Study suggests that cats may get health benefits from vegan diet

[Puddy_Tat]

i'm not a vet or a scientist, but i'd give this quite a big



the articles i've seen on this have broadly agreed with this

Correct. Cats need an essential amino acid, taurine, that they can't produce unlike other animals

and have concluded that cats can get quite ill and die through a lack of taurine.

too many 'studies' on a whole range of things tend to start off from the conclusion they want and work towards that.

i'd be mildly suspicious if any report had been issued by, or sponsored by, the pet food industry as well, though.

but would have thought if vegetarian / vegan cat / dog food was generally considered safe, the industry would be out there selling it.

 

[two sheds]

Correct. Cats need an essential amino acid, taurine, that they can't produce unlike other animals. So unless it's added to the vegan food then it's not suitable for cats.

So cats are ok with a vegan diet as long as taurine is added? Interesting.

 

[ouirdeaux]

Something tells me -- I haven't tried it -- that if I tried to feed a cat on a vegan diet with added taurine, it might well survive, but there's a high chance it would pack up and leave. Or murder me in my sleep.

I might be wrong. I await reports from those more daring than I.

 

[two sheds]

Something tells me -- I haven't tried it -- that if I tried to feed a cat on a vegan diet with added taurine, it might well survive, but there's a high chance it would pack up and leave. Or murder me in my sleep.

I might be wrong. I await reports from those more daring than I.

Indeed, it'd have to be the right taste and texture - tofu might work or the veggie bacon stuff I used to get that was quite convincing .

Or would they know?

 

[Funky_monks]

A singular study means very little, also the peer review process doesn't assess the quality of the study, just that the methods are explicit, the stats are mathematically correct etc etc.

There are various levels of "quality" of study, the highest being the clinical trial - in which it is possible to control as many other potentially confounding variables as possible. In many circumstances clinical trials might be either impractical, unethical or pointless. Examples:

Impractical: Many dietary studies - people are unwilling to be monitored and eat only a proscribed diet and nothing else for years on end, so much less robust study methods are used, eg epidemiological studies, which will have many confounding variables which those conducting the study will either attempt to remove (eg remove data from subjects they deem unreliable) or discuss the potential shortcomings in the discussion.

Unethical: Many welfare studies - you can't ethically do something which you believe will make animal welfare worse (in most cases, medical trials notwithstanding) just to see if it really does have that effect, eg I once read a proposal for a study in which the aim was to feed calves poor quality colostrum, synthetic colostrum and good quality colostrum to see which had the best outcomes. You'd never get ethical approval for giving the poor quality colostrum, having a very good idea that it would give the calves long lasting negative health impacts.

Pointless: A clinical trial would be pointless when trying to estimate the population of squirrels in a wood. Youd need to do that in the wood concerned. To do that, you might use a mark-recapture method which is "the best guess" but is well understood would not give you a reliable exact population density.

In this case the method of gathering data was to give vegan pet owners an anonymous questionnaire about their pets health, filled in by the pet owners themselves.

I struggle to see how anybody can not see how robust those results are likely not to be.

So, the actual results are: vegan pet owners think their pets health is pretty good.

 

[two sheds]

That's all true - and I'm neither vegan/veggie nor a cat owner (can you own a cat? ) - but the vegans & veggies I've known have known a fuck of a lot more about diet than I do. Indeed this study doesn't prove a lot but I wouldn't be surprised if their pets were perfectly healthy even if they didn't feed them meat.

 

[Mr Retro]

Why would anybody take a carnivorous animal as a pet and feed it a vegan diet based on their human beliefs? It’s one for the RSPCA in my opinion

 

[Funky_monks]

That's all true - and I'm neither vegan/veggie nor a cat owner (can you own a cat? ) - but the vegans & veggies I've known have known a fuck of a lot more about diet than I do. Indeed this study doesn't prove a lot but I wouldn't be surprised if their pets were perfectly healthy even if they didn't feed them meat.

There's so much to unpack in that study, not least that cats fed a higher meat diet and who are stimulated kill less wildlife (bells had no effect):
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)31896-0

People are very less likely to volunteer to fill in a survey on their pets health if it's having health issues, thats just human nature. Secondly, unless it's a house cat it could be consuming loads of meat despite not being fed any.....

 

[Serge Forward]

Clearly loves this...

That cat is clearly not a fussy eater. My cat, Lucy Eldine Gonzales Parsons, is a fussy little sod who turns her nose up at fruit and vegetables. If it works for other cats though, grand.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

So cats are ok with a vegan diet as long as taurine is added? Interesting.

And vitamin B12, and no doubt a few other things.

Basically, a cat may not get sick on a vegan diet as long as it's given all the things it would be getting from meat as a supplement added artificially to its plant-based food.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

too many 'studies' on a whole range of things tend to start off from the conclusion they want and work towards that.

This study stinks of that. They've chosen one parameter - vegan vs non-vegan diet - and haven't controlled for any of the potentially confounding factors that may be present. They even admit to one of them - vegan cats mostly indoors cats - without apparently controlling for it. Even allowing for the drawbacks of self-selection bias in the sample and self-reporting bias in the data collection, it's a very flawed study.

 

[andysays]

Whoever is behind this study should watch Elliot Gould in The Long Goodbye before coming to any conclusions about suitable diet for cats...

 

[girasol]

I don't know, but if a vegan diet was suitable for cats they'd be eating it already. Chasing mice and birds is a lot harder than eating grains/veg.

 

[maomao]

I can understand how a cat could eat vegan food but how would they tell everyone about it?

 

[girasol]

In my experience cats do eat rice, grass, cheese, butter, eggs, porridge and they love milk and cream (but very bad for them). Most of those ain't vegan either.

 

[maomao]

In my experience cats do eat rice, grass, cheese, butter, eggs and they love milk and cream (but very bad for them). Most of those ain't vegan either.

Mine only ever ate grass in order to make themselves vomit.

 

[girasol]

Mine only ever ate grass in order to make themselves vomit.

True dat! Mind you mine was chomping on some grass blades on Sunday and no vomiting happened, for a change.

My understanding is they eat things found in their prey's stomachs.

And on thd grass front... Why Do Cats Eat Grass? | Purina

 

[two sheds]

I don't know, but if a vegan diet was suitable for cats they'd be eating it already. Chasing mice and birds is a lot harder than eating grains/veg.

It's the preparation and cooking they have problems with

 

[Magnus McGinty]

If only we can get XL Bullys to see the error of their dietary ways too.
We can then move on to tigers etc.

 

[editor]

Scientist 1: We need to cut back our our meat consumption for the sake of the environment.

Scientist 2: In the US, the canine population was responsible for between 25 and 30% of the animal production impact regarding land use, water, and fossil fuels, so we need to cut back drastically

Researcher: A fresh study has suggested that a vegan diet is not only safe for pet cats, but may have health benefits as well as reducing the environmental damage caused by the meat industry

Normal people: Well that's just great if the vegan food is proved safe, healthy and enjoyable for pets. Let's see if further research backs this up.

Urban: OMG! Obligate carnivores! Obligate carnivores! It's a worthless peer reviewed study! Dodgy journal! Tobacco industry! Human morals! Human beliefs! XL Bullys! CALL IN THE RSCPCA!

 

[editor]

True dat! Mind you mine was chomping on some grass blades on Sunday and no vomiting happened, for a change.

My understanding is they eat things found in their prey's stomachs.

And on thd grass front... Why Do Cats Eat Grass? | Purina

My cat goes batshit crazy for grass. It's a bit of a pain in the arse to grow as it never seems to last long.

 

[WouldBe]

That cat is clearly not a fussy eater.

Looks like it's starving to me.

 

[Serge Forward]

Looks like it's starving to me.

I thought that but it looks healthy enough, not malnourished. Maybe it has that condition where it can't stop eating

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Scientist 1: We need to cut back our our meat consumption for the sake of the environment.

Scientist 2: In the US, the canine population was responsible for between 25 and 30% of the animal production impact regarding land use, water, and fossil fuels, so we need to cut back drastically

Researcher: A fresh study has suggested that a vegan diet is not only safe for pet cats, but may have health benefits as well as reducing the environmental damage caused by the meat industry

Normal people: Well that's just great if the vegan food is proved safe, healthy and enjoyable for pets. Let's see if further research backs this up.

Urban: OMG! Obligate carnivores! Obligate carnivores! It's a worthless peer reviewed study! Dodgy journal! Tobacco industry! Human morals! Human beliefs! XL Bullys! CALL IN THE RSCPCA!

You're quite keen to accuse others of 'having an agenda' on here. But you appear to lack self-awareness. On other threads, you have dismissed research because it is funded by 'big meat'. Here, not only have you posted up a study funded by a vegan advocacy group, but you've also failed entirely to engage with any of the criticisms of the study. Who is it that has an agenda?

 

[editor]

Meat Industry - multi, multi, multi billion multinational corporates funding huge amounts of disinformation to cover up the fact that their activities are having a negative impact on the environment.
Vegan Pet Food Industry: Comparatively microscopic business accused of cooking the science books to promote a product that is, err, going to have a positive impact on the environment.

Yeah, they look comparable.

 

[Funky_monks]

Yes, the vegan pet food business and the regular petfood business are two entirely separate entities.......

 

[littlebabyjesus]

ProVeg is a not-for-profit pressure group/investment vehicle.

Its cofounder's biog is this:

Sebastian Joy is the co-founder and President of ProVeg International, an initiator of the global collective-impact organisation 50by40.org, co-creator of the ProVeg Incubator, the world’s first incubator focused exclusively on animal-free startups, and co-founder of VeggieWorld, the world’s largest vegan trade show. He is also Vice-Chair of the European Vegetarian Unionand taught Non-profit Management and Social Entrepreneurship at the University for Economics and Law in Berlin for several years. Joy’s work is inspired by the concept of effective altruism, which aims to use resources efficiently to do as much good as possible.

Effective altruism. Ugh. Horrible capitalist apologism. Don't worry. The rich will save us.

 

[WouldBe]

I thought that but it looks healthy enough, not malnourished. Maybe it has that condition where it can't stop eating

Or it's eating like mad trying to get some nutrient it's lacking.

 

[Raheem]

Correct. Cats need an essential amino acid, taurine, that they can't produce unlike other animals. So unless it's added to the vegan food then it's not suitable for cats.

Ooh. So they could live healthily off cucumbers and Red Bull.

 

[WouldBe]

Ooh. So they could live healthily off cucumbers and Red Bull.

And explore the ceiling at the same time.