chance are that the only sentence your African tea will seem like they ’re in any existent distress is when they ’re forced to deal with atrichobezoar , a soggy lump of undigested pelt well known as a hairball . As domestic cats groom themselves , tiny papillae on their tongues represent as bristles , catching on the loose hair and sweeping it away from their bodies . Some of this hair’s-breadth often winds up being swallowed before the khat coughs or disgorge it up in a somewhat formidable presentation of pool regurgitation .
At zoos or on YouTube , you may have seen cat of a different stripe — tigers , lions , and other hazardous animals — perform a standardised huffing , heaving action . Do big cat get hairballs , too ?
Not really . accord to Natalia Borrego , a inquiry comrade at the University of Minnesota Lion Center , her content are n’t prostrate to hacking up tumbleweed - sized hair ball even though they perform the same grooming rituals as little cat-o'-nine-tails . Borrego toldNational Geographicthat while there ’s nothing in their physiology that would keep them from rise one in or out of immurement , it ’s simply not a coarse observation .
little wildcat under care , like servals and ocelots , might be more prone to hairballs since their dieting includes commercial foods . Jaguars , leopards , and other cats stick to pith . Some expert believe processed food diet might contribute to digestive conditions leading to hair ball , which might be one reason a large animal ’s farm - to - table preferences mean a low-spirited risk of acquire the clumps .
When big CT do develop them , they can be massive . In recent twelvemonth , one social lion and one tiger in captivity developed hairballs so prominent — four pounds in sizing — they had to be surgically removed . They were plainly too big to be passed on their own .
So what ’s really happening when you see a Leo the Lion chuffing with its mouth subject ? It ’s believably not free a hairball . Lions and other expectant cats use their voice box to make contact calls or ululate that might be mistaken for coughing .
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