Cat will eat only fruit and vegetables

Dante the rescued tom is a cat which is thought to be the UK's only vegetarian cat - and turns his whiskers up at anything but organic fruit and vegetables. Dante refuses to touch traditional cat food of any kind in favour of "less fattening" home-grown alternatives.

Current favourites include melon, bananas, broccoli, rhubarb, asparagus, aubergine and Brussels sprouts, but he also has a taste for uncooked potatoes. The two-year-old is so insistent on getting his five-a-day that he even raids the fruit bowl if he's feeling peckish.

Experts confirmed Dante's peculiar appetite was "extremely rare". Maggie Roberts, director of veterinary services at the animal charity Cats Protection, said: "This is extremely rare - I have never before heard of a cat that will not eat meat. Cats are obligate carnivores, and cannot be vegetarian."



Dante was abandoned as a kitten and was found close to starvation in an alleyway by owner Becky Page, 21.

Becky, who grows her own organic fruit and vegetables at her home in Tasburgh near Norwich, Norfolk, said: "I tried feeding him meat, fish and everything else cats usually like, but he turned his nose up at all of it.

"But just when I was thought nothing would work, I caught him wolfing down a plate of vegetables that I was going to throw out. Since then, he won't go near anything fatty and prefers the things I grow in the garden."