Cats Need Animal -Based Protein
by Admin
Posted on 14-07-2023 10:41 PM
Water is the most important nutrient. While
food
may help meet some of your pet's water needs, pets need to have fresh clean water available to them at all times. A deficiency of water can cause serious illness or even death. Proteins are the basic building blocks for cells, tissues, organs, enzymes, hormones and antibodies, and are essential for growth, maintenance, reproduction and repair. Proteins can be obtained from a number of sources. Animal-based proteins have complete amino acid profiles.
(please note: do not give your pet raw eggs. ) protein is also found in vegetables, cereals and soy, but these are considered incomplete proteins.
From the foregoing discussion of the nutritional requirements and some of the metabolic anomalies of the cat, it is clear that the cat is adapted to eating a carnivorous diet. It may, however, have less capability than omnivores and herbivores to adapt to wide ranges in dietary composition. For example, the lack of ability to synthesize sufficient vitamin a from carotene, ornithine from glutamic acid, arachidonate from linoleate, and taurine from cysteine results from a complete deletion or severe limitation of the enzyme or pathway that makes each nutrient. Other nutrient requirements, such as the absolute requirement for niacin and the high protein requirement, appear to result from the high activity of one or more enzymes and the fact that these enzymes are not adaptive in the cat.
Cats are considered to be obligate carnivores. This means they require animal protein in their diet in order to obtain adequate nutrition because they can't efficiently synthesize the amino acid taurine from other nutrients. Instead, they need to get it from their diet. Taurine is only found in animal proteins, so it is unhealthy for a cat to be fed a vegetarian diet. A cat fed a diet deficient in taurine can develop a serious heart muscle disease called dilated cardiomyopathy (dcm). In fact, dcm used to be one of the most commonly diagnoses acquired heart diseases in cats until researchers discovered the link between taurine deficiency and dcm in cats.
The cat family (felids) has evolved closely alongside their canine counterparts, but has developed their own unique dietary requirements as a result of their own unique dietary intake. Cats, unlike dogs, are obligate carnivores, which means they must have meat in their diet to live (dogs can live on a vegetarian diet). Cats require significantly larger amounts of protein in their diet, as well as fats, and less carbohydrate and vegetable matter. Cats must have a dietary source of the amino acid taurine, which is only naturally found in meat (but easily destroyed by cooking), and the essential fatty acid arachidonic acid, also found in animal fats.
Cats Need to Eat Water-Rich Food
From a biological evolutionary perspective, there are two important factors that influence a cat's diet. These factors are:
cats are obligate carnivores. Cats are of desert origin. An obligate or true carnivore is an animal that requires meat in its diet. They may eat other foods offered to them, especially animal products like cheese and bone marrow or sweet sugary substances such as honey and syrup. These foods are not essential and are not consumed on a regular basis. True carnivores lack the metabolism required for the proper digestion of vegetable matter. Some carnivorous mammals eat vegetation specifically as an emetic (a substance that causes vomiting).
It will help them get enough water, which they may not seek out on their own. Cats have a low thirst drive and are designed to get most of their water with their food. As indoor cats do not get a great deal of physical exercise, combining the two food types is beneficial, because wet food has fewer calories. The high water content in canned food will encourage your cat to urinate more often, flushing out their bladders. This is important to help reduce urinary tract issues, especially in indoor cats. As cats get older, certain conditions like diabetes and kidney disease respond better to wet food.