Why is my cat doing this?

Factual Questions
1

So, I was making myself a hummus sandwich on pita bread with baby spinach and alfalfa sprouts, and my cats start begging… for the alfalfa sprouts. Gave them each some. Schrodinger nibbled, Conan snarfed his right up, along with some fresh baby spinach. Five minutes later, he yakked it right back up. Then he turned around and ate Schrodinger’s spinach. Within minute, yak. Came back begging for more. I gave him some spring salad mix, which he devoured (mostly assorted baby lettuces). That seems to have stayed down with no problem

Both of my cats eat fresh veggies occasionally. Neither has never had a problem before. Both cats have a marked fondness for alfalfa sprouts. Schrodinger us usually the one with a delicate tummy (if he eats something that upsets his digestive system, he craps on the living room rug instead of the litter box.)

What I’m wondering is, after having just eaten some fresh veggies and puking them up, why would Conan beg for more? I went ahead and gave it to him, thinking maybe there’s a hairball involved and he thinks that having some veggies will help him, uh, eject it. But the third round stayed down. Also, he seemed to be eating them awfully fast. I’m thinking, it’s been quite a while since the cats have had fresh veggies, and he was eating them faster than his little tummy could handle. But, again, if it made him sick, why beg for more?

2

Having just spent the last 12 months training a puppy, I can tell you that animals do not usually associate cause and effect between events that don’t immediately coincide or follow each other very closely. Cats and dogs are equally stupid, though they may present it differently :stuck_out_tongue: . Your cat or dog will not likely associate vomiting or unpleasantness with something they did more than 30 or 60 seconds ago, any more than they would understand what they did wrong if you punish them for soiling the carpet after the fact (ie. not actually catching them in the act).

3

From my experience cats don’t experience nausea as humans do. If you or I threw up some food, not only would we avoid the food we just ate, but we would likely avoid food all together for a while.

But my cat will eat, throw up the food she just ate (bowel disease) and then go back to eating what she just threw up.

You would think there would be some evolutionary advantage to the human way of avoiding food.