My experience feeding my cats a vegan diet (and my eventual compromise)
After all the stuff I learned about vegan cat food diets and nutrition, I formulated a plan for incorporating a vegan diet in my own cat’s life. However, super big caveat … and that is that I have not been able to comfortably and completely switch to an all vegan diet. What I’ve done instead, based on my learnings, is incorporate a vegan diet into my cat’s protein rotation. This is my compromise for now. It’s like when I first decided to stop eating meat - I quit eating everything but beef. I then ate beef for about a year before quitting all meat. I’m not saying I will switch to all vegan for my kitties. Rather, I’m doing what I can for now to lessen my (and my cats’) impact on animals suffering in factory farms, the carbon footprint created in the manufacturing of cat foods, as well as the environmental impact. Most importantly, I believe that feeding my precious Spot the same dry manufactured food (chicken and corn) every single day for his entire life eventually contributed his early demise.
Here is an example of the current feeding plan I’m experimenting with and the rotation of proteins. I rotate these feedings weekly and give a variety of textures/types throughout the day:
Week 1: Chicken Morning: Manufactured single source chicken protein dry cat food Afternoon: Raw chicken Evening: Manufactured single source chicken protein canned food Night: Raw chicken Week 2: Beef Morning: Manufactured single source beef protein dry cat food Afternoon: Raw beef Evening: Manufactured single source beef protein canned food Night: Raw beef
Week 3: Veggie Morning: Low alkaline or acidic homemade fillers (rice, barley, amaranth, etc.) with supplements Afternoon: variation of above Evening: variation of above Night: variation of above
Week 4: Beef Morning: Manufactured single source beef protein dry cat food Afternoon: Raw beef Evening: Manufactured single source beef protein canned food Night: Raw beef
Week 5: Fish (very low acidic food [more below] so I keep it away from veggie rotation) Morning: Manufactured single source fish protein dry cat food Afternoon: Freeze dried raw fish Evening: Manufactured single source fish protein canned food Night: Freeze dried raw fish Week 6: Chicken Morning: Manufactured single source chicken protein dry cat food Afternoon: Raw chicken medallion Evening: Manufactured single source chicken protein canned food Night: Raw chicken medallion Rotate and Repeat! I do 2 - 3 weeks of meat protein and then a veggie protein week. I’m using the word week loosely as it can be more or less depending on how much meat I purchase raw. In between each “week” (approximately 5 - 7 days) I combine the proteins for 2 - 4 days to transition them into the next “week” of protein. For the remainder of my post I want to focus only on the veggie rotation.
In my last blog post I talked in length about a vegan diet for cats, their nutritional needs, fillers, allergies, and more. I learned a lot in all the research I did to write that article. To be honest, upon doing my research, I got a little scared of potentially feeding my kitties a diet that may be missing key nutrients and about them possible developing urinary tract infections. I also was not happy about the choices of manufactured vegan cat foods on the market and their ingredients. Not only am I not happy with their ingredients but two big problems with feeding a cat dry vegan food are that cats may not be getting enough water and plant proteins are naturally more alkaline. Here’s a good chart that identifies acidic and alkaline foods (http://greenopedia.com/alkaline-acid-food-chart/). Therefore, when I do my veggie protein week rotation I make my own food.
When making my own food one very important consideration is the pH balance of the food I’m feeding them. Cats are not like us where we should have an alkaline diet. Cats instead need a more acidic diet (http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=1+2142&aid=2729). Their urine pH should be around 6.0 to 6.5. Either too high or too low can lead to crystals, blocking a cat’s ability to urinate, which can be very painful and in some cases even fatal. Very serious indeed. Therefore, I use the aforementioned chart to identify acidic and alkaline foods help in deciding what to feed my kitties to keep them in balance, http://greenopedia.com/alkaline-acid-food-chart/. This is all very new for me and I’m still in an experimental stage. Two of my three cats came with my house. They were born and bred outside kitties taught to hunt, kill, and eat meat to survive by their momma. They were near feral when we decided to take them in. They HATE veggie week. My inside kitty could care less … and weighs about 19 pounds (another by-product of modern manufactured cat food diet). He will eat most anything.
So, back to why I make my own food for veggie week. Unfortunately, every single manufactured vegan dry cat food on the market has some sort of corn byproduct as the protein source. If you have found an alternative to this please let me know - I would love to hear it. In my research, corn gluten (by-product) is incredibly unhealthy and unnatural to feed to a cat … or most animals. Corn. Where do I start. There are many aspects to this that I want to research and explore to get the best info available. Therefore that will be a separate post all on its own. Stay tuned! For now, this is something that I will never feed to my cats because it’s an unhealthy unnatural by-product food source for cats, In addition, most corn is GMO. I also believe that this product contributed over time to Spot’s IBD. Feeding a cat corn gluten all day every day for years can lead to severe food allergies. Spot suffered with allergies for years but just small symptoms here and there which would clear up when my vet would give him the occasional steroid shot. He would have sores from constant itching and licking as well as runny eyes with small scabs. Here’s a good quick easy read about corn gluten meal added to pet foods, http://veterinaryholistics.com/nutrition/corn-gluten-meal/. I wish I would have known earlier to eliminate corn from his diet to help with his allergies (as well as all the other cheap fillers and preservatives in common manufactured pet food). I know he would not have passed away from IBD if I had caught this a couple of years back when the signs started to manifest themselves.
So, bottom line, I won’t use corn as a base or filler for veggie week. In making my own food I’ve been using the food chart mentioned above and feeding them “whole” foods. I’ve been experimenting with ingredients such as barley, amaranth, tahini (sesame seeds), brown rice, sweet potatoes, carrots, and legumes. So far, my cats will tolerate (not like) sweet potato mixture and barley mixture. It is very important, if you choose to do this, to follow a recipe that includes a balance of protein, fat, and nutrients. Please see my other recent post where I write in depth about nutrients your cat needs to be healthy, http://www.holistickitty.org/#!We-are-what-we-eat-Vegan-Cat-Food-Diet/c21kp/56bc068d0cf2fd311cdebe23 I use a couple of different supplements in making my own cat food. I cannot recommend one brand over another. Please do your own research (thoroughly) to ensure you are giving your cat all the nutrients it needs. Keep a very close eye on your cat’s mood, behavior, and look/feel of your cat. Making your own food (and a vegan diet) if done incorrectly could have detrimental results and can be fatal. I supplement the following:
Vitamin, mineral, amino acid supplement specifically formulated for cats
Supplemental enzymes specifically made for cats
Supplemental soil based pro- and pre- biotics specifically made for cats
Slippery Elm specifically made for cats
Psyllium Seed Powder specifically made for cats
Cranberry extract (for pH balance) specifically made for dogs/cats
Sprinkle Brewer’s Yeast
In my post referenced above there are signs to look for regarding nutritional deficiencies. It is also very important to keep a close eye on the pH level of your cat’s urine. As a reminder, there are quite a few test kits out there for pH levels and special litter. Here’s a site I really like with tricks on collecting urine to test, http://www.sugarpet.net/urine.html. Kits and litter I’ve found online:
Cat and Dog U.T.I. Home Test Kits by Cranimals
Solid Gold Urine Testing pH Strips
Phinex Diagnostic Ph Test Strips
… and various litters to detect pH imbalance
Finally, how do I keep this all straight? Especially because my husband and I both feed the cats? Put it all down on a chalkboard in the kitchen. During vegan week, I feed my cats four times a day, 2 heaping tablespoons of “wet” food (which would be barley, or sweet potato, etc.) and add all the supplements specifically formulated for cats to provide the optimum nutrition levels they need including daily protein) with added water. I put the recipe down plus all the measurements for the supplements listed up above on the chalkboard. On the bottom of the chalkboard I write down the protein rotation to see what is coming up in the next couple of weeks. Works well … so far. However, I am struggling with my cats accepting the food recipes I’ve come up.
To conclude, you may be seeking an all vegan diet for your cat based on ethical reasons. If you’re struggling with this as I am you may try to compromise and consider alternatives such as rotating their food to include vegan meals. There is also the possibility of an Ovatarian diet (eggs) or Pescatarian (fish). I feel like any time you at least cut down on meat (if you can’t eliminate it completely) can help alleviate the problem of animals suffering in factory farms, your carbon footprint, and the environmental impact of mass manufactured cat food. While I can’t recommend specific alternative diets over any other type of diet it’s always worth researching further. Just be sure that your cat’s nutritional needs are being met to keep your kitty healthy and happy.
Coming soon! I will write another full post about recipes and what has worked best for my finicky kitties, In addition, I will talk more about raw food, manufactured dry food, their sources, and my experience with this type of food and diet.