How to Choose Vegetarian and Vegan Cat Foods?

A vegetarian or vegan diet means avoiding meat and animal products such as milk, eggs, and cheese. People choose a vegan diet for ethical reasons: animals should not suffer for human taste. A person can make up for the lack of vitamins by purchasing the missing elements, so the vegan lifestyle is healthy and does not harm the body. But if a person is omnivorous, then physiologically cats have always remained carnivores.

Animal rights activists often argue that feeding a carnivore food without meat is blasphemy and a violation of the rights of pets. However, protecting cats from vegan food, animal lovers do not think that their protection is dooming to the death of hundreds of other living things. Vegans strive to stop the killing of peaceful creatures, and this is the main purpose of vegan food. The discussion of vegetarian pet food has been going on for a long time.

Most often, in conversations, the vast majority of people do not seriously consider the prospect of refusing to eat meat, let alone the refusal of their pets from foods containing meat. The decision will always remain with the owner of the cat, because he must accept responsibility for the possible deterioration of the animal's health.

There are examples of cats that do not eat meat and eat meat substitutes.At the same time, some owners incorrectly feed the cat with vegan food (too often or without vitamin complexes and supervision by a veterinarian), which makes the transition to plant foods difficult.

Often people are used to not distinguishing between two concepts - veganism and vegetarianism. In fact, there is a difference, and it essentially separates the terms presented. Vegetarian pet food is a food that does not contain meat. Such feed may contain animal skins, crushed bones, milk whey.

Vegan food excludes all products obtained by killing animals. These include, for example, milk, meat residues. Thus, vegan cat food is different from vegetarian. There are no vegetarian foods in the cat food industry, with rare exceptions because it is impractical to produce such food.

The easiest transition to a meat-free diet in dogs: they painlessly exclude animal products from the diet for health, while the cat needs to supplement the diet with probiotics and vitamins. The complexity is associated with the body of the animal, which for centuries hunted for food.

Selection Tips

• It is more difficult to get a vegetarian or vegan food in Russia than in other countries. To purchase this food, you need to find an online store that sells such food, and make a large order (from several kilograms).
• The most popular brand of vegan pet food is Ami. The manufacturer's assortment includes not only dry food, but also delicacies, for example, algae additives. Making a choice in favor of this brand means purchasing certified products.
• The main thing is to study the composition of the feed before purchasing. It is important to check whether all the necessary components are present in the composition, otherwise the owner will have food with a small amount of useful impurities. It is desirable to give preference to natural formulations without chemical components.
• In Russia, you can find domestic producers of vegan food. To trust them or not is everyone's business. If the reviews and the composition of the food are distinguished by good indicators, then you can safely order a small amount of vegetable food for a sample of your pet.

When switching to a special diet, the pet needs increased care and attentiveness when feeding. Many owners neglect the individual approach to cat nutrition, which is why they make many mistakes. The most common ones are described below.

• Buying food without examining the composition. The specificity of the vegan diet obliges the owner of the cat to carefully study the ingredients of all feeds that are purchased for the animal's nutrition. In reality, the pet owner often buys a vegetable analogue of meat indiscriminately, ordering the first vegan food that comes along.
• Chaotic feeding. Even dry meat food must be dosed and given to the cat at a certain time of the day, and in the case of vegetable food, you need to be even more careful when preparing meals. Often, the owners pour a little feed into the bowl from time to time, which is a gross mistake from the point of view of proper feeding of the pet. The accompanying information about the meals on the label of a particular feed will help to avoid the problem - the manufacturer indicates the required amount of feed and the frequency of feeding.

We are talking about the pros and cons for the pet - the expensive cost of vegan food will not be a minus, since this does not affect the cat.Also, in the pluses there is no point that, thanks to the rejection of meat feed, the cat's conscience will be calmer - a person soothes himself this way, and the cat does not think about the origin of the food at all.

pros

• Avoiding meat in dry or liquid food will significantly reduce the risk of infections in the pet's body. The reason lies in the fact that even in prestigious and expensive feeds, the meat of old and sick animals is used, which cannot be eaten by people as food. This meat goes through several stages of processing, during which it turns into dry food for cats. In addition to vitamins, the cat runs the risk of getting serious diseases.
• Frequent nausea goes away if the cat goes on a vegan diet. The meat problem in pet food also aggravates digestion: the cat does not receive meat, but crushed, chemically-flavored cubes of a bad meat product. Because of this, the cat may vomit - the body does not digest such a substance. With vegetable food for cats, everything is easier: assimilation is quick and painless due to natural ingredients.

Minuses

• The feline family is predators. Over the years, changes in feline nature have led to the cat being a carnivore. This suggests that it is extremely problematic to switch to meat-free food. Even in expensive feeds, the carcasses of sick animals are used, so there is a small percentage of meat products. If a person decides to transfer a pet to a plant-based diet, he needs to consult a veterinarian. Also, once every two weeks, you need to visit the veterinarian and follow his instructions in order to avoid health problems.

• Pet's reluctance to eat plant foods. Cats and cats generally do not like dry food. When the owner offers plant-based food, cats most often react negatively to the diet. You can mix meat and vegetable feed with each other, gradually reducing the amount of meat.

• You need to carefully draw up a feeding plan for the animal. Most likely, the owner of the cat will need to feed the animal every few hours the allotted portion to avoid malnutrition. In addition, a vegan diet does not include all the nutrients a feline needs. Every month, after being examined by a veterinarian and having been tested, it is advisable to purchase food supplements for cats - vitamin complexes will provide the body with the missing components.

After studying the above data, the question is brewing of whether it is necessary to try to transfer the cat's diet to food without meat. There is no definite answer, but if the cat appreciates the taste of such a diet, eating meat-free will bring relief to the owner's conscience and improved digestion for the cat.

And although veterinarians unanimously insist that the healthy development of a cat is impossible without meat, research on this topic has not been carried out. If you search, you can find literary works of vegans who have studied the physiology of animals and offer their ideas for avoiding meat in the diet of four-legged pets.

Takeaway: Cats can eat a plant-based diet and still stay healthy if careful.

See below for veterinarian advice on feeding vegetarian food to cats.