Cat food: alternate fuels

http://www.vegancats.com/catfood.php

Unbelievably, my cats totally go to town on the canned stuff.

I can’t stop laughing at this question in the FAQ: “I am vegan, but I feel it is wrong to force my own morality onto my cats and dogs.”

We only feed our cats & dog Innova (http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=home-tab), which is a premium pet food that contains only human grade ingredients. We experimented with cooking for our animals for a while, which is really the best thing you can do for them, but the extra time and cost become annoying. Innova was the best compromise we found between cost and quality. It’s a more expensive than your basic meow mix, but it’s way better for them.

Most pet foods contain leftover waste products from slaughterhouses & packing plants that make products for humans. Stuff like melted down carcasses, bones and all, that go into the food as raw protien, but really have little nutritional value compared to the real thing. Also, pet foods often contain material from dead cats and dogs as raw protein as well. That’s right, soilent puppy chow is made out of PEOPLE!.. er dogs anyway.

Another thing to note, particularly with dog food, is what the first ingredient is. If the first ingredient is a grain product, dismiss it. Dogs don’t even digest it - it is put in as filler, and only makes your animal’s waste larger.

*edited to change link because the url tags were not working properly in phpbb

I wonder what they put in this mix to simulate animal proteins.

Cats, unlike humans, are obligate carnivores. Without animal proteins they can’t create taurine. Without taurine, they can’t do… well anything. It’s vital to the functioning of their central nervous system.

Edit-

And there is a link to a book called “Obligate Carnivore” right on there. The quote at the bottom sounds insane.

Industrial taurine, apparently.

apparently you’re supposed to give your vegan cat red bull instead of water

So, is the taurine in Red Bull suitable for vegetarians? I always assumed it was made from cow stomachs.

Frankly, I think that trying to force a cat to eat a vegan diet is cruel and inhumane.

No, it’s very humane. Just not very feline.

It’s just plain stupid. Cats are carnivores, therefore they eat meat. If anyone complains, they can enjoy a sumptuous feast of rocks and battery acid until their incredible idiocy stops manifesting itself.

:(

As absurd as this seems at first blush, the product makes sense to the degree that your goal is to not support mass producers of “regular” cat food (because of cruelty, poor standards, etc.). Of course that doesn’t explain why it has to be VEGAN. You could do just as well buying “free range” cat food or somesuch. I suspect that they’re hoping for business from vegans of the overzealous variety, despite what they say in the FAQ.

Personally, I’m going to keep feeding my cat the same stuff he’s always gotten (Iams low calorie cat food, bought at my local Faceless MegaCorporation, Inc.). His life expectancy is already WAY higher than it would be in the wild, and frankly he’s not really doing much with it.

My cats are usually free-range consumers. They eat any of the local wildlife they can, and will happily let silly old ladies feed them food too - and then come back and demand more food from me.

I’m vegetarian, but I have no problem feeding my pets meat.

Can someone answer my question about taurine in RedBull though?

shamelessly ripped from the first few sites that came up on google:

Taurine is a non-essential sulfur-containing amino acid that functions with glycine and gamma-aminobutyric acid as a neuroinhibitory transmitter. While taurine does not have a genetic codon and is not incorporated into proteins and enzymes, it does play an important role in bile acid metabolism. Taurine is incorporated into one of the most abundant bile acids, chenodeoxychloic acid where it serves to emulsify dietary lipids in the intestine, promoting digestion.

taurine relating to cats and dogs:

Taurine is a beta amino acid required by cats but not dogs. There are two reasons for this. First, the liver of the cat has a limited ability to make taurine, as the rate-limiting enzymes required for converting methionine and cysteine to taurine are only minimally active in the feline liver. Second, cats lose taurine in the secretion of bile acids (whereas other mammals also use glycine in the conjugation and secretion of bile acids, freeing up taurine for other uses). Found in the nervous system (including the retina) and muscles (especially the heart),

taurine is one of the most abundant amino acids in the body (and is the most abundant free amino acid in the heart). It is thought to help regulate heartbeat, maintain cell membranes, and affect the release of neurotransmitters in the brain. Taurine also protects the heart from calcium overload and assists in calcium uptake by the heart cells during periods of hypoxia (reduced oxygen levels).

THERAPEUTIC USES

In people, taurine’s best-established use is to treat congestive heart failure. Animal research as well as other, much smaller studies in humans have also found positive effects. One very small study compared taurine with another supplement commonly used for congestive heart failure, Coenzyme Q10. The results suggest that taurine is more effective.

As mentioned above, dogs do not have a dietary requirement for taurine, since they can make it out of vitamin B and the amino acids methionine and cysteine. Cats cannot do this; as true carnivores, they require dietary taurine.

Deficiencies can occur in dogs and cats fed vegetarian diets, as taurine (or the precursors for taurine) is present in meat but not in vegetables.

another general infobyte:

All about taurine…

Taurine is a nonessential sulfur-containing amino acid that functions with glycine and gamma-aminobutyric acid as a neuroinhibitory transmitter. At times of extreme physical exertion, the body no longer produces the required amounts of taurine, and a relative deficiency results. Taurine acts as a metabolic transmitter and additionally has a detoxifying effect and strengthens cardiac contractility. While taurine does not have a genetic codon and is not incorporated into proteins and enzymes, it does play an important role in bile acid metabolism. Taurine is incorporated into one of the most abundant bile acids, chenodeoxychloic acid where it serves to emulsify dietary lipids in the intestine, promoting digestion.

Derivation and location of Taurine

Taurine is a derivative of L-Methionine >>>>> L-Cysteine >>> Taurine. Taurine synthesis occurs in the liver and the brain. Concentrates of Taurine have also been found in extremely high concentrates in the brain, intestines and skeletal muscles.

Most amino acids have a L- or D- configuration, which means the molecule when put into a solution will rotate light either to the left (Levo=L) or the right (Dextro = D). Taurine does not polarize light and consequently does not have an L- or D- configuration.

It has been established that taurine concentration is extraordinarily high in the developing brain, and falls of sharply thereafter. This occurs at a time when the presumed synthetic pathway, via cysteine sulfinate decarboxylase, has little measurable activity, suggesting that a dietary source of taurine is essential. Moreover, it has been found that high concentrations of taurine are present in breast milk, which reflects the important need for taurine by the growing animal.

To directly answer your question, it appears that taurine can be found in just about any animal protein.

Thanks.

But what I wanted to know was if it was a synthesized version in RedBull (and thus vegetarian friendly) or made from cow-guts as I suspect.

I realise that the likelyhood of someone on QT3 really knowing this is low - but you never know. We have chefs and other food focussed people here.