Vitamin D2 / D3 in Hound and Gatos

Hi!

I adopted a cat from a local shelter several months ago, and since then, the information on this forum has been a tremendous help for us in every aspect. Thank you! Although I've been lurking around for quite a while, this is my first post

Hound and Gatos Lamb canned food has been in my cat's food rotation. But today, I found out that H&G food has been removed from a "recommended list" on Natural Cat Care Blog ( http://www.naturalcatcareblog.com/2010/12/the-7-best-natural-commercial-cat-foods-so-far/ ) because of the use of "Vitamin D2" instead of D3.

I checked H&G Lamb cans that I have. They have "D2". (I don't use other flavors.) H&G website still lists "D3" for all the flavors except rabbit cans (which have "D2" and they were probably updated recently because they added a large can?).

For human, D3 is a better choice, it seems. I am taking D3 following my doctor's advice, but we never discussed how D3 was different from D2. According to a quick search on the web, D3 is something we get from sun exposure, and more "natural" as a supplement.

My question is, is D2 harmful to cats? Is this something we should avoid?

Thanks in advance.

Hi, and welcome to TCS

Sorry for the delayed response - things have been busy here and sometimes posts get missed.

Vitamin D2 is not harmful for cats - they just have more difficulty utilising it (rather like they can't utilise plant based omega oils but can process fish based omega oils).

It certainly sounds like there's inconsistent information regarding the Hound and Gatos line of foods. The only way to be certain which type of vitamin D they're using to to contact them directly.

In the meantime, I can't see any problems with feeding Hound and Gatos as part of a food rotation.

That's very interesting... we also feed our cats occasional Hound & Gatos lamb. This article discusses pet food and vitamin D3. It sounds like I wouldn't want to feed the cats only foods with just D2 but that it would be fine as part of a rotation. The cans I have also say D2.

Thank you, Columbine and LisaHE, for your responses!

I checked all the other commercial food my cat eats regularly (canned, dehydrated, and frozen raw). They all have D3 (except Primal frozen raw that has no added Vitamin D). I wonder why H&G chose to use D2 instead of D3, if D3 seems to be the better choice.

Maybe it's cheaper?

I've sent an inquiry to H&G about the inconsistent information.

I'd be interested to hear what H&G says about the D2/D3 question!

And Primal, hmm, I wonder which of the nutrient ingredients the Vitamin D in Primal might come from... we feed our cats a lot of Primal freeze-dried and I've sometimes wondered what critical vitamins and minerals comes from what ingredients.

LisaHE said:

 
I'd be interested to hear what H&G says about the D2/D3 question!

And Primal, hmm, I wonder which of the nutrient ingredients the Vitamin D in Primal might come from... we feed our cats a lot of Primal freeze-dried and I've sometimes wondered what critical vitamins and minerals comes from what ingredients.

Click to expand...

I had the same question about Primal. Looking at the ingredients, probably turkey liver and cod liver oil are the main sources of Vitamin D?

I hope H&G will reply to my inquiry.

Well... I have not heard from them.

I was browsing their website, and found that the URL of lamb food actually ended with "pheasant-catfood.aspx". For pork, it's "rabbit-catfood-2.aspx", etc. It is a bit messed up, it seems. I guess there's not many people working on just the website management at H&G (it's a small company, isn't it?).

So... I don't have any clear answer regarding the use of D2 / D3 yet, but I just assume they somehow started to use D2 as the can says but the website info hasn't updated.

Someone who commented at Natural Cat Care blog says H&G food is high in salt, but I cannot find any clear info on this either.

kiki39 said:

 
Well... I have not heard from them.

I was browsing their website, and found that the URL of lamb food actually ended with "pheasant-catfood.aspx". For pork, it's "rabbit-catfood-2.aspx", etc. It is a bit messed up, it seems. I guess there's not many people working on just the website management at H&G (it's a small company, isn't it?).

So... I don't have any clear answer regarding the use of D2 / D3 yet, but I just assume they somehow started to use D2 as the can says but the website info hasn't updated.

Someone who commented at Natural Cat Care blog says H&G food is high in salt, but I cannot find any clear info on this either.

Click to expand...

I know what you mean! I don't think anybody works on it! They're allegedly taking the gums out of their cat foods but that doesn't show on their Web site, either. (I haven't checked in a while but...)

LisaHE said:

 
I know what you mean! I don't think anybody works on it! They're allegedly taking the gums out of their cat foods but that doesn't show on their Web site, either. (I haven't checked in a while but...)

Click to expand...

Hmm... those three types of gums are still in the lamb cans that I have, and they are still included the ingredients list on their website.

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/290753/best-cat-food#post_3679719

Was this statement copied from their website? or maybe in the email or newsletter kind of thing? I can't find it anywhere now, though. 

kiki39 said:

 
Hmm... those three types of gums are still in the lamb cans that I have, and they are still included the ingredients list on their website.

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/290753/best-cat-food#post_3679719

Was this statement copied from their website? or maybe in the email or newsletter kind of thing? I can't find it anywhere now, though. 

Click to expand...

I think that statement if from Truth about Petfood, though I'm not sure if it's on their site or in their proprietary materials. (I think they do an annual report about recommended foods or something, though don't remember.)

The cans of lamb I have also list gums. I think it's the texture of their foods that our cats don't like so would love for them to get rid of the gums, which I think are unnecessary anyway!

I just saw that update on the Natural Cat Care blog and have been scouring the internet for credible sources on vitamin D2 vs. D3 for cats, and the only source I've turned up is one study published back in 2002: "Cats discriminate between cholecalciferol and ergocalciferol" by a researcher at University of California, Davis.  You can read the abstract here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15379909

Cholecalciferol is Vitamin D3.  Ergocalciferol is Vitamin D2.  Basically, the study shows that cat DNA receptors are more receptive/have an easier time binding/synthesizing Vitamin D3 over Vitmain D2.  Specifically, cats synthesize D2 with an efficiency of 0.7 of that of D3.  Or, cats can synthesize Vitamin D2 only at 70% the efficiency they do with D3.  

I've noticed that a lot of higher-quality canned food uses Vitamin D2, sometimes D2 in some formulas and D3 in others within the same brand.  I'm not sure what the exact reason is for that, but Hound and Gatos are not alone.  For example, the obscenely expensive Ziwipeak formulas use Vitamin D2 as well.

I suspect this study is the source of the Natural Cat Care blog's standards regarding Vitamin D3 vs D2--and if it is, I don't see too much harm in having foods with D2 in rotation with other foods with D3.  After all, 70% efficiency vs. 100% efficiency for vitamin D synthesis isn't too bad in the general scheme of things.

LisaHE, thank you for clarification, and, BeastAndFond, thank you for detailed information! and I'm sorry for my late reply.

I was hoping I would hear from H&G, but no, nothing.

BUT, I checked the Natural Cat Care Blog again, and, the info on H&G food has been updated. You can see it at the top of the blog, and also in the description of H&G food (7th on the list, rightmost column).

http://www.naturalcatcareblog.com/2010/12/the-7-best-natural-commercial-cat-foods-so-far/

So... it was a misprint and D2 was never used, it seems. Now, on H&G website, all the cat food including rabbit cans (which had "D2" in the description at least in July) have "D3".

There is no way for us to check which was used, and it may not matter which was used (in terms of safety). But... I feel a little bit uncomfortable with this "ending". What do you think?