Taurine is very important for cats, so if you’re making your own cat food. Make sure there is Taurine in it. Here is why…
It’s an amino acid, is critical for healthy eyes, normal heart functions and the dietary fats in cats. Many scientific studies have demonstrated that taurine helps with epilepsy, diabetes, hairloss, tooth decay and liver and heart problems in cats, just to name a few.
If cats don’t get enough taurine in their diet, they may become blind and develop serious heart problems (for example: the heart dilates, its walls become thinner and weaker, making the heart less effective and resulting in a form of heart failure), because cats aren’t efficient at producing taurine on their own. They get this amino acid in only two ways: From meatm and in the form of a supplement. Although, meat contains taurine, levels vary greatly across different meat sources.
It is considered fact at this point that cats do require taurine in their diet. It is even fairly widely agreed upon that cats should consume 1000mg (1 gm) or taurine per 2.2 lbs of food.
Taurine is now a requirement of the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) and any dry or wet food product labeled approved by the AAFCO should have a minimum of 0.1% taurine in dry food and 0.2% in wet food.
So it’s important for your cat that his diet contains enough taurine.
To give you an idea of the amount of taurine in foods, Here is a list, but please understand, these numbers are not concrete.
- beef muscle 10 mg/oz raw 1.7mg/oz cooked
- beef liver 5.5 mg/oz raw
- lamb13.5 mg/oz raw 3.6mg/oz cooked
- chicken 9.5mg/oz raw 2.3mg/oz cooked
- fish 36mg/oz raw
- shrimp 48mg/oz raw
- nutritional yeast 30mg/tablet or 1/2 teaspoon
So when given the inexact science behind figuring these numbers and the known dangers of under-feeding this essential amino acid to cats, it is recommended to supplement taurine in cats who are on a homemade diet.
More information at petngarden.com & www.vetlord.org
I was amazed, in your figures, to see the precipitous drop in taurine between raw and cooked, at least as far as chicken is concerned. When I switched to raw, I couldn’t believe the blow-back I got, from vets, about what a bad idea raw is. Sheesh. Nobody once mentioned the change in taurine levels. Let’s hear it for the internet. And you.
I can see why some vets have problems with it. If you change to raw meat, you have to think about fat, taurine, and more!
But a raw diet is absolutely, really healthy!
It sure seems that way. One thing, though: We had a lot of help with balancing meat, fiber for roughage, and supplements. Anybody who’s making the switch, please consider consulting this excellent resource:
https://secure.balanceit.com/index.php? for recipes and supplements. I am not a spokesperson; they don’t pay me; I just like what’s happened for Bugs with their diets.
Oh and one more thing. We use organic chopped chicken that we buy at the health-food store. It’s intended for human consumption. But even so, supermarket chicken and turkey has flavoring added, plus you never know about added sodium, or other fillers. Expense for human-organic is worth it, to me.
That looks like a useful site! Thanks!
I have a whole book about raw-meat diet. And it made me really interested into it. I know a lot of people who give their cats or dogs raw meat. And they are healthy, a lot of energy, and so on.
I so now and then give my cats some raw meat, but I’m planning to give them a raw-diet only in the future.
our vet gave us a hard time about Jimmie eat’n raw, but we give it to him once or twice a week. We just make sure it it fresh and organic. Its good for him (we think)
I wish I could afford to feed them raw, and had the time and my own meat grinder. I always give ‘the kids’ any raw scraps when I’m making dinner, as long as it isn’t too fatty.
I’d never even heard of taurine. I guess there’s a lot of things I need to learn about cat nutrition.
Well, as you know, Dianda, I don’t have cats, but the little kitties above are adorable!
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