Vegan is the future… for dogs and cats too! : vegan

[–] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

They need an appropriate array of vitamins, nutrients, and calories to stay alive. The way they do this naturally is to eat meat, but it's not the meat specifically that they need.

[–] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 3 points 4 months ago

you have to fortify the food but it's doable in principal. I'm assuming people are working on it by now

[+] dwzero@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] november@lemmy.vg 7 points 4 months ago

Because @truthfultemporarily@feddit.org heard the phrase "obligate carnivore" once and decided they didn't need to learn anything else about pet care.

[–] over_clox@lemmy.world -1 points 4 months ago (3 children)

They require meat proteins to live, plain and simple.

It's even law in some countries that classifies feeding cats a purely vegan diet is animal cruelty.

[–] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 7 points 4 months ago (2 children)

meat proteins

Proteins are chains of amino acids. There are probably proteins specific to animal muscle, but misguided legislation notwithstanding it's the amino acids that are nutritionally required, not any specific protein configuration of those animos, and you can get those from a massive array of non-animal sources.

[–] over_clox@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

Ah, well I guess today many of us are learning more details.

[–] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

well, there's also stuff like Taurine, so make sure you give your vegan cat some red bull from time to time

[–] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 4 months ago

My cat and I both have a diet of just redbull and edamame.

[–] merde@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

taurine and arginine, to be more precise.

[–] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Taurine and arginine are amino acids, building blocks for proteins, not proteins themselves. Animo acids are quite ubiquitous across life, not specific to any one type of life. eg Plants contain both taurine and arginine.

[–] merde@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago

thanks for the additional information

i remember reading that plants can't supply enough taurin. Luckily it seems easy to synthesize (that's how we have redbull &c

[–] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 months ago

And of course law is always, strictly based of the latest available science.

[–] thisfro@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 months ago

I don't know much about cats but this seems reasonable: https://cats.com/vegan-cat-food

Vegan cat food isn’t natural. It’s not normal. Cats will always want to kill and eat other animals. And yet—our cats aren’t natural.

Dr. Jennifer Coates, says “While it may be possible for a veterinary nutritionist to design a “vegan” recipe for cats that wouldn’t lead to disease, it would have to contain large amounts of nutritional supplements, some of which would probably have animal origins, raising the question of whether that diet would truly be vegan. Even more importantly, the goal in feeding pets is not simply to avoid diet-related illness but to promote optimal health and wellbeing. I sincerely doubt this is possible with vegan cat food.”