Lecture 5 - Cat nutrition Flashcards
(29 cards)
Diet of cats.
obligate carnivores!
1 mouse = approximately how many kcal ME
approximately 30 kcal ME
cats can eat 10-15 mice a day.
Cat prefer food at what temp.
38,5’C
warm up food for convalescent cats
Cats should NOT be fed what alone?
dry food
min. 60% of calories should come from wet food or feed solely wet food.
Cat saliva does not contain
amylase.
Fructose is not what for cats?
harmful, but it will just be excreted in urine, they cannot digest it.
No fructokinase in liver – feeding sucrose is pointless and leads to fructosuria (which is not a problem actually).
Cats have less digestive juices than
dogs
◼ No amylase
◼ Pepsin and lipase are present in cats.
Cat Small intestine in comparison to dogs.
Shorter than in dogs, greater villus height.
Higher villi increase absorptive surface area but absorptive capacity still 10% less than of dogs.
Cats’ Pancreatic amylase production in comparison to dogs.
Pancreatic amylase production 5% of that in dogs
Describe the cat large intestine.
◼ Short! Approximately 40 cm
◼ Limited microbial fermentation
◼ VFAs present and at high levels
◼ Microbial fermentation IS important!
Most important amino acids to cats: (4)
arginine, cystine, methionine, taurine
Why do cats need arginine?
Arginine needed in the urea cycle.
◼ Ammonia cannot be converted to urea if A is missing.
Even 1 meal without A can result in hyperammonemia in less than 1 hour, dead 2-5 hours.
the first limiting AA tends to be
methionine
what is felinine
is an amino acid found in cat urine.
is a pheromone.
gives tomcat urine that strong smell.
Which B vitamins are important for cats?
B6, needed for transaminases, energy from
protein, requirement 1,7x higher than of dogs.
B12, B3/niacin; problematic in vegan feeds (duh)
Cats can not cleave β-carotene to
retinol
Cats need vitamin A only from animal sources! (e.g. liver)
Cats and vitamin D
Cannot produce in skin, they need it from a dietary source.
Vit D Abundant in liver but may even be too much.
If enough animal origin feed is fed, cats get enough D.
Cats and vitamin E
necessary when feed contains a lot of fish because they can develop a lot of free radicals in their abdominal fat. (yellow fat disease in cats)
Unsaturated FA means that antioxidants (vit E) needed!
yellow fat disease in cats
characterized by a marked inflammation of adipose tissue
It is believed that an overabundance of unsaturated fatty acids in the ration, together with a deficiency of vitamin E or other antioxidants, results in lipid peroxidation and deposition of “ceroid” pigment in the adipose tissue.
Most cases have been in animals that have had fish or fish by-products as all or part of the diet.
The specific cause is believed to be related jointly to the high unsaturation of the fish oil fatty acids and their lack of protection with vitamin E or other antioxidants.
Most common uroliths in cats.
Struvite – magnesium ammonium phosphate
◼ When urinary pH is >7 (6,5)
(too high for cats, needs acidification)
Calcium oxalate
◼ When urinary pH is <6
Feline Urinary pH is what when eating mice and rats?
pH 6,2-6,4
(calcium oxalate uroliths when pH less than 6)
In omnivores, maximal gluconeogenesis occurs in the post-absorptive phase. How about in cats?
gluconeogenesis is at its max in the absorptive phase in cats.
For cats, dog feeds lack:
protein, taurine, niacin, vitamin B6, methionine, choline
FEDIAF formula for cat’s
metabolic body weight = kgBW^0,67
