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Pets and climate change
Pets are wonderful. Cats and dogs are incredibly important companions for many people.
But they also have very high carbon footprints. The global population of cats and dogs have a carbon footprint larger than the whole of the UK. The amount of meat they eat could feed 450 million people.
Which is kind of scary...
As I wouldn't dream of asking you to get rid of a beloved pet, I'm asking if you've ever tried vegan pet food?
There are now very good formulations of vegan pet food, especially developed to have the required nutrients for both dogs and cats. Why not give them a try and see if your pet likes them? (there are also some insect based foods, which have low carbon footprints compared to meat)
But, whatever you do, don't try making your own vegan food for pets. Cats and dogs have very specific needs, and food needs to be carefully formulated to include everything necessary.
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Cats find it harder to digest plant protein (they can, but it's not ideal) and I don't know how they relate to vegan food in that respect. But vegan food can provide essentials like taurine. Interestingly enough, taurine has to be added to most meat based commercial foods as some taurine is lost/damaged in the cooking process.
Oh! Scratch that... I was looking to see how bad the digestibility problems was, and I found this...
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/10/3/541
Reading this, it looks like the issue with absorption of veggie protein is actually a fibre thing. Remove the fibre and cats have very high protein absorption.
Disclaimer The study does not report on the health of the cats and dogs in the study and the study was funded by a pet-food manufacturer.
Cat foods based on black soldier fly seem to have a lot going for them. Not least because cats chase and eat insects naturally.
BSF has a low environmental footprint and cats seem to like it (well, on a limited sample size from one web site).
"Researchers found that including black soldier fly (BSF) fat in the diet of feline and canine species benefits their brain and intestinal health, and it also has antimicrobial properties. Black soldier fly farming has increased at a rapid rate in recent years, and so too has the use of insects as feed."
But the rest of the article was hidden behind a paywall.
There's another puff article by a pet food company, which I won't quote, because I think they're a bit loose in the claims.
So, black solider fly based foods may be another viable alternative to meat based foods, or possibly try different foods on different days and see what the cat thinks?
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I feel that the last thing the world needs is an attempt to divert highly-processed maize products ("corn gluten meal is nearly 100% digested") to feed cats :-(
Half the problem, of course, is that, as with soya-fed pigs, animals that for millennia have been fed on the byproducts of human consumption (fish-heads and the dubious offerings of the 'cats'-meat man' -- and, at least in the case of farm cats, being expected to hunt for themselves) are now having food produced especially for them, and marketed at their (squeamish) owners.
My rats used to catch and eat moths when they got the chance, which surprised me greatly as rats are not thought of as predators! I imagine desert cats may eat beetles? I believe foxes will, when they can't get dustbins and takeaways...
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The problem with allowing cats to hunt for their own food - which for millennia has been the perfect solution - is that wildlife is now so fragile that every extra death is one we can't afford.
I remember losing a blackbird's nest in my own garden to a cat.
But I would agree about fish heads being a good thing to feed cats, apart from recent studies linking fish in the diet to some health problems in cats. Might be okay as part of the diet, but not as a sole food.
Fish contains high amounts of an enzyme called thiaminase. This is an enzyme that destroys Vitamin B-1 (thiamin). A thiamin-deficient diet can lead to neurological problems and seizures in cats. Whole fish, even with bone, is far too low in calcium for cats.
Never knew rats caught insects. Just goes to show!
If someone near here sold insect food for humans, I'd probably give it a shot. I know things like fried crickets are popular in some parts of the world. (I don't want to eat them when cooked like crisps as salty snacks)
I feel the world is waiting for someone to invent a way of hoovering up giant locust swarms, converting them to food and saving crops at the same time.
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Interestingly enough, they're well aware of owners' potentially misguided beliefs about cats not catching wildlife, and have assumed that all outdoor cats will have some meat in their diets.
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They note that those feeding their cats a vegan diet were more susceptible to food products being marketed as "human grade", "natural", "organic" and "holistic" as opposed to what was actually in them, and that they were also reluctant to admit their feeding practices to their vet because they thought the latter would disapprove or was not qualified to judge...
I have to say I am surprised that 'plant-based' cats apparently ate fruit and vegetables from off the owner's plate; our cats never showed the slightest interest in any 'table foods' other than dairy ones, which they would steal if left unattended (including butter icing, which indicates a very acute sense of smell!) Offering them grapes or cucumber would have resulted in a look of complete disgust and a turned back.
(They were fed on a prescribed diet of dry biscuits which presumably contained a good deal of vegetable/flour product of one sort or another, but they hunted for themselves with a reasonable frequency, to which the vet attributed the good state of their teeth... just as well, since they violently resisted anyone fiddling around with their mouths, and tooth-cleaning would have been a complete non-starter!)
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I've done some details hunting and have managed to find the original article that the New Scientist Article was based upon (the New Scientist one is behind a paywall). It's fairly chewy, but there is some interesting stuff in it. (I think there may be a small bias caused by cat breeds. The cats on a meat diet were more likely to be longhaired breeds, and the cats on the veggie diet were more likely to be rescue cats and moggies. It seems probable that long hair breeds are less healthy overall, so that might contribute to the overall result. On the other hand, rescue cats might be less healthy...)
They've actually allowed for cats hunting (regardless of owner beliefs about whether they hunt or not) and assumed that all outdoor cats might have some meat in their diet.
The full study can be found here - https://bmcvetres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12917-021-02754-8#MOESM1
Having said that, they're your cats and they're very important to you
Whatever you feed them should be whatever you feel is best for them.
I'd be wary:
Re: I'd be wary:
You're undoubtedly right about chemical synthesis, but it still kicks in way below the footprint of meat. Meat's a massive driver of deforestation (for soya or grain to go in cattle feed) and also has a serious problem from methane emissions - farts!
Good to see you commenting :)
Re: I'd be wary:
I'm still around though I rarely have anything to say so I'm often quiet I'm afraid!