There is limited research on the impact of the vegan diet on the feline companions in comparison to canines. As it is not as well known in the general public that cats can be healthy on a plant-based diet provided with taurine, B12, vitamin A.
Vegan diet:
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https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/abs/10.12968/vetn.2022.13.6.252
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https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0253292
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https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0284132
Vegetarian diet:
I’m inheriting a cat (long story) and did some basic research into the possibility of a vegan diet. It seems that while it is possible, like your links suggest, there is no easy way to do it. I looked in thr local stores and while I have found vegan food for my dog, they don’t have anything for cats. A few online specialty places but the food is so expensive it is off the table.
I’ve switched to trying to find the lowest impact food but even that information is hard to find. I hope that it gets better and this small market gains traction, but it’s not really at a level right now where thr average person can make a switch.
The main thing I’ve read (not a cat owner) is that unlike a dog, you’re walking a fine line when providing a vegan diet to a cat. It can be done, and this is reflected in robust scientific literature, but you need to seriously know what you’re doing. As a critical part of that, I think consulting a vet about getting them on a specific, well-planned diet is something any vegan cat owner ought to be doing. Mainly because while you can probably get away with feeding your cat a suboptimal meat-based diet and have them still be healthy, the risks with a suboptimal plant-based one mean that I don’t think DIY research cuts it.
Nonetheless, I think the best thing for a vegan if possible (not your case) is simply not to own a cat, not because it’s impossible to accomplish this but moreso because statistically it’s much, much harder to accomplish, and normalizing it among vegans is liable to create situations where well-meaning but incompetent owners simply cannot meet the challenge and either give up partway through and go with meat-based food or slowly destroy the cat’s health.
Yeah, I’m removing the comment with that link, because I genuinely do not trust this website; everything on it sounds completely unhinged, and that doesn’t inspire confidence in me that they can pull off something so delicate as a plant-based food for cats.
Like the entire site is just bizarre. One of the alleged testimonials from “[REDACTED]” reads:
“[REDACTED]”
Literally what on Earth is this. The site just keeps referencing some single “university study” over and over again and doesn’t seem to link to it. The production value for the UI seems high, but the contents frankly come off as some combination of machine generation and psychosis. It’s like they took a Katamari through a list of buzzwords.
I haven’t seen this brand locally but it does look decently priced. I don’t live in the US but I do see a couple specialty stores in Canada that can ship it. I might give it a try. Thanks for thr recommendation :)
Hey, for reasons I briefly go into below, I might consider another brand of cat food. A lot of things on this website point to it being a scam at worst or, at best, written by someone who probably shouldn’t be trusted with the delicate balance that is your cat’s health on a plant-based diet.
Unfortunately lots of vegans, and definitely lots of ommis who also find these posts, don’t care about science, and will downvote you because they are too emotionally invested in this topic.
Surely you meant that the vegans will _up_vote this post, for the exact reason that it confirms their priors.
On the substance, it stands to reason that if humans can be fooled (just about) by the latest generation of fake meat, then pets will find it plenty tasty enough too. But on the question of the science, it is uncontroversial that dogs and cats are both members of the carnivora order. And cats are obligate carnivores: in their natural environment they eat almost nothing but meat and have done for millions of years. So if you’re going to turn them vegan, you better be absolutely sure you know what supplements to give them and in what quantity.
I agree with your general point though. As a flexitarian who respects vegans for their ethical coherence, even I am pretty darn tempted to see motivated reasoning in this kind of post, because that’s obviously what it is. But facts are facts. A vegan cat can be happy and healthy. What a world to live in.
it is uncontroversial that dogs and cats are both members of the carnivora order
Well, if they’re in an order, I guess that determines everything about them.
You should also go out and force all pandas to switch to hunting, because they’re also in the Carnivora order.
A lot of vegans will downvote coming from a sort of “pick-me” vegan place
Not getting the reference. You mean they see even a discussion around the idea the that cats can be vegan as sacrilege?
