Cat food is food intended for consumption by cats.
As with all species, cats have requirements for specific dietary nutrients, rather than ingredients. Certain nutrients, including many vitamins and amino acids, are degraded by the temperatures, pressures and chemical treatments used during manufacture, and hence must be added after manufacture to avoid nutritional deficiency. The amino acid taurine, for example, which is found within meat, is degraded during processing, so synthetic taurine is normally added afterwards. Long-term taurine deficiency resulting, for example, from feeding taurine-deficient dog food, may result in retinal degeneration, loss of vision, and cardiac damage.
Read more about Cat Food: History, Commercial Cat Food, Labeling, Energy Requirement, Nutrients and Functions, Nutrient Chart
Famous quotes containing the words cat and/or food:
“There are many who say that a dog has his day,
And a cat has a number of lives;”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“Would mankind be but contented without the continual use of that little but significant pronoun “mine” or “my own,” with what luxurious delight might they revel in the property of others!... But if envy makes me sicken at the sight of everything that is excellent out of my own possession, then will the sweetest food be sharp as vinegar, and every beauty will in my depraved eyes appear as deformity.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)