In her interview, Dr. Armaiti May, DVM, discusses an important question often raised about vegan diets for cats: Is a practice only appropriate for cats if it occurs naturally?
Many things we routinely do for our companion cats do not happen in the wild. Yet, we use them because they can provide important health and welfare benefits.
- Living indoors vs. roaming the wilderness
- Regular meals provided by their guardians vs. hunting and eating whenever prey is available
- Eating nutritionally formulated dry or wet food vs. hunting mice, lizards, and other small animals
- Receiving veterinary care vs. managing injuries and illnesses without medical treatment
-
Being spayed or neutered vs. remaining intact and searching for a mate
What About Vegan Cat Food?
This does not, by itself, establish that vegan cat food is a suitable diet for cats. Instead, it highlights why we should evaluate a diet based on nutritional adequacy and health outcomes, rather than simply asking whether it resembles what a cat would eat in the wild.
A plant-based diet for cats must be formulated carefully to meet their nutritional requirements. When a vegan diet is complete and balanced, formulated by a qualified animal nutrition professional, appropriately supplemented with essential nutrients such as taurine, and monitored by veterinarians, it can be considered an alternative dietary approach.
Some potential benefits associated with appropriately formulated plant-based diets include high digestibility, reduced exposure to certain contaminants, fewer potential dietary allergens, support for weight management, and reduced stool and body odour. As with any diet, however, the individual cat's nutritional needs and health should be taken into account.
Ultimately, the question should not simply be “Is it natural?” but rather:
“Does it provide everything the cat needs to stay healthy?”
When evaluating a diet, the more important questions are whether it is nutritionally complete, appropriately formulated, safe, and capable of supporting the individual cat's health.Now, in terms of what's more natural. If the cat himself or herself is allowed to hunt Mice or lizards or little critters, that would be more in alignment with what's natural compared to a human hunting on behalf of the cat.
I mean, after all, cats still, although they do have a lot of domestication over the last 10,000 years, like dogs, they still have some wildness to them in many cases. And it depends on the individual cat, but some cats do go outside and do some hunting. It would really depend on the individual.
If the person wants to raise their cat as a vegan and can manage to get the cat to eat the food is just a matter of habituation. I mean, if we have kept them indoors, taken them to the vet, had them spayed and neutered, and gotten them other treatments at the veterinary office, those all would not be available to a wild cat.
And yet we recognize that those actions do have preventive health benefits. Spaying, of course, reduces the risk for mammary cancer in female cats; neutering prevents or reduces the risk for fights that can occur between intact male, Tom cats, who otherwise will have fights with each other, and they will get infections and abscesses and everything else, so they can also get hit by the car, of course, if they are in search for a mate, and the fact that they, uh, are less prone to those dangerous activities. If they're spayed and neutered, it means that their lifespan will be extended.
So I think it's worth acknowledging that we do intervene in these animals' lives in ways that nature would not have available to them that extend their life. And so if this argument boils down to a question of whether or not something is natural, then it's only fair to recognize that there are other things we do with our animal companions, such as neuter and spay them, that are not natural.
About Dr. Armaiti May, DVM
Dr. Armaiti May, DVM, is a veterinarian specializing in dogs and cats and currently practices in the West Los Angeles area.
Dr. May earned her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine in June 2005. She previously graduated with high honors from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Bioresource Sciences in May 2001.
1 comment
This is the perfect summary to my friends who are against spaying , neutering and against keeping these pets at home. Last 10.000 years we are keeping them as pets and they are not belong to 100% wilderness anymore. Thank you.