What are your thoughts on this? To me it seems quite hypocritical to go out and buy dead animals to feed your cat but I don't know. I've seen 2 vegans (influencers) online who have cats and feed them non vegan food. Hmm. Thoughts?? If I were to get a cat (as a vegan) and feed him/her non vegan food would this make me a total hypocrite?
How I look at this-
The majority of usual meat based cat foods are not near optimal, in fact they're largely crap. I've defended this as being the by products of human meat consumption, so not really being all that responsible for additional animal deaths
Cats being domestic have no real prey, and if outside do real damage to the birds and small mammals they kill.
Typical cat food is fortified with taurine anyway--does it not contain enough formulated vitamins?
Pros: Cheap.
Cons: Not good nutritionally, but being the norm, it's easier to monitor
Vegan cat food. I don't have any personal experience, or know anyone who does in real life. We do have members who advocate for it, and have vegan cats doing very well. I would suggest looking up those threads, taking them with a grain of salt so to speak, as they can be heated!
It's not a cats 'natural' diet--it needs to be properly mixed in order to ensure the nutrients are bio-available>cats need taurine and vit A preformulated, and other things--I think a certain mix of aminos? or added aminos?
Anyway. What has always concerned was the ability to afford to have them monitored, and the worry of urinary issues, and other ills. I"ve dealt with so many cancers in my own cats, I can no longer use these as excuses. The typical dry and canned food, and I have always bought some pricier foods, are really far from a cats natural diet, and don't offer the proper nutrition
Of course theres all the chemical we live with that have an even greater effect on the small respiratory system of cats. All the off gassing of carper and treated laminate flooring.