Tag Archives: feline research

Why does my cat eat plants? Does it help with hairballs?

A cat eating grass
Hairball Awareness Day is celebrated on the last Friday in April. This year it falls on April 26th. Like many cat owners, I find hairballs one of the more annoying facts of cat ownership. I hate stepping on those cold, slimy, cigar-shaped wads of hair strategically deposited on the bedroom rug in the pathway to bathroom. Even with the light on, the hairballs are always perfectly camouflaged by the pattern in the rug. I am not the only one who thinks hairballs are important. Since 2020, when using the PubMed search engine I found seven scientific publications on hairballs; six studied domestic cats and one reported on hairballs in snow leopards. This new information on feline hairballs will be the focus of this blogpost.