham.
Completely normal...except when my dad was doing his pack up, if he didn't drop ham on the floor at regular intervals he got swiped around the ankle

[Sunnsoo]

He does eat his own food too, but is much more excited with veg! His favorites seem to be sweet corn and chick peas!

[cozietoesie]

If he's a weird eater, maybe keep a weather eye on what he can get hold of in case it doesn't suit? There's a little about it - and a further link - in this article.

I'm sure you do anyway, it's just that he sounds a little........extreme.

[RubbishMantra]

Well you know most cats like fish? Well I'm a bit of a Pike fisher-woman, and one of the baits they love is Smelts, they smell just like cucumber. Put me off cucumber though, and I used to love mackerel, but the associations with using it as bait kind of put me off.

[hollinhurst84]

Mine goes nuts for pork scratchings. Runs off with them, rolls all over them and eats them while chirruping
He prefers them to dreamies

[stealthsquiggle]

One of our cats used to go nuts for tinned green beans - he would sit up and beg for them

They are omnivores, though - they will eat grass naturally, so as long as he is eating protein as well I can't see that it will do him any harm - better than dairy, anyway!