Are Klingons obligate carnivores?

Question

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "A Matter of Honor" Commander Riker participates in a Federation-Klingon officer exchange program. The evening before his transfer he gorges himself on Klingon delicacies, presumably to prepare his digestive tract for what's to come. Everything he eats--- heart of targ, pippius claw, gagh, etc. seems to have come from the living flesh of some animal. Onboard the Klingon vessel Pagh no one seems to eat anything but meat.

All this suggests the question: Are Klingons obligate carnivores? That is, do they require nutrients found only in animal flesh and therefore must eat meat to survive?

Answer 1

I have come to the conclusion that Klingons are not obligate carnivores. I reached this conclusion by first observing that Klingons and humans are in fact the same species. From the Wikipedia article on species:

In the study of sexually reproducing organisms, where genetic material is shared through the process of reproduction, the ability of two organisms to interbreed and produce fertile offspring of both sexes is generally accepted as a simple indicator that the organisms share enough genes to be considered members of the same species. Thus a "species" is a group of interbreeding organisms.

In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Children of Time" we see the product of several generations of human-Klingon interbreeding with hybrids of both sexes present. According to the definition above, Klingons and humans despite morphological differences are "a group of interbreeding organisms" and thus are a single species.

Since humans aren't obligate carnivores, then neither are Klingons. If some Klingons have dietary preferences or restrictions due to excessive inbreeding or environmental pressures, then the traits are simple variations within the species rather than innate traits.

Answer 2

It's difficult to say, they do eat a lot of meat (at least the warrior class does), though this is not definitive.

On this site I found reference to the fact that Klingons cannot absorb nutrients as easily as humans can, which means more live food (though not necessarily meat) in their diets rather than preserved foods.

This would explain a strong preference for (live) meat as opposed to non-meat foods or preserved meat, but probably not obligate carnivores.

Answer 3

If you're interested in things that only appeared in novels, A Burning House describes a popular Vulcan restaurant in First City on Qo'nos. (The Vulcans, as you probably know, are vegetarians). According to the Memory Beta page, it "catered largely to Vulcanoids in the Klingon Empire's capital city, but also had a share of Klingon customers".

This doesn't really answer whether Klingons can survive with no meat, but it does show that they can eat meals that aren't meat, and at least some of them enjoy it.