Cat Health - Diet and Nutrition

Diet and Nutrition

Further information: cat food See also: pet food

Veterinarians commonly recommend commercial cat foods that are formulated to address the specific nutritional requirements of cats although an increasing number of owners are opting for home-prepared cooked or raw diets.

Although cats are obligate carnivores, vegetarian and vegan cat food are preferred by owners uncomfortable with feeding animal products to their pets. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine has come out against vegetarian cat and dog food for health reasons. Cats require high levels of Taurine in their diet. Taurine is an organic acid found in animal tissues. It is a major constituent of bile and can be found in the large intestine. Taurine has many biological roles such as conjugation of bile acids, antioxidation,membrane stabilization and modulation of calcium signaling. It is essential for cardiovascular function in cats, and development and function of skeletal muscle, the retina and the central nervous system. Although meat protein can be substituted with vegetable proteins, vegetable proteins don't require sufficient amino acids which are vital for a cats body to function.

Cats can be selective eaters. Although it is extremely rare for a cat to deliberately starve itself to the point of injury, in obese cats, the sudden loss of weight can cause a fatal condition called Feline Hepatic Lipidosis, a liver dysfunction which causes pathological loss of appetite and reinforces the starvation, which can lead to death within as little as 48 hours.

Pica is a condition in which animals chew or eat unusual things such as fabric, plastic or wool. In cats, this is mostly harmless as they do not digest most of it, but can be fatal or require surgical removal if a large amount of foreign material is ingested (for example, an entire sock). It tends to occur more often in Burmese, Oriental, Siamese and breeds with these in their ancestry.