Please: No Feeding Your Cat a Vegan Diet

People who come into my veterinary clinic sometimes ask me for recommendations if you're feeding your cat a vegan diet.

My answer is simple: I don’t recommend vegan or vegetarian diets for dogs orcats. You put your dog at risk for nutritional deficiencies without a meat-based diet. You put your cat at extreme risk if you eliminate meat from a feline diet.

The vast majority of nutritional pet experts believe that cats are obligate carnivores while dogs are more like us -- omnivores.

Cats Really Are Unique

You know the adage “Man cannot live by bread alone.” Well, cats can’t live on veggies alone.

As an obligate carnivore, cats not only require protein in their diets, but also they require protein from meat to thrive and survive. They are unable to make amino acids and essential fatty acids -- building blocks essential for life -- without meat.

Dogs, on the other hand, have evolved from being largely carnivorous to being omnivores. Although their protein and other nutritional needs are met more easily and safely with meat in their diet, a dog can survive on a carefully formulated supplemented vegetarian or possibly vegan diet.

Cats, as any feline lover knows, are not small dogs. Besides being a unique and fabulous species in so many ways, they also can’t make taurineor arachidonic acid, nutrients essential for life. And you just can’t add these to a vegan diet.

Cats not only require a higher protein level than other species, but also they also need specific amino acids to make life-sustaining proteins as well as arachidonic acid, and vitamins D and A, elements that are found in meat proteins, not plant proteins.

Feeding Your Cat a Vegan Diet

Good, respected pet food companies make vegan diets for pets.

Read the small print, however, on the commercial vegan diets. Wysong describes its vegan dry dog and cat food as “excellent for elimination protocols and as a base to a fresh meat source.” Translation: This is not a diet to be fed exclusively.

Commercial vegan diets are nevertheless superior to a home-formulatedvegan diet.

The respected pet food companies offering a vegan diet pay special attention to protein levels and mineral content, and they recommend that fresh meat be served in addition.

Vegan Diets Are on the Rise

Attitudes toward pets and food have changed dramatically in the past few decades. Pets are considered members of the family more than ever before. This is called the humanization of pets.

Add to that a huge rise in veganism in the human population, specifically the millennials, who are now the largest cohort of pet caretakers in the United States.

My millennial clients are acquiring more pets and less children. They eat less or no meat, have more ethical and health concerns about food and products, and treat their pets like starter babies.

If someone finds the idea of feeding a meat-based diet to a pet offensive, cats are not the right choice of pet for that household.

If there is no ethical way for someone to find a properly sourced food that meets the nutritional requirements of a furry feline, maybe get a rabbit.

Beware Claims of Healthy Vegan Cats

You will find folks out there who swear they have a healthy cat they are feeding a vegan diet.

Most veterinarians disagree. Dr. Cailin Heinze, VMD, a board-certified veterinary nutritionist and assistant professor of nutrition at Tufts, has written on this subject. “For cats,” Heinze states, “it’s really inappropriate.”

Dr. Lew Olson, PhD, is the author of Raw and Natural Nutrition for Dogs. “Trying to feed a cat a vegan diet,” he says, “would be like me feeding my horses meat. You’re taking a whole species of animal and trying to force it to eat something that it isn’t designed to handle.”

Nutritional Deficiencies Are Sneaky

The nutritional deficiencies and organ damage that result from a vegan diet in cats may take years to materialize.

While a vegan cat may look healthy for years, cardiac, eye, neurologic and other developmental deteriorations are developing under the radar. Taurine deficiencies, for example, lead to a fatal cardiac condition in cats called dilated cardiomyopathy. These cats do not show symptoms until their heart is already failing.

We used to see cases of this terrible heart disease frequently in cats who were fed dog food, home-cooked dietsor taurine-deficient cat foods. Adding a bit of taurine to a vegan diet is notgoing to be enough to meet the cat’s unique requirement for taurine.

Listen to why these vegans, Ana and Brian, feed their cats a natural meat diet:

My Final Thoughts on Feeding Your Cat a Vegan Diet

Clearly, most people trying to feed a vegan pet diet are doing this out of love for their petand strong beliefs about animal welfare, environmental concerns, etc.

These people are often vegans or vegetarians themselves and have a strong belief system in their food choices. But it is the veterinarian’s responsibility to explain the potential dangers listed above.

Some of my most dedicated vegan clients have gone to extremes. They let their cats out, hoping that natural rodent or bird kill would supply the meat portion of the diet.

Not a good idea.

Besides the potential dangers of outside lifefor your house cat, the amount of “meat” killed and eaten is completely random. There is no scientific way you could quantify whether or not the free-roaming lifestyle gives your cat the proper nutritionally balanced experience.

And we all know about our pampered cats who catch and kill an unsuspecting mouse, then leave the entire body to rotwhile they go back to their easy-to-find bottomless food bowl.

I respect everyone's beliefs, but my job as a veterinarian is to speak for the pets. Feeding your cat a vegan diet puts your cat in danger. If you choose to feed a limited diet for any period of time, please have the diet analyzed by a board-certified nutritionist.

This pet health content was written by a veterinarian, Dr. Debora Lichtenberg, VMD. It was last reviewed April 25, 2018.

If you have questions or concerns, call your vet, who is best equipped to ensure the health and well-being of your pet. This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See additional information.