My Cat is not Vegan: Thoughts?

[Civil_Debate]

At brimstoneSalad's suggestion, I'm starting a thread about my almost 10 year old male cat Berkeley, and my failure to feed him a vegan diet. Berkeley has never been a very healthy cat. He is currently border-line diabetic and is very finicky about what he eats. I know that male cats in particular often end up with urinary tract problems when they switch to vegan cat food, and I'm reluctant to try to convert him. I have no moral justification for paying people to torture other animals for the sake of an animal I happen to love, but nevertheless, I care for him too much to be as ethical as I should be in this case.

I looked into an oyster-based diet, but learned that there was something (I don't recall what) in oysters that made them at best a 'sometimes' treat for cats. brimstoneSalad mentioned feeding him a worm-based diet, which had never occurred to me before.

I'm excited that "Wild Earth Pets" is apparently going to begin producing dog and cat food from vat meat in 2018 ( http://www.wildearthpets.com/ ) and that may be a solution.

I'm wondering if anyone here has cats and if you have any insight into more ethical cat foods.

Thanks,

Civil_Debate

[Canastenard]

I think you're confusing Wild Earth Pets with another company, Bond Pet Foods which said they're doing pet food from lab meat
(https://qz.com/1142826/a-pet-food-company-wants-to-make-lab-grown-meats-for-cats-and-dogs/). On the other hand Wild Earth is saying they're doing their food "without animal ingredients" which I assume means no meat either lab grown or from animal slaughter.

I'm a bit skeptical when it comes to feeding cats without animal-based food because their digestive track is very well adapted for meat and not much for other kind of foods, and unlike dogs who are more omnivore than carnivore, there's not much mainstream scientific acceptance that vegan diets are nutritionally adequate for cats, so an animal ingredient-free cat food would need to meet a higher standard of evidence when it comes to healthfulness and adequate nutrition. In theory there's no reason why we couldn't reverse engineer the nutritional needs of cats and provide a kind of food that could meet these needs without animal-derived ingredients, the same way Impossible Foods reverse engineered the taste and culinary experience of a beef burger and recreated it from animal-free ingredients, in other words Wild Earth is using Impossible Food's strategy while Bond Pet is using that of Memphis Meats. But will Wild Earth's scientists come with vegan cat food that's as healthy and nutritious as meat-based food? Replacing an animal's main source of nutrition with an artificial option that will most likely consist of textured protein fortified with synthetic nutrients isn't an obvious task after all.

[Civil_Debate]

-I see what you mean about Wild Earth; but my information was based upon this article: https://www.livekindly.co/clean-meat-pet-food/
You are right though, the Wild Earth website itself indicates it has no animal ingredients. I suppose it may depend on what one means by an "animal ingredient". Anyway, there are already plant-based vegan cat foods, but they don't seem to be very good for cats.

Thanks,
Civil_Debate

[Jebus]

Plan A: Try to get meat scraps that your local butcher throws away at the end of the day.
Plan B: Try to feed cat vegan food supplemented with taurine, B12, and L-Carnitine.
Plan C: Feed your cat fish (the lesser of the evils).

[brimstoneSalad]

I looked into an oyster-based diet, but learned that there was something (I don't recall what) in oysters that made them at best a 'sometimes' treat for cats.

Sometimes is better than no times. It's at least good for a dietary component.

Not sure how credible this is:
https://www.cuteness.com/article/can-cats-eat-oysters

Oysters contain enzymes that have little effect on humans when eaten. However, cats are affected differently by these enzymes than human beings are. Enzymes contained in oysters destroy thiamine in a cat's body, especially when eaten in large amounts. Thiamine is a B vitamin cats require to survive. A lack of thiamine from eating oysters can lead to neurological disorders, seizures and comas. Even consuming a small amount of oysters may harm a cat.

I haven't seen any sources indicating this was a problem with cooked oysters. The enzyme is probably deactivated (anybody know?).
It seems like you could supplement for thiamine, though.

brimstoneSalad mentioned feeding him a worm-based diet, which had never occurred to me before.

If you have a strong stomach, maybe try preparing some worms for your cat in different ways?

Insects are another option. Some people free-feed their cats crickets, but not all cats will eat them.

Anyway, there are already plant-based vegan cat foods, but they don't seem to be very good for cats.

The problem is exclusive feeding, which can result in urinary problems for males in particular. You could make up half of the diet from one of these plant based foods, and the other half from oysters and worms.
Or waste/freegan meat if you can find it.

[Canastenard]

I think you're confusing Wild Earth Pets with another company, Bond Pet Foods which said they're doing pet food from lab meat
(https://qz.com/1142826/a-pet-food-company-wants-to-make-lab-grown-meats-for-cats-and-dogs/). On the other hand Wild Earth is saying they're doing their food "without animal ingredients" which I assume means no meat either lab grown or from animal slaughter.

I was wrong about that apparently, according to this article Wild Earth is actually doing clean meat-based pet food for cats too: https://www.forbes.com/sites/katrinafox/2018/03/15/this-vegan-biohacker-is-set-to-launch-the-first-cultured-protein-foods-for-pets/2/

Considering that cats are much less adapted than dogs to a meat-free diet then the technological challenges of clean meat could be less of an hassle than developing a plant-based formula that would need probably several years of scientific testing until consensus among feline nutrition experts forms about its adequateness as cat food. The kind of meat that will be cultured will be mouse meat, hopefully the "natural" aspect of feeding cats the meat of animals they'd eat from their own preys will make up for the perceived "unnaturalness" of growing meat ex vivo (from a marketing standpoint, I personally don't care about "naturalness" but I must admit most people haven't deconstructed that concept).

The first page also mentions the usual pet food testing protocol that happens to caged animals in laboratories. It's saddening to see such cruelty to animals in unexpected areas thankfully in the same paragraph they mention that feeding trials for Wild Earth's food will be done on animals with a home and a family that loves them.