My understanding is that if the food is easily swallow sized, they may unintentionally crunch as they maneuver the food around their mouths to position it to be swallowed, but not out of necessity. If the food is larger, sure they’ll break it up so they can swallow it easier. But by nature, cats aren’t animals that need to chew food for grinding and digestive purposes (like animals that have flat/grinding molars.) As long as they can swallow it, they don’t need to chew.
I haven’t experienced this, but from what I hear if you start with cooler water in the bottom and have the heat set too high, you can overheat the pot and the grounds before the water comes to temp to actually brew.
The few times I’ve used my moka pot I’ve preheated the water in a kettle so it gets to brewing faster (based on coffee people recommendations online.)