Comments on: 7 reasons why your cat cannot be vegetarian

By: G

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:44:00 +0000

Here are some websites with information about converting your cats to becoming vegan.. It is not easy to make personal decisions about ones own eating habits as well as our pets. Getting as much information as possible is needed to make the best decision possible. This decision can not be based on someones opinion, but on facts. I have spoken to people who have healthy vegan cats. We need not to make some of the comments as are above to eachother, but respect the fact that someone may not actually want to feed their animal what is really in the cat food. I am not saying any of this in a mean way but in an informative way. If it can be done safely and the animal will be healthy well then there is no harm. Only good from a vegan point of view.

http://www.satyamag.com/jan04/difelici.html
http://www.satyamag.com/jan04/gillen.html

By: nicola

nicola — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:40:11 +0000

David,
Your really trying to tell me that I ought to keep my cat in the house holed up & to never let him out to do what comes naturally to him??! Is that cruel? Or am I being totally stupid here?
Good god then if this is the case what of all the wild animals “slaughtering” their prey???! Perhaps crocodiles should not eat zzebra, or lions too? What of these. Indeed many wild animals in this country catch & eat rabbits dont they?? Foxes, wheasels, etc etc. We had a feral Cat hav her kittens in our barn. She brought them rabbits, birds, etc to eat. Should I have told her that was wrong? Was she doing something totally unnatural to her? well?
Nicola

By: David Olivier

David Olivier — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:45:32 +0000

Sylvestre - the cat I rescued on the street eight years ago - will be surprised to know that he is a carnivore (an “obligate” one at that), since during those eight years he has not eaten any meat at all, nor any other animal products. And no, I don’t let him go out to slaughter birds and mice; natural or not, I don’t see how inflicting suffering and death on a sentient being can be a good thing.

He is in good health - despite being FIV+ for at least those eight years. And so are my three other cats. All cats at my home have been vegetarian since 1989; for many years with homemade recipes with the addition of the Veggiecat supplement, and then in the last three years with vegan kibble made by a European firm (Amì, in Italy; there is also Benevo, in the UK).

Yes, there are synthetic vitamins in what I give them, but then so what? There is also a lot of synthetic methionine (an amino acid) in the food given to the animals raised for meat; actually my cats have probably eaten less synthetic nutrients than if they had been brought up on commercial catfood, or even on plain meat.

I get the feeling that you are more a adept of the religion of nature than of ethical living. For someone who does not want to contribute to the suffering and killing in the world, feeding cats (and dogs) a well prepared vegetarian diet is a must!

(And also keeping them out of the garden - for the sake of all the sentient beings there!)

David

By: Rod

Rod — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 02:02:40 +0000

To Petra…

As one that holds a vet. assistant degree you should know the following:

Cats are carnivores…dogs are onmiovores…..there are numerous nutrients and chemicals that cats need that they can only acquire if they eat ANIMAL-derived tissues.

Cats process little or no enzymes that wil break down the plant-produced carotenoids. They need to eat other animals to obtain vitamin A. Dogs on the other hand - have enzymesw in the lining of their intestines that can break down plant carotenoids and convertt these into active vitamin A.

Cats can obrain Niacin only by eating the preformed vitamn.

Cats are extremely sensitive to even a single meal deficient in arginine and are unable to make their own.

Cats must eat preformed taurine and since taurine is not found in plant tissues, cats MUST consume meat to obtain it. (Dogs make their own)…

Cats can NOT make their own arachidonic acid even in the presence of adequate linoleic acid. This is because their liver contains NO delta-6-desaturase enzyme to convert linoleic to arachidonic. Dogs can ake their own A.A. and it is not an essential fatty acid for dogs. Cats NEED to eat meat to satisfy this requirement!

anyways…..just some facts to consider………

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 20:27:02 +0000

I found your blog via Google while searching for cat food and your post regarding 7 reasons why your cat cannot be vegetarian looks very interesting for me

By: admin

admin — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 23:52:26 +0000

Most of the issues you raised are answered in my previous responses or links.
I am advocating vegetarian diet for humans (omnivorous). I’m against experimenting with health and well being of obligate carnivores as veg*n pet food manufacturers do.

What is essential to understand is that obligate carnivores do not simply supplement their diet with meat, 99% of their diet is meat.

Like it or not, living in the modern world involves some compromises. Hey, why don’t we stop using computers, cars, etc? They’re all made by people who do eat meat from “animals raised in miserable captivity”!

By: petra

petra — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 10:36:57 +0000

I am really suprised at this article, on a vegetarian site especially. It seems the author has some out-dated information here! The 7 nutrients mentioned can all be met sufficiently with a specially formulated vegan diet. Some of these nutrients (taurine and arachidonic acid) are synthesized, and others have been found in vegetable foods, including algae. If you read that back of regular meat cat food you’ll see that it is also supplemented wtih (usually because it’s cheaper) the synthetic forms of taurine etc. This is because the ‘meat’ in most cat food is actually the rubbish - feathers, feet etc. which doesn’t contain as much of these nutrients, and also because the processing at high temperatures depletes these nutrients in the final food. So in this respect feeding a cat a vegan diet is no different to feeding it a meat one. When choosing a vegan food, chose one that meets the AAFCO’s Cat Food Nutrient Profile e.g. Evolution Diet, Vegecat, VeganPet
You mentioned that a cat will go outside and hunt if it isn’t getting meat in it’s diet. Is it not preferable that a cat supplements it’s diet in this way if needed? To catch a bird or mouse that has had a free life, rather than to feed it meat from animals that have been raised in miserable captivity? Our cat has been on a vegan diet for about 2 years now and has only caught one mouse about a year ago which she didn’t eat. She prefers to chase leaves!

By: admin

admin — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 13:01:38 +0000

Always be wary of the information given by someone who wants to sell you something. There are currently no independent studies on the long term effects of a veg*n diet for cats. Any veg*n cat food is just a mix of vegetable matter with lab synthesized amino-acids, minerals and vitamin. Hardly a good diet for someone you care about. We do not know enough about cat nutrition to experiment with their health. Please do some more research on what cats actually need and why they’re classified as obligate carnivores. This could be a good start
http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=library&act=show&item=vegetariancats

Vitamin B12 deficiency is very common in vegans for a very good reason. Please have a look at this for example http://www.vegansociety.com/html/food/nutrition/b12/

By: Peter Cox

Peter Cox — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:07:37 +0000

Sorry, but this is bad and inaccurate information!

Please see, for example, Vegecat:

http://www.vegepet.com/forcats.html

Apart from that, there are other major errors… “Vitamin B12 is present only in animal products.” - VERY wrong!

Peter

By: admin

admin — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 05:21:31 +0000

Whatever solution I propose would raise quite a few ethical questions.

1. Don’t have a cat. Sometimes it’s not a option. (Not exactly the same but… Should you have children? What if they start eating meat?)
2. Let you cat hunt freely and survive on it’s own. This really depends on where you live, how spoiled your cat is, how fit and healthy it is etc
3. Buy meat for you cat. Stick to something that a cat would catch naturally in the wild, better organic and free range. Variety is very important.

I wouldn’t consider any prepackaged cat food (vegan or not) as an acceptable solution.

So take your pick, mix and match or come up with your own.