I am the pet of three cats. If you have cats you understand that statement. This includes one stray that adopted us. These cats eat all day, or they would if I fed them all day. The food they eat is, of course, an animal-based food. Cats are natural carnivores, they will not survive from a vegetable only diet no matter what you read. Feeding them so will lead to blindness and death. So this leads me to ask, are vegans truly vegan if they purchase and feed to an animal they keep animal-based food? I think so, but others disagree and believe cats can be healthy eating a plant-based diet. Others have thought the same but changed position.
Urinary tract problems are extremely common in cats and, because of the relative acidity of meat to vegetable protein, many vegan cats suffer from them.
Although we have been giving advice for some time on how these problems can be minimized while still feeding a completely vegan diet, we have found that the vast majority of our customers have not been following this advice.
Unless you are very committed to following the advice outlined below, we therefore recommend that you mitigate the risk of urinary tract problems by feeding males cats only a 25-75% vegan diet and females a 50-100% vegan diet.
Why would anyone risk harm to an animal by forcing a diet their bodies are not designed to subsist from? That is NOT vegan.
Are keeping cats, or any other pet, vegan? This is another question I have seen asked, but not often. Let’s take for instance, the stray we have. Venus is an outside cat, she has a nice warm place to sleep here and gets fed 3 times daily. She gets attention and has a home. If we did not take her in she may have been dead at this point, starvation or even hit by a car in search of food. We have done our part to help this animal. The other two cats we have that stay inside are similar but they were not strays, they were chosen by us from a litter of kittens someone had to give away 7 years ago. They too are fed 3 times a day and have a warm place to sleep. Where would they be if not here with us? In harm’s way or dead? I am helping these cats survive.
One of those mindless rambles but I have three mouthy cats that made me think about it.
Cats have evolved to live with humans. As you recognize, they are in great danger on their own. Together, cats and humans have what is called a commensal, or mutually beneficial, relationship. I also don’t think that feeding cats a vegan diet is vegan at all: it causes them harm. For someone who is truly uncomfortable buying cat food, there is always free-range organic meat which can be ground up for the cat. Unpleasant, but choices must be made…