Why we shouldn’t feed cats a vegan diet?
Cats are strict carnivores: What it means? Which are the implications?
Let’s think about the ancestral cats: They used to hunt small preys as rodents, rabbits , birds and reptiles (1). Because of that, they became specialists in eating meat, with unique characteristics still preserved in our domestic cats.
Before talking about these special characteristics, let me clarify something that will help you to understand better the article.
Hunting small preys means eating basically proteins and fats, but no carbohydrates or sugars (glucose). It is known that to obtain energy to live we need to use or metabolise carbohydrates-sugars; how cats can survive without carbohydrates? Now is where the unique characteristics take place, and I’m going to try to make it simple, even that it is not.
The first unique characteristic of a cat starts before even eating the food: the meal’s temperature
is really important for a cat; they will generally reject foods at temperatures colder than 15° C or greater than 50° C (2). It make sense if you think about the body temperature of the ancestral cat’s prey and for this reason cats dislike carrion, although it is not the only reason.
They also dislike carrion
because of the dead tissue’s flavour (monophosphate nucleotides) and will avoid it. It drives us to another unique peculiarity of our flurry friends: flavour.
Food preferences are strongly correlated with the amount of protein
in the diet, particularly animal protein, the most abundant taste receptors are those for amino acids, particularly those amino acids that are described as sweet (3). Liver, blood, and red meat are highly palatable (tasty) to cats. Besides protein, fat
has been shown to have positive palatability in cat. As you know, cats are also special with the food texture, again this is the ancestral cat’s fault. They tent to select moist foods similar in water content to animal tissue; although cats that have been fed exclusively dry foods for an extended period of time can develop a strong preference for only dry foods.
Amazing uh? It is only the beginning… they are physically “designed” to be carnivores.
Let’s carry on with their dentition. It is more specialised for shearing flesh rather than grinding it. They also lack of salivary amylase, the enzyme that is involved in early carbohydrate digestion (4); Cats have no taste receptors for sucrose/ sugar
(1, 3) but remember, they only use fat and proteins. So, if cats don’t have carbohydrates or sugars requirements, where they take the energy from? As long as their diet contains fats and gluconeogenic proteins (those proteines that can be converted to sugars), they are able to form glucose and energy sufficient for maintenance, and because of this, they have really high protein requirements: an adult cat needs 2 to 3 times more protein than an adult dog (4). Cats use protein to obtain energy, if they don’t eat, they still need the protein to live, so they start using their protein (muscle) reserves and they can become protein malnourished really quickly (5, 6).
Take a breath, it was quite intense, but as you know cats are not simple at all. Let me again clarify things to help you enjoy this following dense part, I’ll make it simple, but it might be not completely accurate.
When eating proteins, our body breaks it into amino acids and nitrogen. Amino acids will be used to feed the body, nitrogen is just the price that we need to pay to use the proteins, it is only a waste. To take the nitrogen out of the body, we pack it in urea form that will go in the urine.
These amino acids
(AA) from the diet can be essential
(the ones that cats cannot synthesise themselves) or non essential.
Cats cannot synthesise Arginine, but neither do dogs; so, why is it a unique characteristic for cats? Because Arginine is the AA that helps the body to pack the nitrogen. If they eat lots of proteins, but no Arginine, the body will have too much nitrogen: a single meal without arginine can result a life-threatening events in the cat.
I could be here all day writing about carnivores unique requirements, but I now you probably have plans with your cat, so we are nearly done, I promise.
Why we shouldn’t feed cats using dog food? Or worst, a vegan diet?
If you been paying attention, now you know some reasons to don’t do this, but let me tell you a couple more.
Cats are not able to produce taurine
themselves, they must obtain it from the diet. If they don’t have enough taurine they can have heart problems and retinal (eyes) degeneration. (7, 8).
As a strict carnivores cats don’t have the ability to synthesise vitamin A, because this is normally found in animal tissue it would be redundant to produce it, they have lost the enzyme that forms vitamin a from the carotenoids (15,15’-dioxygenase) (9).
Don’t worry, it is a lot of information, but if you buy just regular “cat food” all the requirements are covered. Anyway, in futures post will discuss about percentages of protein and how to choose a good diet, in the meantime you can read how to feed a cat, another special characteristic of carnivores.
Do you need professional help with your cat? Check our website.
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References:
1. Li X, Li W, Wang H et al: Cats lack a sweet taste receptor, J Nutr 136:1932S, 2006.
2. Zaghini G, Biagi G: Nutritional peculiarities and diet palatability in the cat, Vet Res Commun 29(Suppl 2):39, 2005.
3. Bradshaw JW, Goodwin D, Legrand-Defretin V et al: Food selection by the domestic cat, an obligate carnivore, Comp Biochem Physiol A Physiol 114:205, 1996.
4. National Research Council: Nutrient requirements of dogs and cats, Washington, DC, 2006, National Academies Press.
5. Rogers Q, Morris J, Freedland R: Lack of hepatic enzymatic adap- tation to low and high levels of dietary protein in the adult cat, Enzyme 22:348, 1977.
6. Zoran DL: The carnivore connection to nutrition in cats, J Am Vet Med Assoc 221:1559, 2002.
7. Armstrong P, Gross K, Becvarova I et al: In Hand M, Thatcher C, Remillard R et al, editors: Small animal clinical nutrition, ed 5, Topeka, Kan, 2010, Mark Morris Institute, p 361.
8. Novotny MJ HP, Flannigan G: Echocardiographic evidence for myocardial failure induced by taurine deficiency in domestic cats, Can J Vet Res 58:6, 1994.
9. Morris JG: Idiosyncratic nutrient requirements of cats appear to be diet-induced evolutionary adaptations, Nutr Res Rev 15:153, 2002.
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Today I want to introduce this wide topic, I will cover the main causes of a cat biting you and how can we prevent it from happening. There are many causes of a cat biting you, you need to ask yourself why? (see summary pictures below) 🔸Attention seeking 🔸Inappropriate or predatory play 🔸Associated with petting 🔸Disease or pain related 🔸Redirected aggression 🔸Anxiety/fear or phobia related
Hello Catlover! You wanted a post about homemade diets (including BARF, raw, cooked...) and I tried to avoid it, because I don't have experience with this kind of food; but I'm here to help you understand cats and their needs, so there we go.
BARF means Biologically Appropriate Raw Food, and it was proposed in 1993 by the veterinarian Ian Billinghurst . But I would like to include as alternative diets, those homemade (including cooked and raw meat sources). 🥩In the lasts years, the interest for this kind of diets is growing because of some potential benefits to our furry friends, such as healthier coats and skin, cleaner teeth, reduced faecal odour, etc. and the aim to move to a more natural diet. Although changes may be anecdotally reported by pet owners and veterinarians, potential health benefits have not undergone scientific evaluation (1). Hopefully, as it is a growing practice, further studies will come soon.
😈But not everything is good from BARF diets or Homemade diets, there are many potential risks: 🦴Nutritional concerns: Poor balanced commercial diets of raw food (2, 3). ⚠️Safety risks: risks of contamination with pathogens, such as salmonella, and many others (1, 4, 5). Shedding of these organisms by pets is a risk factor for infection of humans (zoonosis), especially those with immunity problems, elderly people or children and pregnant women (1) 🛑Other risks from diets containing bones: fractured teeth and gastrointestinal injury.
✳️Cooking destroys potential pathogens, but also some nutrients from the food! Alternative diets with cooked meat will ALWAYS need supplementation.
✅If you decide to feed your pet an alternative diet based on meat and bones, do it right: - Always consult with a nutritionist or veterinary nutritionist for a personalised balanced diet according to your cat's lifestyle, life stage and requirements. - Use products intended for human consumption; if possible, use food from your region (Km0 or proximity food). - Hygiene is extremely important when feeding raw food! Wash your hands, surfaces, knives, food bowls, etc. before and after touching the food. - Freezing food can kill some parasites, but it doesn't kill bacteria (it only stops the growing): cooking the food kills pathogens, but it also destroys nutrients and vitamins! If you cook it, you will always need supplementation! ❗️Although AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) doesn't recommend it ; and recently in the UK, cats with TUBERCULOSIS from eating raw food have been reported! I’d love❤️ your feedback about this polemic post! What do you feed your cats? Let me know in comments! Do you know anyone feeding their cats “alternative diets”? share the post! Please leave all the questions in comments, and everybody can see the answer ☺️ References: 1.Freeman LM, et al. Current knowledge about the risks and benefits of raw meat–based diets for dogs and cats J Am Vet Med Assoc 2013, Vol. 243, 11: 1549-1558 2. Sarah A. Wilson et al. (2019) Evaluation of the nutritional adequacy of recipes for home-prepared maintenance diets for cats. J Am Vet Med Assoc 254:10, 1172-1179. Online publication date: 30-Apr-2019. 3. Freeman LM, Michel KE. Evaluation of raw food diets (Erratum published in J Am Vet Med Assoc 2001; 218:1716). J Am Vet Med Assoc 2001; 218: 705–709. 4. KuKanich KS. Update on Salmonella spp contamination of pet food, treats, and nutritional products and safe feeding recommendations. J Am Vet Med Assoc 2011; 238: 1430–1434. 5. LeJeune JT, Hancock DD. Public health concerns associated with feeding raw meat diets to dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc 2001; 219: 1222–1225. If you want to know more about feline nutrition you can have a look at this posts: - What's best wet or dry food? - How to choose the right wet food for your cat? or the right diet for strict carnivores - How much should I feed my cat? - How do you feed your cat ? - Senior cat diet or kittens and food - Choosing a cat feeder
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I'd like to approach to toxoplasmosis disease because this one can affect cats and humans. Unfortunately, I've found myself many times in the situation where one of my clients wants to get pregnant or is already pregnant and their doctor says: "Get rid of your cat". Do you know that you can acquire toxoplasmosis without having a cat? and even being vegan? Before reaching this point, I need to make you understand how this toxoplasmosis works (have a look to the picture above). Toxoplasmosis is a disease caused by Toxoplasma gondii, an intracellular obligate parasite (coccidian) (1). The cat is the definitive host, it means, that even that this parasite can survive inside other animals (included human being), it only will be able to reproduce (sexually) inside the cat. That's why when we think about toxoplasmosis, we relate this disease with cats. But how can a cat acquire Toxoplasmosis ? There are two different ways: (To understand better, check the image) - Eating contaminated meat with Toxoplasma cysts (mice, rats, rabbits…) - Eating directly the "eggs" (oocysts) when grooming another infected cat or eating from contaminated surfaces. (When a cat is already infected, will get reinfected grooming itself). How is toxoplasmosis in cats? In healthy adult cats the clinical signs of infection are uncommon (2). Cats that develop clinical disease often have an episodic course with vague signs (3), that will depend on the body system affected. This disease can be riskier (even fatal) in a kitten or in a combination of other diseases such as FeLV, FIV, FIP… When we treat infected cats, our main goal is to reduce the shedding of oocysts and to control the clinical signs. But unfortunately, there is no drug to clear all the tissue cysts, so cats can remain infected for life (that is not the same as infectious). Now that we understand the disease, let's go to the main point: How can a human become infected with toxoplasmosis? Let's check again the image of the "life cycle of Toxoplasma gondii". A human can be infected eating raw meat, raw vegetables, drinking water or from a cat … And the only "risky" moment is the first time that you have contact with Toxoplasma, after that, your body has immunity and you don't need to worry about pregnancy or the disease. Raw meat : the animal ate oocysts, and formed cysts in the muscle. If we eat these cysts (without cooking or freezing), we will become infected with toxoplasmosis. Raw vegetables: if we don't appropriately clean the vegetables before eating them, we can become infected. Drinking tap water : if we drink untreated tap water and this was contaminated, we can become infected with toxoplasmosis. From a cat , the important point. Let's come back to the life cycle of toxoplasma gondii. The "infective" phase of a cat is only the time that they are shedding the oocysts. This is a period of time up to 14 days. Okay, still 2 weeks of risk. But what needs to happen for you to become infected with toxoplasmosis? You need to ingest these oocysts from the faeces. But not only this, fresh stools with oocysts are not immediately infectious! Before becoming infectious, they must go through a process called sporulation, which takes one to five days. But this is not all, you need to be "virgin" of this infection, if you ever in the past had contact with toxoplasma gondii, you can't be infected again! In short: if you pick the stools after deposition and clean the litter box once daily and you use gloves and wash your hands after doing this, the risk of contracting toxoplasmosis from your cat is nearly 0. Conclusions of toxoplasmosis and pregnancy: If you keep your house and litter boxes clean and you have good hygiene, you don't need to get rid of your cat when you want to get pregnant. Do you need professional help with your cat? Check our website . You can join our Instagram community to learn even more about cats :) References: 1. Dubey JP, Lappin MR: Toxoplasmosis and neosporosis. In Greene CE, editor: Infectious diseases of the dog and cat, ed 3, St Louis, 2006, Saunders Elsevier, p 754. 2. Lappin MR: Update on the diagnosis and management of Toxo- plasma gondii infection in cats, Top Companion Anim Med 25:136, 2010. 3. Lappin MR: Toxoplasmosis. In Bonagura JD, Twedt DC, editors: Kirk's current veterinary therapy XIV, St Louis, 2009, Saunders Else- vier, p 1254.
You may think, a post just about cat feeders? Really? You put a bowl down, and that’s it. But no, it’s not as simple. Image for post To understand better this post it will be helpful for you to check our post about how to feed a cat. In short, cats need to express hunting behaviour, and some of them don’t have access to small preys. We can use toys to cover this need, or we can use the feeding action. Feeding can be an activity per se, using time and effort to eat which can prevent obesity and help to improve the environment and give mental stimulation : as they spend more time eating, they don’t have as much time to get bored during the day. There are lots of different feeders, but how to choose the right feeder? As you know, cats are really special, maybe sometimes… too much? I’ll give you a list of different types of feeders and their pros |and| cons. But as you know, the one who will decide will be your furry friend. Traditional bowl : cheap. || Some cats may eat too fast and vomit after; no mental stimulation. Puzzle feeder : with these feeders, cats need to do something to get the food. Pros and cons: mental stimulation; difficult to eat too fast || Some cats can find it too difficult or tiring; affordable, but not so cheap as the traditional bowl. Feeding ball/toy: same pros as puzzle feeder (PF) || same cons as PF + can be too noisy to use; some of them break easily. Automatic feeder : easy to divide the food in different meals and prevent eating too much in one go, and some automatic feeders can give each cat its own portion using the microchip number; a good option if cats are alone many hours during the day || poor mental stimulation; expensive. Whiskers Friendly bowl: It is a shallow flat dish. Pros and cons like the traditional bowl, but whiskers friendly. Another cheap “homemade” option that gives lots of mental stimulation is to hide food around the house. The worst of it is that some cats won’t try to find food around the house, but like anything, training can help. Location is another important point; feeding stations should be placed away from litter boxes, ideally separated from water bowls too, in a quiet accessible place. And in a multicat household , we should follow the rule number of cats (n) +1, to know how many feeders or feeding stations we need. Comment here about more homemade cat feeders, or show us your own feeder! Do you need professional help with your cat? Check our website . You can join our instagram community to learn even more about cats :)