All of us saw our pets eating sprouting grass in spring or summer or in autumn while walking outside, or worse, browsing houseplants or flowers in a vase on the table.
It turned out that one of the necessary goods, which benefit is nowadays often debated, and which is widely used in the diet of our pets is grass, which can be grown at home out of special seeds.
Feeding is an important factor in cats' and dogs' life. The way of feeding first of all influences the alimentary system involving food digestion and nutrition assimilation and health and an organism as a whole. Alimentary organs diseases (stomatitis, gastritis, dyspepsia), metabolism disturbances (avitaminosis, osteodystrophy etc.) mostly result from incorrect feeding.
Incorrect feeding of growing little one adversely affects body weight, height and constitution of an animal as well. If the feeding is incorrect, our pets can grow up thin, high-legged, with a wrong back profile, baggy belly and strongly developed middle part of body. Reproduction ability of cats and dogs also much depends on nutrition. Incorrect feeding of males and females adversely affects the quantity and quality of sperm and ovules, embryonic growth and litter. Unbalanced feeding reduces fertilization ability and often is at the bottom of weak and lacking vitality litter.
Clever owner organizes feeding of domestic animals correctly, regulates the amount of food in accordance with their physiological needs. Feeding must be full (that is, should take into account the quality of nutrition), well balanced (that is, should consider the interaction of certain substances in food and in the organism) and rational (should consider correct consumption of forage sources when scheduling a diet). Both insufficient and superfluous feeding is bad for cats and dogs.
Cats and dogs are carnivorous. Yet as a result of long communication with humans their organisms have adopted to goods in their diet. In general both cats and dogs are omnivorous. They are able to eat meat, fish, milk, vegetable and grassy food. From time to time they eat grass or houseplants. In this way they get minerals and vitamins. It's well known that every cooked food lacks one of B-vitamins that are contained in much in the grass.
On the whole, vitamins play an important role in carbohydrate and fat metabolism, amino acid metabolism and take part in enzyme systems and other processes essential for good health and guarantee normal vital functions in cats and dogs. Shortage or absence of vitamins leads to avitaminoses - non-contagious diseases. In presence of B-avitaminosis results in hair shedding, vomit, bloody flux, muscle weakness. Animals lose appetite, show indigestion, muscle weakness and coordination disturbance; and finally there comes paralysis and convulsions. The deficiency of B-group vitamins causes pathologies in central nervous system in cats and dogs, endocrine organs and skin. This develops as skin diseases: dermatitis, depigmentation and hair shedding - as damage of alimentation tract, severe form of diarrhea (some times as bloody flux), convulsions, and growth slowing in the young. Since the animal has an increased demand in vitamin B, its' owners should constantly provide its sufficiency. It's easy to cope with this problem by adding some fresh grass in the food. If the animal shows some signs of the disease, one should simply double the dose.
If one to consider that grassy food also contains different other vitamins, carbohydrates, minerals (phosphor, potassium, magnesium, iron, cobalt, zinc, manganese and so on), it becomes clear that grassy food is essential for good health and provides normal vital functions in cats and dogs.
Unfortunately during winter when all plants are beneath snow and our domestic animals are unable to regulate the vitamin metabolism by themselves, severe forms of avitaminosis appear.
Diet scheduling and feeding organizing for cats and dogs plays an important role, since metabolism, and hence, organism functioning depends on the food it assimilates.
It is important to bring into accordance diet and necessities of cats and dogs for energy, proteins, carbohydrates, fats, minerals and vitamins. One should schedule the diet out of goods appropriate for feeding the animals agreed with their nature and taste. Vegetable food should be 60-70% in their proportion to daily diet of cats and dogs. It's also important to give different kinds of herbs, which one may add in to a meat soup or other meals, or give them in the usual manner.
In summer grass eating, though it's not obligatory, will not cause harm to your cat. In winter and spring the danger of avitaminosis enlarges and it's necessary to buy a packet of special seeds and plant grass at home. This will help prevent different diseases and indispositions of your domestic animals and the utilization of one's own crops will help get the grass free from any chemistry and will give an opportunity to avoid poisoning and provide a comfortable source of vitamins for cats living in town, especially those that are needed to be train not to eat houseplants. But this domestic pasture is particularly important to establish for animals that are kept in house conditions solely all year round and don't have an opportunity to walk on natural "pastures".
Apart from this, cats suffering indigestion can eat great amounts of grass and belch it then; that is, they use grass as natural irritant with the help of which they evoke an emetic reaction and clear the stomach of indigestive elements by belching. For cats it is natural and sometimes important.
How to prepare a pasture at home? One may dig out a piece of turf and place it in a flowerpot. However often the mixture of herbs occurs to be inappropriate for feeding. It is of cause possible to bring a cut grass but it fades very quickly and a cat sets it aside. It is much better to buy at a farm a special mixture of seeds for pets, which is ecological, and use it according to simple instructions, as for example the author does. I put seeds on small plates covered with gauze, add some water and put the plates in a light, warm place. As grass grows till certain height cats become to eat it. New portions are always ready. I conduct sowing every 10 days and cats are always supplied with natural vitamins all year round.
Translated by Tatiana Karpova (Moscow)
(MSU, Biology faculture, Dep. zoology and ecology).