In the books he fed on anything he could - rats, cats, dogs, farm animals, birds. He was 'weak' in vampire terms for a long time, like someone with a wasting illness and Lestat pitied and scorned him for his innocence.

Seriously, someone I worked with woke up drunk last night and found a fox eating her toes. Luckily her overweight cat rescued her. She's limping quite badly now and if she stands still she starts to fall to the left because her big toe is completely gone.