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Study suggests that cats may get health benefits from vegan diet

mentalchik said:
Surely if you are a committed vegan you just don't have a cat.....cat's are obligate carnivores and cannot survive without some form of meat
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You might look after a cat that is stray or abandoned. The cat will eat meat whether you take care of it or not. And you then have the possibility of converting it to a vegan diet if and when technology allows.
 
Agent Sparrow said:
To state the obvious, aren’t cats literally carnivores? :confused: I mean, I do once remember a cat tucking in happily to a vegetarian curry* but generally as a species, they’re pretty much designed to eat meat. Perfectly so in fact 😻

*at the bunkhouse during the urban walk the police got alerted to, for those who remember…
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I think the problem comes with people misunderstanding omnivory as a concept. It's a spectrum, eg dogs (wolves) mostly eat meat, they are adapted for a diet that is mostly meat (dentition, digestive tract etc), but will, on occasion supplement their diet with plant matter (berries, grass, partially digested plant matter in the stomach of prey etc), but once they are labelled "omnivore" people assume that they are omnivorous in the same way that humans are (a great ape, with mixed adaptations for meat and plant eating) and therefore can be fed a diet much higher in plant matter than they would naturally eat. Cats are obligate carnivores, but again, will occasionally eat some plant matter (see: curry thief), this seems to make the idea of feeding them a modified plant diet acceptable to some, but I would say it is in direct opposition to the "five freedoms" of animal welfare:
1) Freedom from hunger and thirst: by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigour
and
4) Freedom to express normal behaviour: by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal’s own kind.
 
Riklet said:
Cats and dogs have very different digestive systems to us. We can survive fine on a vegan diet. Im not sure a pet would be at full health long term.
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What evidence do you have that cats are unable to live a healthy life on a balanced vegan diet?
 
Magnus McGinty said:
The fact that they're carnivores? Do they hunt carrots?
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Try answering the question instead of posting stupid smartarse shite, or if that's too difficulty for you, try reading this:

“There is no evidence to suggest that cats suffer in any way from a nutritionally-sound vegan diet.”

Media Articles - University of Winchester

www.winchester.ac.uk www.winchester.ac.uk

theconversation.com

Is it really safe to feed your cat a vegan diet?

A new study has reportedly found benefits to feeding cats a vegan diet. We got an expert to look at whether the evidence stacks up.
theconversation.com theconversation.com

I won't be putting my cat on a vegan diet, mind, because I think it's daft.
 
editor said:
What evidence do you have that cats are unable to live a healthy life on a balanced vegan diet?
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The fact that there's no evidence they can. And there are zero cats that do this naturally.

Plus even if they are fed on a vegan diet the trial will be compromised by them being outside at all as they will hunt and kill rodents. So it would have to be house cats. And then that in itself is biased because how can a cat ever be at optimal health just stuck in a flat.
 
Riklet said:
The fact that there's no evidence they can. And there are zero cats that do this naturally.

Plus even if they are fed on a vegan diet the trial will be compromised by them being outside at all as they will hunt and kill rodents. So it would have to be house cats. And then that in itself is biased because how can a cat ever be at optimal health just stuck in a flat.
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tbf indoor cats live longer on average. They don't get into fights, don't get run over and don't catch infectious diseases. imo it's a much reduced life for an animal like a cat, but if they've known no different, they are often ok with it (albeit in a condition that smacks of institutionalisation).
 
There's also this if you are the kind of person who lets their cat outside:
Home page news - Play and meaty food reduce hunting by cats - University of Exeter.

So yeah, put your cat on low/no meat diet if you really find compromising an animals welfare for the sake of your own dietary choices an acceptable thing to do, but the cats clearly aren't having any of it and will just kill more wildlife when you let them out.
 
Funky_monks said:
There's also this if you are the kind of person who lets their cat outside:
Home page news - Play and meaty food reduce hunting by cats - University of Exeter.

So yeah, put your cat on low/no meat diet if you really find compromising an animals welfare for the sake of your own dietary choices an acceptable thing to do, but the cats clearly aren't having any of it and will just kill more wildlife when you let them out.
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And so, of course, as in that study, most cat owners who feed their cats vegan diets don't let the cats out. In fact, if you want your cat to follow a vegan diet, you can't let it out.

It really does reach a point where you have to say, 'Why not keep a rabbit instead, or maybe a couple of rats?' (Rats are omnivores, but further towards the plant end of the spectrum than dogs.)
 
This was a bone of contention between me and my then girlfriend. I was kind of proud of our cat when he caught a mouse or a rat. She was horrified and wanted to save it - or more accurately, wanted me to save it. Strikes me that she and those like her are in denial about what cats are.
 
Funky_monks said:
There's also this if you are the kind of person who lets their cat outside:
Home page news - Play and meaty food reduce hunting by cats - University of Exeter.

So yeah, put your cat on low/no meat diet if you really find compromising an animals welfare for the sake of your own dietary choices an acceptable thing to do, but the cats clearly aren't having any of it and will just kill more wildlife when you let them out.
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From that article

"Some cat foods contain protein from plant sources such as soy, and it is possible that despite forming a 'complete diet' these foods leave some cats deficient in one or more micronutrients –prompting them to hunt," said Martina Cecchetti, the PhD student who conducted the experiments.


"However, meat production raises clear climate and environmental issues, so one of our next steps is to find out whether specific micronutrients could be added to cat foods to reduce hunting.
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The whole premise of this thread is that in due course we may be able to make vegan cat food in such a way as to give them everything they get from meat-based cat food.

The anti-veganists are arguing as if the case is being made for cats to be fed vegan diets now, rather than in a possible/theoretical future.
 
littlebabyjesus said:
This was a bone of contention between me and my then girlfriend. I was kind of proud of our cat when he caught a mouse or a rat. She was horrified and wanted to save it - or more accurately, wanted me to save it. Strikes me that she and those like her are in denial about what cats are.
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Middle Q's cat likes to take mice alive and release them into the kitchen from which the only way out is via the door, it then proceeds to catch them and let them go again until it gets bored and kills them or they die of fright. Middle tells us that more than once she has picked up the cat whilst her husband tries to grab or shoo the mouse out.
It rarely eats its victims since it has a full (non-vegan) diet it just likes tormenting and killing them, it's kind of a cat thing.
 
MickiQ said:
Middle Q's cat likes to take mice alive and release them into the kitchen from which the only way out is via the door, it then proceeds to catch them and let them go again until it gets bored and kills them or they die of fright. Middle tells us that more than once she has picked up the cat whilst her husband tries to grab or shoo the mouse out.
It rarely eats its victims since it has a full (non-vegan) diet it just likes tormenting and killing them, it's kind of a cat thing.
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Maybe I'm a bad person, but in such a situation I would sit back and watch. After all, mousing is one of the cat's useful jobs (probably the only one).

But as I said earlier in the thread, I very much doubt the cat is intentionally tormenting the mouse. It is more that it doesn't give a shit either way if the mouse is tormented. The wellbeing of the mouse doesn't even occur to the cat.
 
teuchter said:
From that article



The whole premise of this thread is that in due course we may be able to make vegan cat food in such a way as to give them everything they get from meat-based cat food.

The anti-veganists are arguing as if the case is being made for cats to be fed vegan diets now, rather than in a possible/theoretical future.
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Why bother?
There's plenty of meats that we seem to find unappetising (some organs, offal, mechanically reclaimed meat) that a cat has no such qualms about and can therefore be fed to them. If there isn't enough of that stuff, maybe we just need to keep less cats, after all they have a very detrimental affect on wildlife.
 
MickiQ said:
Middle Q's cat likes to take mice alive and release them into the kitchen from which the only way out is via the door, it then proceeds to catch them and let them go again until it gets bored
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This is my cat. Though she doesn’t chase them much, just brings them in and forgets about them. :rolleyes: Thankfully they’re usually docile field mice so fairly easy to scoop up and release under the shed.
 
True, a cat will do better eating vegans than eating nothing. But it will do best of all if it can feast on the remains of anyone it pleases.
 
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