[civilitty]

Tigers eat grass and small animals like termites just like domesticated cats do so I don't think their diet has been selected for as much as you think. They more likely became popular as pets because of what they eat.

Avoid evolutionary arguments, they're "just so" explanations that can be twisted to fit any narrative.

[pvg]

I didn't say the diets were selected, just that a domestic cat can afford to be habitually inefficient in a way most wild animals can't and that we have selectively bred cats for some of this. Yes, big predators will opportunistically eat smaller prey, it doesn't affect the claim that a domesticated cat is a poor starting point for the comparison you were making.

[thaumasiotes]

> Tigers eat grass

Tigers, and housecats, don't have the digestive system to get sustenance from grass. A cat swallowing grass is kind of like a chicken swallowing gravel; it's not food.

If tigers could eat grass as opposed to just swallowing it, they would have no reason to hunt anything; they're more than capable of driving away most things that would compete for their grass.

[drzaiusx11]

Fun fact: Chickens actually need to swallow gravel in order to digest any food since they don't have teeth. They store gravel in their gizzard and when the gizzard moves, the food is ground with any grit material inside. Once ground to a paste it can _then_ pass through the digestive tract. So definitely a component of food for chickens, unlike grass for tigers.

[thaumasiotes]

That's like saying that chewing is a component of food for humans (and everything else).

Chewing is an important way to increase the amount of nutrition you get from a fixed amount of food. It isn't itself food.

[meindnoch]

>Tigers eat grass

Lol. Yeah, they eat grass and then vomit it out. Just like my cats do. Helps them relieve themselves of furballs.