Subscribe Feed (RSS)Is there such a thing as a vegetarian cat? Well certainly there are cats which are fed by their owners with non-meat foods, but this is to go against the basic nature of the animal.
It must be remembered that a cat is by nature a hunter. Its most ‘natural’ food is a small mammal or bird that it has caught itself. Outdoor cats will at least to some extent provide for themselves in this way. Indoor cats, though, do need to be fed meat.
It might, of course, seem possible to provide vegetable protein in a cat’s food just as can be done for a dog. This simply does not work. A cat’s digestive system does not handle vegetable protein well. It must have meat. Also, it is only in meat that the essential protein material, taurine, can be provided. A cat is an “obligate carnivore” and to force it to be anything else is an act of considerable unkindness.
In the home environment even meat is not enough, however. The hunter catches its prey and devours not only flesh but also fur, feathers and bone. In what is to the cat an artificial environment these must be replaced. Well-formulated dry foods provide the combination of fibre and other material including trace elements that is missing from meat-only food
So in summary, the message is, do not attempt to make your cat a vegetarian, and provide it with a balanced mix of wet meaty and dry fibrous foods which between them approximate to what ideally they would get from hunting in the wild.
Tags: cat diet, cat food, obligate carnivore
