Couldn't find anything backing up your claim that meat without synthetic taurine makes cats sick (which sounds like BS) and actually find some info that said that long-term affects of synthetic taurine is unknown in cats, and may not be as bioavailable for them as animal-based taurine.
Not seeing the word "synthetic" there chief. Wanna try again?
Also from your article: "Cat foods that contain high-quality animal-based protein will supply adequate levels of taurine for a normal, healthy cat.
Supplemental taurine may be added to certain cat foods, especially diets that are formulated for specific needs such as heart disease or growth and development"
Yes. I don't trust these things because they are often wrong and almost always leave out relevant information. Just click on the link and read the context. It's not that hard.
Food is just chemicals and it turns out it doesn't actually matter if the chemicals have a soul attached to them or not. Personally don't think vegans should own pets at all but the whole "they carnivores tho" is rly dumb
There is not vegan cat food that works just fine, and you're a fucking asshole if you force an obligate carnivore to become a vegan because of your personal human beliefs.
Cats eat no plant matter naturally. Absolutely none. If you have studies somehow proving that they can live by eating only things that they naturally never eat, feel free to educate me. But as far as I'm aware, attempting to put cats on a vegan diet is animal abuse.
I don't think they propose feeding your cats literally vegetables, but cat food made specifically for them, containing all the proteins and micronutrients they need, sourced from plant based materials.
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.
Well. My cat gets regular cat food, but I do kinda deny him "the choice of food". (He's prone to get diarrhea and gets a specialty food for sensitive stomachs.)
I fail to see how choosing for your cat somehow would he wrong, since literally every cat owner does it. We don't sent them shopping and accept whatever they bring home.
Vegan cat food is not just vegetables for the uninformed. It is made to have all the necessary components that a car needs in its diet, mostly it is just missing the death of an animal part.