Vegan cat food website

[mc55 10]

hmm, I came across this on another forum: vegancats

 

am I mis-educated in believing cats MUST have a mainly meat diet ?

[sezbetz 10]

A vegan cat - thats a new one on me!!!!!! I must take a look - and no i wouldnt have said you were miseducated at all in your thinking.... unless I am aswell (and I have 6 cats here at the moment)!!

 

Cant imagine a ferral or wild cat seeking out a vegan or even vegetarian diet for that matter!!!

[Lotti 10]

I think things like this are a shame... unless of course the vet advises a vegan diet due to a dietary intolerance.

 

I don't feel it's right to force your food beliefs on your animals just because you don't like preparing meat (dry food is already done!) or the idea of them eating it. If you don't want to feed your pet meat, get a rabbit.

 

Cats are naturally carnivorous and need it in their diet. Dogs are omnivores and at a push can eat a healthy diet without meat as long as the nutrients required are provided in a different way. I wouldn't want to keep any cat on a vegan diet - unless of course, they require it as mentioned above.

[medusa 16]

Cats are obligate carnivores- I'd take some serious convincing before I'd risk my cats' health by taking the word of someone on a website that my cats can be healthy whilst living a vegan life.

 

They can definitely live without dairy (apart from small kittens of course, who need substitute milk if they're rejected by their mums- substitute kitten formula is lactose reduced cows' milk based) but they have a really short gut which has evolved to deal with low residue foods like meat efficiently.

 

Cats don't even have the teeth which are normally required to eat vegetable matter. Herbivores and omnivores have some capacity to grind their food with their teeth to release the nutrients from the vegetable cells to enable them to easier digest the nutrients. Cats don't have any grinding teeth at all and instead have only securing teeth (canines) and cutting teeth (their molars have no meeting flat surfaces).

 

I'd be really interested to see how they deal with the questions about how this is appropriate for animals listed as obligate carnivores, but unfortunately their website is timing out constantly and I can't navigate around it to see how believable their answers and research are.

[Andrew B 10]

I personally think we ought to do some scientific tests.

 

I will try tonight by releasing a Mouse and a Sprout in the room and see which the cats chase first.

 

I am hoping for the cats to start dragging in 5lb of spuds and a head of lettuce, instead of the frogs, toads etc.

[mc55 10]

I personally think we ought to do some scientific tests.

 

I will try tonight by releasing a Mouse and a Sprout in the room and see which the cats chase first.

 

I am hoping for the cats to start dragging in 5lb of spuds and a head of lettuce, instead of the frogs, toads etc.

 

:hihi:

[jennyjenjen 10]

er vegan cat food is wrong! they need meat if you dont want a cat to eat meat dont get a cat! .. its not very good for them not to have meat in their diet..:s

[foxyflugel 10]

Unless we definitely know that it is not harmful for cats to have a vegan diet then we really can't comment. I am vegetarian - my OH isn't - but I wouldn't dream of forcing my beliefs on other people or my pets (but unfortunately this doesn't always work 2 ways and people question me as to why I don't/won't eat meat/fish). If we had children they would be brought up carnivores and then when they are old enough to make up their own minds they would decide if they wanted to be vegetarian or not.

[maelstrom 10]

Hi, I know cats (and dogs) who thrive on a vegan diet. The site to look at for more information is http://www.vegepets.info, if you are interested in learning about the cogent arguements for why animal guardians may decide to take such a course of action.

[chem1st 10]

You'd think a vegan would be against owning pets let alone feeding them unnatural/unhealthy diets, 'owning an animal' very much being a way of exploiting animals.

[Andrew B 10]

If we had children they would be brought up carnivores.

 

Sorry just have to say, Humans are not Carnivores... We are Omnivores.

 

Cats on the otherhand are Carnivores, they are designed to survive on primarily Meat/Meat based foods.

 

There was a study recently that showed cats fed mainly Dried foods hunted more than cats fed Meat.....

[carpetviper 10]

One word from me = Wrong