On the other hand, cats being fed a diet containing around 10 % fat are 50 % less likely to be overweight. Cats being fed high fat (± 20%) premium and super-premium diets are two to three times more likely to become overweight. Fat is thus a concentrated source of energy and diets that are high in fat, although well tolerated by the animal, may promote obesity if not strictly rationed. One gram of fat provides 2.25 times more calories (9 kcal/g) than 1 g of protein or carbohydrate (4 kcal/g). High fat, low carbohydrate diets commonly improve the condition of feline patients suffering chronic diarrhea and most “premium” diets are formulated accordingly. The answer is that cats do not need to synthesize any taurine if they consume a diet only of animal tissue and that the synthesis of taurine represents a loss of potential energy to cats as excess taurine is excreted in the urine.Ĭats have the ability to digest and utilize high levels of fat in their diets. One may question why cats would have evolved with limited synthesis of a key nutrient such as taurine. Indeed, canned diets have been shown to promote a gut flora with a higher rate of taurine degradation than that supported on expanded diets. In order to provide sufficient taurine in cat foods to maintain plasma and blood levels in the optimal range, studies at Davis found that dry extruded cat foods required about 1 g/kg diet, but canned foods required up to 2.5 g/kg. Formation of bile salts results in a continual loss of taurine, as a proportion of the taurine is not recovered in the enterohepatic re-circulation. While the ability of cats to synthesize taurine from methionine and cystine is very limited, they are obligate users of taurine to conjugate with bile acids. Taurine is essential in the diet of cats and its deficiency results in a wide range of clinical signs including fetal abnormalities, delayed growth and development, central retinal degeneration and dilated cardiomyopathy. Lipid accumulation observed in cats suffering from hepatic lipidosis does not appear linked to arginine deficiency or orotic acid accumulation as has been described in rats. Although cats fed a diet deficient in arginine will develop severe hyperammonemia and may die as a result, protein sources commonly used in the formulation of cat food will easily fulfill all the arginine requirements. However, cats also require arginine and taurine. Protein supplementation during the fast slows down this accumulation.Ĭats require the same nine essential amino acids that are needed in the diet of all mammals. It allows them to transform the protein that is plentiful in their natural food into glucose, an essential nutrient that is present only at low concentration in their prey.įasting in obese cats has been associated with liver lipid accumulation that becomes pathological over a five to six week period and mimics Idiopathic Feline Hepatic Lipidosis. Whatever the protein content of their diet, the activities of those enzymes in cats will correspond to the activities in dogs or humans receiving a high protein diet. This requirement is not explained by a higher amino acid requirement for protein synthesis but rather by their limited ability to control the activity of amino acid catabolic enzymes. Those specific needs are the result of their long history as flesh eaters that lead into modifications of enzyme activities and thus, nutrient metabolic pathways.Ĭats have a high protein requirement. It is now recognized that cats require specialized diets formulated for their specific nutritional needs. Morris, at the University of California, Davis. Our knowledge of the nutritional needs of cats has expanded greatly over the last 30 years thanks to the work of many dedicated researchers and particularly the team of Prof. Books & VINcyclopedia of Diseases (Formerly Associate).
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