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Vegan Catfood Exists?! Why? Is this Healthy?

post #1 of 37
1/18/06 at 7:10pm
Thread Starter 
I went to a rescue's site (trying to find a rescue to place a cat into...long story), when I scrolled down and saw that they only gave their cats vegan catfood. Surprised, I clicked on the link and was taken here:

http://www.vegancats.com/pages/1002/...Ready_Made.htm


Now, I understand wanting a world where cats and mice frolic in a daisy field somewhere, stopping only to sleep and nibble on lettuce sandwiches, but this is NOT that world, an I just do not see how a shelter of all places could go so far trying to promote vegan lifestyles that they would feed a carnivore pea soup on a daily basis. Does that not count as cruelty somehow?
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post #2 of 37
1/18/06 at 7:15pm
I believe it does count as cruelty.......


However some people feel that they need to push thier beliefs onto thier pets and children..... .

This counts for all groups of people.....Not just vegans...As I know tons of vegans who feed thier pets and children the nutrients they need....
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post #3 of 37
1/18/06 at 7:29pm
I do not think it is healthy, and doubt that anyone can convince me otherwise! Here is a interesting and very honest look at the topic: http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.ph...vegetariancats
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post #4 of 37
1/18/06 at 7:33pm
I agree that a vegan diet for a cat is absolutely not wise, as it does not contain adequate nutrition! As obligate carnivores, they must have meat.
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post #5 of 37
1/18/06 at 7:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pat & Alix
I do not think it is healthy, and doubt that anyone can convince me otherwise! Here is a interesting and very honest look at the topic: http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.ph...vegetariancats


I ws just reading through the article you have there....and it is was quite surprising about the common occurances of UTI's in vegan cats......Thats really interesting......

Thanx for the info
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post #6 of 37
1/18/06 at 7:45pm
Ugh...these are the vegans that make people look at me like I have 3 heads when I tell them I'm vegan.

Cats. eat. meat. End of conversation. They have all the correct apparatus for being predators. Humans, we could have an interesting discussion about. But cats...really obviously have the ability and impetus to hunt. They need to.
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post #7 of 37
1/18/06 at 8:17pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pat & Alix
I do not think it is healthy, and doubt that anyone can convince me otherwise! Here is a interesting and very honest look at the topic: http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.ph...vegetariancats

i did not know that it caused increased uti occurences. maybe that is wht it is so prevalent in cats fed strictly low-quality cornmeal-esque foods.
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post #8 of 37
1/18/06 at 8:17pm
What the hell is WRONG with people! That is absolutely ridiculous for people to expect their cats to live according to their vegan ethics. They are clearly doing more damage than good. Cats are carnivorous predators by nature. Sheesh!
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post #9 of 37
1/18/06 at 8:24pm
Oh, lordy.
I'm vegetarian about 60% of the time and non-dairy about 60% of the time as well because of a gastro-intestinal condition. I appreciate the health benefits and the principles behind veganism and vegetarianism and support anyone's dietary choices.
I don't think these vegans are "bad" for making their cats eat vegan foods. Just, well, it doesn't make any sense. Cats don't have claws and big pointy teeth so they can hunt down a carrot. I've witnessed the prey drive in my own cats--who are pretty far from the "wild" that's for sure! When Oliver was just a kitten we lived in student housing and had a mice infestation. Not for long. He got about three of them, and I think they got the message.
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post #10 of 37
1/18/06 at 8:37pm
Very sad that people take their beliefs and push them onto another being where it just doesn't fit! As previously posted, a cats pointy teeth can tell you it is meant to eat meat! And the science agrees.

Even that Vegan cat site reports the issues with vegan feeding!
http://www.vegancats.com/pages/1007/FAQ.htm
So if you choose to feed a potentially unsafe food to your kitty, be sure to get frequent labwork so you can monitor them as they become ill! Nice plan, how about feed according to their nature?!?
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post #11 of 37
1/19/06 at 2:10am
I would say to them, if you don't want to feed meat, don't keep a meat-eater. Dogs can manage well on a veggie diet, cats need meat, it's how they have evolved. I feel sorry for the cats!
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post #12 of 37
1/19/06 at 6:05am
I wouldn't have a problem with vegan cat diets if they were providing the right nutrients for cats... but from what I read many times on this forum, it doesn't seem like they do.

I wouldn't have a problem "imposing" beliefs in vegetarianism on animals as long as it doesn't hurt them.

As far as "imposing" vegan diets on children, I don't see a problem with it. Humans can be quite healthy on a vegan diet (a lot healthier in my opinion than by eating too much meat... which most North-Americans do anyways)
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post #13 of 37
1/19/06 at 6:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lionessrampant
Ugh...these are the vegans that make people look at me like I have 3 heads when I tell them I'm vegan.

Cats. eat. meat. End of conversation. They have all the correct apparatus for being predators. Humans, we could have an interesting discussion about. But cats...really obviously have the ability and impetus to hunt. They need to.
I really respect you for saying that.

I agree that that its these sort of people who ruin it for the majority of sane vegans or animal rights people.
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post #14 of 37
1/19/06 at 7:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by maverick_kitten
I really respect you for saying that.

I agree that that its these sort of people who ruin it for the majority of sane vegans or animal rights people.
There are SANE animal rights people? (I refer to myself as an animal welfare advocate so people don't confuse me with the radicals out there...)

I asked my father, who is an animal health and nutrition specialist and has been for many (30+) years, about feeding cats a vegetarian/vegan diet. He said that it is *possible* for them to do OK on it IF there foods are supplemented with the proper nutrients, particularly the correct amounts of Taurine. Naturally, Taurine is almost exclusively found in meat, but there are synthetic versions of it that can be absorbed in the feline system. While he didn't recommend it by any means, he wasn't nearly as against it as I thought he would be.
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post #15 of 37
1/19/06 at 9:14am
A vegan diet should never be given to a cat. This is wrong. A cat must eat meat..period. My exotics would die if given a vegan diet. As for the part about sane animal rights people...sorry, there is no such thing
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post #16 of 37
1/19/06 at 9:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by maverick_kitten
I really respect you for saying that.

I agree that that its these sort of people who ruin it for the majority of sane vegans or animal rights people.
Hey, if I had claws and sharp teeth and special hearing and scent tracking, I wouldn't have a problem eating meat, either!
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post #17 of 37
1/19/06 at 10:41am
I have seen this exact same debate on another board.
The consensus there was the same as here. NO WAY
On that site is a extremist Vegan. Really nice girl, always politely debates.
But boy can she stir it up all the while being polite.
She is very religious and said, "Jesus was a vegetarian"
You can just imagine the outcry over that one. Holy Cow
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post #18 of 37
1/19/06 at 12:14pm
I've seen this food advertised over here, but no mention of it being vegan was in the ads. I'm glad I didn't decide to try it. I'll now add the dealers of it to my list of companies to personally boycott.
There's a large animal shelter here in Germany that attempted to turn all the dogs and cats into vegetarians. The dogs, for the most part, accepted the vegetarian food, but all the cats refused it.
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post #19 of 37
1/19/06 at 12:33pm
Any vegan that feeds a cat a vegan diet is not a vegan at all, but an animal abuser who should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I have no sympathy for a person like that. They are not vegan. A person who hurts an animal and denies it the basic necessity of food and nutrition cannot be a vegan by definition. That makes me so angry! I was vegan for about five years and I would have never, ever done that to my cat.
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post #20 of 37
1/19/06 at 1:02pm
In one of the first couple of seasons of Animal Precinct in NYC, two of the officers went on a call to a hoarder's apartment. The older lady had a LOT of cats and since she was vegetarian/vegan, she insisted that her cats would be as well. Apparently, she didn't understand about the need for Taurine in their diets... pretty much each and every cat in that apartment was extremely malnourished and sick. The officers confiscated most of the cats, allowing her to keep a few on the promise that she'd feed them normal cat food. Although her English wasn't very good, she did at least understand that if she continued along this path, her cats would not survive. I never saw a followup, but I assume she started doing the proper thing.

I do eat meat... though not all the time. Now, if you told me that the only thing I could eat for the rest of my life was a raw veggie platter with ranch dressing, I'd be in hog heaven (I have one in my fridge right now). I wouldn't miss meat too often. I eat it because I'm really bad at cooking vegetarian (that slow cooker stew was really nasty - blech), although I'm trying to integrate it more and more into my own diet.

But I will never, ever make my cats follow a vegan/vegetarian diet. I'm not that idiotic. They love their meat. I would never deprive them of what they love. I love them too much.

That said... it's almost dinner time for these two moochers. One can o'meat coming right up.

Amanda
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post #21 of 37
1/19/06 at 1:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by marie-p
I wouldn't have a problem with vegan cat diets if they were providing the right nutrients for cats... but from what I read many times on this forum, it doesn't seem like they do.

I wouldn't have a problem "imposing" beliefs in vegetarianism on animals as long as it doesn't hurt them.

As far as "imposing" vegan diets on children, I don't see a problem with it. Humans can be quite healthy on a vegan diet (a lot healthier in my opinion than by eating too much meat... which most North-Americans do anyways)
I agree. Just like I wouldn't impose a rabbit by feeding it meat. I don't know if a child can be fully vegan, but since adults can be I would have no problem with a parent raising their child that way. I would assume they would educate themselves about the health aspects and ensure the child's diet was balanced. (Probably more healthy than the Wendy's burgers and chicken nuggets I fed my kids last night!)

And I think often a vegan diet in humans consists of more than just food. To me it seems like it is more of a belief system. So I totally respect people bringing up their children in their beliefs, as I bring up my children in my beliefs. But to feed a cat vegan or a rabbit meat seems unhealthy and wrong to me.
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post #22 of 37
1/19/06 at 1:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ckblv
I have seen this exact same debate on another board.
The consensus there was the same as here. NO WAY
On that site is a extremist Vegan. Really nice girl, always politely debates.
But boy can she stir it up all the while being polite.
She is very religious and said, "Jesus was a vegetarian"
You can just imagine the outcry over that one. Holy Cow
But the nice thing is, nobody on this board is debating about it!
We all agree that cats do NEED meat.
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post #23 of 37
1/19/06 at 3:44pm
"And I think often a vegan diet in humans consists of more than just food. To me it seems like it is more of a belief system. So I totally respect people bringing up their children in their beliefs, as I bring up my children in my beliefs."

Just so long as they're careful to get all the nutrients a growing child needs. There was a recent case in FL, I believe, where a couple of raw food dieters attempted to feed their children a raw diet and one of them died.
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post #24 of 37
1/19/06 at 4:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ErinandSeamus
"And I think often a vegan diet in humans consists of more than just food. To me it seems like it is more of a belief system. So I totally respect people bringing up their children in their beliefs, as I bring up my children in my beliefs."

Just so long as they're careful to get all the nutrients a growing child needs. There was a recent case in FL, I believe, where a couple of raw food dieters attempted to feed their children a raw diet and one of them died.

I have heard of a few cases where mothers were giving their babies soy milk instead of regular "from a cow" milk and the babies got very sick
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post #25 of 37
1/20/06 at 2:35am
[Holy Cow] <------ hee hee great pun!

Anyway, I am strictly against feeding cats a vegan diet. Heck, I would prefer to feed Miya raw chicken and wet food only, but she won't touch raw chicken and she doesn't handle a full on wet food diet very well (even the better brands make her get the runs). As a mommy who loves her baby to death, I would never do anything to put her in danger.

I can't understand some of these animal rights people who promote this stuff. It seems to me they are abusing animals far more than they are helping them.

I think it's pretty simple: If you can't or refuse to give a cat proper care...including the food they are naturally inclined to eat, then do NOT own a cat. Get a rabbit instead.
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post #26 of 37
1/20/06 at 4:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Miyas_mom
I think it's pretty simple: If you can't or refuse to give a cat proper care...including the food they are naturally inclined to eat, then do NOT own a cat. Get a rabbit instead.
If your conscience won't let you to have anything to do with the meat industry, even if it's potentially dangerous to your animal companion, the you shouldn't have carnivores as pets. For the record, I know lots of vegans who have cats, but not a single vegan cat. I suppose in reality it's pretty marginal among vegans.

I think I've said this before, but: I'm vegan and I would never consider feeding my cats vegan food, they need meat and aren't moral agents anyway. Keeping cats includes supporting meat industry by buying them meat, there is no other option and I just have to deal with it, if I want to have the company of cats.

BTW: I consider myself pro-AR in many ways, and I've never had anyone question my sanity, untill today. Wow.
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post #27 of 37
1/20/06 at 4:57am
Theres actually a debate right now on a well known "animal rights" board about this.

A girl asked if it was ok to feed her cat meant and the vast, vast majority of people called her 'sick' and 'evil' and said that it would be healthier for the cat if it was vegan.
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post #28 of 37
1/20/06 at 5:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by vespacat
What the hell is WRONG with people! That is absolutely ridiculous for people to expect their cats to live according to their vegan ethics. They are clearly doing more damage than good. Cats are carnivorous predators by nature. Sheesh!


Couldnt have said it better.

I do not think they realize that cats cannot metabolize grains/veggies into proteins like dogs and people can. or they completely ignore the fact.
Either way man or cat, there is a food chain and it exists for a reason.
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post #29 of 37
1/20/06 at 5:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by maverick_kitten
Theres actually a debate right now on a well known "animal rights" board about this.

A girl asked if it was ok to feed her cat meant and the vast, vast majority of people called her 'sick' and 'evil' and said that it would be healthier for the cat if it was vegan.
Man, that's weird. We have discussed pet food in depht on my local AR board, and if I remeber correctly at all, there were no people with vegan cats, perhaps 2 people with vegan dogs, and the vast majority dissaproved of vegan cat food. There was something like one person, who thought it was a good idea, and he didn't have any cats.

Maybe it's differend in the US.
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post #30 of 37
1/20/06 at 5:36am
It's the teen/young people version of the board so maybe they are all crazier/more millitant?

This group is well known nationwide for being extremists. (Guessed who it is yet?)
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