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Vitamins For Cat Nutrition

There are numerous chemical substances that are required for a cat to remain alive. These substances, some very complex chemical molecules and some very basic and simple, must be provided along the internal chemical reaction pathways at all times.

Like other living plants and animals, the cat can manufacture most of its own required substances within its own body's chemical factory. For example, Vitamin C is a requirement for life sustaining processes for us Mammalia, and dogs and cats make plenty of their own within their body's chemical factory - the liver. We humans don't make enough within our body chemical factory... so to keep ourselves alive we have to find some Vitamin C already made (preformed) somewhere in our environment, gather or capture it, then eat it. Without the Vitamin C, we'd die.

Dogs and cats don't have to worry about gathering, capturing, and eating other preformed Vitamin C. They don't care where their next grapefruit will come from because they make all the Vitamin C they need inside their own personal chemical factory.

On the other hand, there are numerous nutrients and chemicals that cats need that they can only acquire if they eat animal-derived tissues. That is, they need to prey on other living creatures that do make the essential chemicals that cats don't! Out of necessity, the cat has evolved ways to hunt down, capture and eat this prey in order to "borrow" the prey's nutrients.

Here are the description of important nutrients for cats:

Vitamin A
Also called retinol, is required at the cellular level by both cats.

Cats process little or no enzymes that will break down the plant-produced carotenoids. Must eat preformed active Vitamin A (that is, Vitamin A that already has been converted from carotenoids to its active form by some other creature such as a mouse or rabbit). Here's a good example of why cats are called strict carnivores they need to eat some other animal in order to "borrow" its active Vitamin A!

Niacin
An essential B vitamin (essential means must be eaten, can't be made inside the body's chemical factory.

Cats can obtain Niacin only by eating the preformed vitamin. Cannot convert Tryptophan to niacin.

Arginine
Is a building block for proteins, called an amino acid. Arginine is vital to many of the animal's internal chemical factory's functions. No Arginine and the entire factory goes on strike!

Cats are extremely sensitive to even a single meal deficient in Arginine and are unable to make their own Arginine within their chemical factory. Cats need lots of protein, and Arginine is involved in aiding the elimination of the protein waste products so the wastes don't pollute the whole factory!

Taurine
An amino acid that is not built into proteins, but is distributed throughout most body tissues. Taurine is important for healthy functioning of the heart, retina, bile fluid and certain aspects of reproduction.

Cats must eat preformed Taurine and since Taurine is not found in plant tissues, cats must consume meat to obtain Taurine. Cats can't make their own, therefore, Taurine is essential in the diets of cats. Here again, meat has to be supplied to the factory so the Taurine can be extracted for its many uses.

Felinine
Is a compound made from a sulfur amino acid (SAA) called Cysteine.

Cats have a much higher requirement for SAA than other Mammalia and are the only creatures to manufacture the
Felinine chemical. Felinine's role in the overall function of the chemical factory is unknown, but like most factories whose wastes generate offensive odors, any Felinine present in the male cat's urine alerts the neighbors that the factory is up and runnin'!

Dietary Protein

Cats if fed a perfectly balanced and 100% digestible protein in a diet, the cat will use 20% of that protein for growth metabolism and 12% for maintenance. Here's any easy way to say it cats need more protein in their diets than dogs do.

Arachidonic Acid
An essential fatty acid that plays a vital role in fat utilization and energy production.

Cats cannot make their own Arachidonic Acid even in the presence of adequate linoleic acid. The reason cats can't make Arachidonic Acid from linoleic acid is because the cat's chemical factory (liver) contains no delta-6-desaturase enzyme to convert linoleic to Arachidonic.

Fasting and Starvation

Cats do not mobilize fat reserves for energy very efficiently and, in fact, break down non-fatty body tissues for energy. This upsets the internal chemical factory and can lead to a very dangerous feline disorder called hepatic lipidosis. Never put a fat cat on a starvation diet, it might just put the entire factory out of business.

So, there you have an insight into some of the invisible goings-on in the cat. It should be obvious that a high quality, meat-based diet is imperative to a cat's wellness. There are no vegetarian diets for cats! And feeding your cat a homemade concoction of meat may be a disaster. There are a few good quality meat-based diets available to cat owners. Choose the right one for your pet.