Depending on the type of food ingested, pieces of food may be eaten whole, or chewed. Chewing food involves utilising the teeth, in particular the carnassial teeth (last upper premolar on top jaw and lower molars on the bottom jaw (Case, 2003), located at the back of the mouth to slice food into smaller pieces. In cats chewing involves a shearing or slicing action as the teeth are laterally flattened, thus acting like scissors. Chewing also softens food, aiding swallowing. While chewing, the cat will often tilt its head to the side on which the food is held in the mouth to help keep the food in place between the molars.

Head tilted whilst chewing

Chew grass

To chew grass, a cat usually tilts its head to one side so that the grass is positioned to the side of the mouth and is then sliced and chewed using the molar teeth.