Can My Cat Eat A Plant-Based, Vegan Diet? The Answer Will Surprise You [View all]

Cats are obligate carnivores, but that’s not the whole story.

by Elana Spivack
18 hours ago

If you’re a cat owner, you know that cats love meat. Search any pet food store and there’s no shortage of fish, chicken, or beef-flavored options. In fact, as apex predators, cats naturally thrive on a meat-based diet. But is it possible for our feline friends to go plant-based? Better yet, are there any advantages to being a cat on a vegan diet?



Do Cats Need Meat?
Cats are obligate carnivores. That means that they can’t derive all their essential nutrients from plants.

“Because they have a fairly precise, consistent diet, they've lost some ability to consume and utilize vegetable material,” Richard Hill, a veterinary nutrition professor at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine tells Inverse. In other words, cats and their ancestors have hunted exclusively for so long that they’ve lost key enzymes and other proteins and key compounds that enable them to acquire all the nutrients and vitamins they need from plants.

For example, cats lack the enzyme that converts beta-carotene, found in plants, to vitamin A, which is a necessary nutrient cats need. So they must get their entire supply of vitamin A from animal protein; vitamin A is abundant in fish and organ meat. Another chief nutrient that cats can’t get from plants is the amino acid taurine, which is an essential nutrient for felines.

Can my cat be vegan?
Ultimately, it’s not impossible to turn your cat vegan, but it would involve plenty of formulating, according to Hill. There are ways to develop a food with all these nutrients added, but it must be done correctly. The wrong proportion of ingredients could result in illness.

More:
https://www.inverse.com/cat-plant-based-diet