My uncle had a cat,...

My uncle had a cat that was completely vegan, they would feed him vegetables and soy products, this goes along with the vegan babies one, does anyone else have vegan pets? What's your input?

 

I had some parakeets, they were dieitary vegans but they had a cuttlefish bone to sharpen their beaks on

 

Cool- a vegan cat! I thought it was possible to have vegetarian dogs, but not cats. I don't know where I heard it though, or any of the reasons. Figured it was biological or something.

Summer. xx.

 

A while ago we considered getting a dog and I would have fed it a veg*an diet (despite my omni parents total objection)
My reasoning was simple: Pet food is made from meat unfit for human consumption. So if meat is unfit even for humans I sure as hell wouldn't inflict it on a sweet little puppy.
That and it would undo all my hard work being a vegetarian and therefore avoiding meat and it's associated crap.

Well we didn't adopt a dog in the end but still managed to acquire an animal companion, Branwen the bunny, whom I can assue you is most definetly vegan.

TTFN

Sage

 

What can you give them that contains taurine? Is there somewhere you can research a proper vegan diet for a cat?

Summer. xx.

 

Cool, thanks.


Summer. xx.

 

What do you feed your cats? Is it a special kind of cat food? Can you get it anywhere? How much does it cost?

 

OOps.. guess I should've read further before asking my question Didg.. thanx for the info. Sorry to be redundant.

 

I just cannot support in any way feeding a cat a vegan diet. I think it is cruel. Cats are carnivores, plain and simple, they might be able to survive off of a plant only diet with special vitamins and supplements, but to me this is no different than feeding a rabbit a meat only diet with special veggie vitamins and supplements. You may be opposed to eating meat, more power to ya, and you are, as an omnivore, capable of maintaining good health on a vegetaian diet. But I guarantee you that your cat has no such moral qualms about eating meat and I have serious doubts that even a properly supplemented vegan diet is healthy for a cat. Cat's have a digestive system designed specifically to process meat, they simply don't have the necessary "equipment" to digest vegetables.


Would you force a lion or a tiger to be a vegan? Hell no, anyone can recognise that it would be be terribly cruel. So why do you support feeding smaller versions of those creatures a vegan diet. Just because he sleeps in your house it doesn't give you the right to feed a cat a diet he cannot digest.

Sure the cat might survive a while, but that doesn't make it less cruel. I could survive for years eating nothing but french fries and soda pop, but if someone forced me to eat nothing other than french fries and soda pop I sure as hell would consider it cruel.

 

You're not forcing the cat to be vegan. If it wants meat it can kill a bird or a mouse or something whilst it's outside, just like wild cats do. Just because you feed it vegan food doesn't mean you're making it vegan, or even that it's vegan all the time. Merely that when it's in your house, it eats vegan food. Much like if you have a guest to dinner, s/he should expect to eat vegetarian food whilst in your house but is free to eat meat at other times. Anyway, the cat food that is produced by the likes of Whiskers can't be very good for the cat, as (I think it was Sage) said the meat they use in pet food is not considered fit for human comsumption, so why does that mean a poor little cat or dog should eat it? If the cat is being kept healthy with the taurine etc why can't it be vegan?

Summer. xx.

 

Some cat food actually has carrots and peas in it. I buy my cat Whiskers cat food and some of the flavours are things like "chicken and peas" "lamb and carrots" so they obviously can digest vegetables.

Summer. xx.

 

I think you're jumping to conclusions, jwam. Just because a cat is a carnivore, it doesn't mean it can't survive on a vegan diet quite healthily. And as others have said, there's a good chance it'll be a damn site better off than if you feed it the crap that's in pet food!

Of course, a vegan diet may be unhealthy for a cat, but there's no reason to jump so strongly to that conclusion.

 

First of all, there is a cat in my neighborhood I feed, take to the vet and let in my house. I feed him food from a local company called Muenster Feed Co. The meat they put in their pet food is fit for human consumption. It isn't quite ribeye and filet mignon, but it is about the same quality stuff as lean hamburger meat you would find in the grocery store. If I was starving I would eat the stuff.

Also, many cat foods contain a small amount of plant ingredients, generally no more than 10%. But just because they eat it doesn't mean they extract the nutrients from it. Plant matter takes much longer to digest than meat, which is why herbivores and omnivores have long digestive tracts. Carnivores like cats have short digestive tracts, while meat is digested in time, plant matter will not be digested by the time it comes out the other end, thus it has little to no nutritional value for the cat.

 

Dok,

If a vegan diet may be unhealthy to a cat, does that not mean that we owe it to the cats in our care to find out for sure before we force it upon them?

 

Oh yeah, no argument with you on that point. If I had a cat, I'd research the subject before feeding it a vegan diet.

 

Fair enough. Most companies don't put very high quality meat in their products at all. If I was starving it would be quite likely I'd eat anything really- survival instincts.

I always thought meat took longer to digest than vegetation, but that might just be in humans- I'm not one for biology, so I'm not claiming to be right. Hehe. Also, the cat still can eat meat- which was my original point. It can still hunt for birds etc. if it wants to. Just because you feed it a vegan diet doesn't mean it's always vegan. Also, yeah of course you need to research it, but I researched what I eat- one of the many reasons I became veggie is because I found out that it was healthier than being an omni.

Summer. xx.

 

That's a silly analogy.. you'd be very unhealthy if you ate nothing but fries & pop. Vegan cat food is balanced to meet the nutritional needs of the cat so your analogy really doesn't fit.

 

i thought meat took longer as well. isnt that the whole thing with meat rotting in your colon, flushing it out and stuff. anyone heard of that slogan "beef, its whats rotting in your colon." ?

 

I think a vet would be the best person to ask for this sort of thing. But I don't see why cats couldn't be vegan...

http://www.vegancats.com/

Btw, Astrocat is vegan, although she's not a real cat, she's more like a semi-ferocious wild creature... ;-)

 

i'm not too sure where i stand on this.

for the most part, i think i'm against it. simply because, when i went veg, it was because i cared for animals. but also, because i feel that humans weren't meant for an omni diet, and that veg*n is more natural.

but for cats and dogs, however, they are natural omnivores. i think they should be fed an omni diet. the trick though, is to find good, healthy organic cat/dog food.

but on the other hand, if the animal likes the veg diet, then i say let them have it.