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:
“That’s what the cat said to the canary when he swallowed him: “You’ll be all right.””
—Alvah Bessie, Ranald MacDougall, and Lester Cole. Raoul Walsh. Mr. Williams (Henry Hull)
“Go to the ant, you lazybones; consider its ways, and be wise. Without having any chief or officer or ruler, it prepares its food in summer, and gathers its sustenance in harvest.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Proverbs 6:6-8.