Yes, but I am questioning whether such a thing is being produced and actually equivalent. The thread further down cites for example synthetic taurine to be of inferior nutritional value to natural taurine.
This isn’t something I know a lot about, and it’s probably possible to produce vegan cat food with sufficient nutrition somehow, but there’s still a burden of proof that such a thing is actually on the market and shown to not be worse for cats.
Stealing this link from another comment. Apparently it is possible to feed cats vegan food however it’s very involved, difficult and expensive for a multitude of reasons, not just the nutrients.
I personally wouldn’t bother, even if I myself was vegan and I’d wager that most people who do try to make their cat a vegan don’t bother to do it the right and healthy way either…
From what the link says it doesn’t seem that hard if your cat happens to like some brand of vegan cat food you can get, since those seem to be generally nutritionally ok (also going off the study the other comment replying to me linked). I would hope that most people that can’t find a brand of vegan cat food their cat likes would just decide to not bother, or actually put in the full effort.
At that point the main scary thing is that if you only feed your cat one brand of food their entire life, they can sometimes get so used to it they refuse to eat anything else. But plenty of people run into that without going vegan, so eh. Overall it doesn’t seem to be an issue provided you’re not an idiot about it, which in this case I would actually guess most people aren’t.
Yeah that study is pretty convincing, especially along with the other commenter providing a link claiming that the parts of a cats diet that usually require meat can be quite easily synthesized from vegan sources. That’s good to know. (Minor caveat of the study would be considering cats that go outdoors as being on a vegan diet when they almost certainly eat wild animals, but it doesn’t seem results were inconsistent between cats that go outside vs. cats that don’t, or maybe the full study even mentions it).
Also fwiw I wouldn’t trust the first link on its own bc what companies claim and what they actually do doesn’t always line up, but when there’s multiple studies backing it it has much more credibility.
Yes, but I am questioning whether such a thing is being produced and actually equivalent. The thread further down cites for example synthetic taurine to be of inferior nutritional value to natural taurine.
This isn’t something I know a lot about, and it’s probably possible to produce vegan cat food with sufficient nutrition somehow, but there’s still a burden of proof that such a thing is actually on the market and shown to not be worse for cats.
Stealing this link from another comment. Apparently it is possible to feed cats vegan food however it’s very involved, difficult and expensive for a multitude of reasons, not just the nutrients. I personally wouldn’t bother, even if I myself was vegan and I’d wager that most people who do try to make their cat a vegan don’t bother to do it the right and healthy way either…
From what the link says it doesn’t seem that hard if your cat happens to like some brand of vegan cat food you can get, since those seem to be generally nutritionally ok (also going off the study the other comment replying to me linked). I would hope that most people that can’t find a brand of vegan cat food their cat likes would just decide to not bother, or actually put in the full effort.
At that point the main scary thing is that if you only feed your cat one brand of food their entire life, they can sometimes get so used to it they refuse to eat anything else. But plenty of people run into that without going vegan, so eh. Overall it doesn’t seem to be an issue provided you’re not an idiot about it, which in this case I would actually guess most people aren’t.
First result for me on “vegan cat food” https://veganpetfood.co.nz/
Second result for “studies on vegan cat food” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37703240/
Yeah that study is pretty convincing, especially along with the other commenter providing a link claiming that the parts of a cats diet that usually require meat can be quite easily synthesized from vegan sources. That’s good to know. (Minor caveat of the study would be considering cats that go outdoors as being on a vegan diet when they almost certainly eat wild animals, but it doesn’t seem results were inconsistent between cats that go outside vs. cats that don’t, or maybe the full study even mentions it).
Also fwiw I wouldn’t trust the first link on its own bc what companies claim and what they actually do doesn’t always line up, but when there’s multiple studies backing it it has much more credibility.
But yea you’ve convinced me