It’s been infuriating seeing everyone’s reactions devolve into dunking on vegans about vegan cat food instead of the overreaction of Rookie. So I will say that it IS possible for a cat to have a vegan diet as long as the essential nutrients are supplemented and you work with a vet. One big thing is taurine, but the way meat is processed in cat food removes the taurine so it is added back with synthetic taurine anyway. Like just read the actual thread Rookie freaked out on. No one was saying only feed your cat vegetables and hope for the best.
Also people using obligate carnivore but not understanding what it means. What is an obligate carnivore?
“Some carnivores, particularly cats (family Felidae), are obligate carnivores, meaning they cannot obtain all the nutrients that they need from the plant kingdom and bacteria. In particular, obligate carnivores lack the enzyme needed to split carotene, obtained from plants, into vitamin A. Instead, these animals obtain vitamin A from the liver of their prey. Obligate carnivores are similarly unable to synthesize some essential very-long-chain, highly unsaturated fatty acids that other animals can make from shorter fatty acids found in plant.”
So, an obligate carnivore is an animal that needs to (is obligated to) obtain some nutrients by eating the flesh of other animals (or those nutrients would have to be supplied in a form the cat can absorb by means of supplementation). Cats do not have the long digestive tracts of ruminants to efficiently ferment raw starch or fiber, but that doesn’t mean they cannot digest plant matter at all. It also does not mean they are unable to obtain any nutrients from plants or from fiber. However, being an obligate carnivore does mean that their diet MUST provide certain nutrients from the flesh of other animals or from supplementation.
Studies on cats eating a vegan diet? Science says we need more studies because it is not as black and white as all the people kneejerking about it are saying.
Whilst the quality and amount of evidence needs to be considered in formulating recommendations, there was no overwhelming evidence of adverse effects arising from use of these diets and there was some evidence of benefits. It is, however, recommended that future high-quality studies, with standardized outcome measures and large sample sizes, be conducted. At the current time, if guardians wish to feed their companion animals vegan diets, a cautious approach should be taken using commercially produced diets which have been formulated considering the nutritional needs of the target species.
I learned a lot by listening to the original commenters instead of circlejerking about vegans bad amirite. But I couldn’t possibly reply to every comment with this so I’ll leave it here instead. There is a reason I don’t use a Lemmy.world account, their moderation sucks.
Well the way I was thinking is that in order to talk about how Rookie overreacted and fucked up, I would have to get people to look at the original thread and establish why this was not animal abuse or misinformation. Many people have not read the original thread. It was not animal abuse to talk about how cats can theoretically be vegan and talk about the studies that support it. Rookie decided this was animal abuse and misinformation and removed the whole mod team while power tripping when it wasn’t against any rules. Now LW has rules about misinformation as if to back up Rookie being able to do this again. The mods were restored but people keep thinking Rookie was justified. It just blows my mind. I’m also not the only one talking about obligate carnivores and cats being vegan on this post, I’m just the only one that read the original thread and am encouraging others to see how Rookie messed up and this was an extreme overreaction rather than more circlejerking vegans bad. Reddit doesn’t even get this bad, LW seems like they want to be a mini reddit but worse.
![[Meme] Maybe the discussion will be different this time compared to the ten others? (Edit: obligate, not mandate)](https://i.imgflip.com/920tpl.jpg){kind=link}
It’s been infuriating seeing everyone’s reactions devolve into dunking on vegans about vegan cat food instead of the overreaction of Rookie. So I will say that it IS possible for a cat to have a vegan diet as long as the essential nutrients are supplemented and you work with a vet. One big thing is taurine, but the way meat is processed in cat food removes the taurine so it is added back with synthetic taurine anyway. Like just read the actual thread Rookie freaked out on. No one was saying only feed your cat vegetables and hope for the best.
https://lemmy.world/post/18691022
Also people using obligate carnivore but not understanding what it means. What is an obligate carnivore?
https://rawfedandnerdy.com/what-is-an-obligate-carnivore
Studies on cats eating a vegan diet? Science says we need more studies because it is not as black and white as all the people kneejerking about it are saying.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9860667/
I learned a lot by listening to the original commenters instead of circlejerking about vegans bad amirite. But I couldn’t possibly reply to every comment with this so I’ll leave it here instead. There is a reason I don’t use a Lemmy.world account, their moderation sucks.
The meme is literally about you lol
Well the way I was thinking is that in order to talk about how Rookie overreacted and fucked up, I would have to get people to look at the original thread and establish why this was not animal abuse or misinformation. Many people have not read the original thread. It was not animal abuse to talk about how cats can theoretically be vegan and talk about the studies that support it. Rookie decided this was animal abuse and misinformation and removed the whole mod team while power tripping when it wasn’t against any rules. Now LW has rules about misinformation as if to back up Rookie being able to do this again. The mods were restored but people keep thinking Rookie was justified. It just blows my mind. I’m also not the only one talking about obligate carnivores and cats being vegan on this post, I’m just the only one that read the original thread and am encouraging others to see how Rookie messed up and this was an extreme overreaction rather than more circlejerking vegans bad. Reddit doesn’t even get this bad, LW seems like they want to be a mini reddit but worse.