If you are a cat parent then the chances that you may have heard of taurine and its importance in your cat’s diet is very high.
Cat nutritionists have been aware of the need for taurine to keep cats alive and well since at least the mid-1980s, so they are quite familiar with what happens when kitties do not get enough over a long period.
Wet or dry commercial cat foods contain enough taurine to meet a cat’s needs, but if you are feeding homemade, raw or home cooked food, you will have to be more careful in order for your cat/s to get the required amount.
In Untamed she guides you through the science behind taurine, and how to make sure that your choice of cat diet means optimal health for your feline.
What is taurine in cat food?
Taurine is an amino acid that cats are dependent on.
Amino acids are the base of proteins and well necessary for our body to build, repair or maintain several tissues:
1.Muscles
2.Skin and coat
3.Organs
One thing that everyone is interested in is whether or not they need to include an ingredient called taurine. As a general observation, all animals can make taurine from proteins by splitting them down into their amino acid constituents and putting them back together as taurine but there are arguments on both sides of the fence about this subject.
This is why cats need decent quantities of pre-formed taurine in their food, as they are not able to perform this transformation.
What does taurine do?
Keeping this in mind, the health and well maintenance of the following systems are regulated by taurine within a cat:
1.Eyes
2.Heart
3.Digestive tract
Why Taurine is Critical to Your Cats Vision
Estimation of taurine can be made simply by counting light-sensing cells found in a cat’s retina.
With night vision, in contrast to the daytime color-based process explained above, special cells called rods and cones (because of their shapes) deal with light coming into the eye and change it over into neurological driving forces that your brain can interpret.
And because the retina itself also contains taurine, a deficiency can therefore cause:
1.Night blindness
2.Inability of the colors to be judged
3.Eventual Total Blindness
How Taurine Strengthens the Cat Heart
Taurine, discovered to be important in the 1980s for maintaining an appropriate balance of calcium and other minerals on either side of cellular membranes throughout a cat’s heart
A mineral imbalance in feline heart muscle can lead to loss of proper contraction.
One of the consequences is a progressive heart failure that develops in cats fed Taurine- deficient diet.
Bile production helps reduce the build up of fat in a cat’s body.
Without taurine, cats are not able to create the fats they require in order for:
1.Energy
2.Skin and Coat Health
3.The provision of fatty acids necessary for cell make-up
If you cannot secrete bile, it causes diarrhea and nausea. This can lead to your cat losing her appetite, and things will only get worse from here.
Why taurine needed for cats Reproductive function
Taurine is associated with breeding difficulties and preventing queens from coming to term their kittens or when that occurs it may cause retarded growth in the kitten -which often need more time-, as well as pregnant sick-and-traveling-queens.
Taurine is important in the food of mummy and her kittens for growth ideals.
Which Foods Have Taurine for Cats
Taurine is naturally present in meat.
As obligate carnivores, they have evolved to be able to digest animal protein far more easily than the kind of plant-based proteins used by many vegan pet food brands.
Cats could be strictly vegetarian in a perfect world, but to cover the amino acid requirement they would need massive local products.
The biological value is a measure of how efficiently the most common protein sources are turned into metabolite and can be consumed, this figure as a percentage;
The table below shows the most common protein sources, and their biological values:
| Protein source | Biological value (how much of a protein source a cat can use) |
| chicken | 98% |
| Tuna, Salmon, sardines or Prawns | 94% |
| Beef and pork or ham | 87% |
| Soya | 68% |
| Wheatgerm, corn, sweetcorn, and other vegetable proteins | Below 65% |
Taurine is naturally present in all organ or muscle meat, but the digestibility of the amino acid will affect how much your cat needs to eat.
If you feed your cat a homemade diet of chicken, lamb or fish then they should get enough taurine.
Every commercial cat food is required to adhere to guidelines set forth by the Association of American feed control officials (AAFCO) or its European counterpart, The European Pet Food Industry Federation (FEDIAF). Consequently, to be able to state that a food is “complete and balanced,” both dictionaries require the cyanuric acid content of an appropriate level for cats.
If it says complete and balanced, then there is enough taurine.
What is the proper way to ensure your cat gets taurine?
A good, meaty diet will provide your cat with plenty of taurine so go that route if you want to be confident in how much they are getting.
There are an enormous amount of foods that we eat today but good vs. not so good is even morîe confusing to navigate with the vast array on offer at any given time!!!
All of the information you need to determine if a food is good for you or not will be found on that label — all it takes is knowing what to look for.
These 2 important ingredients to see if include the
- Ingredients list
- Guaranteed analysis
What Happens If My Cat Doesn’t Get Enough Taurine?
It is important to note that every commercial cat food with an assurance of a complete and balanced diet will contain enough taurine, however this might not be true if you are home cooking your cat’s meals.
As was said before, insufficient taurine in felines’ feeds can significantly harm their overall health.
Insufficient output levels of taurine may not become evident for months or even years.
Signs of Taurine Deficiency If you are feeding your cats commercial cat food (in any form) and it’s not labeled vegetarian, specially-made for urinary support, or prescription by the vet then taurine will be supplemented in sufficient amounts.
- Slow loss of vision
- Long-term digestive issues
- Laziness and Respiratory problems or Cough.
- Changes in litters of kittens
Slow loss of vision
In the early stages of retinal degeneration, your cat may start to be less willing or able to make forays out into the night and move around in darkness.
Colors that your cat previously recognised may also no longer be picked up as the rods and cones in its retina deteriorate.
You will begin to notice the symptoms of this condition from six months up to two years later and its progression is slow. Because by the time you realize they have it, much of the damage is likely to be permanent—the most a vet can do usually is save whatever sight may remain.
Long-term digestive issues
Slightly inadequate taurine: Slight digestive issues, lethargy – If your cat has some gas or sounds somewhat gassy in the stomach area and they feel a little tired all the time tauring shortage could be blamed.
The inability of your cat to metabolize fatty acids can lead as well to:
1.Skin and coat breakdown
2.Immune Deficiencies
3.Dental issues
4.Diabetes
Laziness and Respiratory problems or Cough
The subsequent occurrence of heart issues evoked by an insufficient taurine diet:
1.Lethargy
2.Shortness of breath
3.Chronic cough
A strenuous regimen of taurine can save the heart, but untreated (and presumably undiagnosed), that may allow what happens in step two:
1.Seizures
2.Hind limb paralysis
3.A coronary attack
Changes in litters of kittens
Your female cat may have a taurine deficiency if her litters are drastically smaller than they used to be, or the kittens seem underdeveloped.
This includes the ability to assess these factors through blood tests and supplement them as needed, which your vet may be able to better assist you with.
Is It Possible for a Cat to Have Too Much Taurine?
Prevention is the best route with all of the above conditions.
If your cat gets enough meat in its diet to have an adequate amount of taurine, those conditions should not occur seriously.
Just like us, cats would experience the effects of anything else that a general lack of taurine in humans is known to cause independently. Cats will have failing eyesight, heart function and digestive competency, reproduction capacity naturally becomes more limited.
That nice red mouth comes with a cost, and it is better to not exacerbate the issues by failing to supply them with an essential element in their diet.
The question over whether a kitty can have too much of it still remains), but there is no evidence (that I could find) that supplementing with taurine ever caused any issues for cats.
Research conducted on animals up to the 1980s showed that any excess taurine should be rapidly taken in and disposed of through feces or urine.