Taurine Content In Cat Food

Another problem is that most cat food brands don t list taurine content in their guaranteed analyses.

Taurine content in cat food.

According to other studies for every 2 2 pounds of food consumed it s recommended that cats consume 1000 mg of taurine. Recommended ranges for an average cat fall between 35 and 250 mg a day. A little goes a long ways when it comes to most minerals like taurine. Taurine comes from animal based protein.

Unfortunately cats cannot synthesize sufficient amounts of taurine from other amino acids for their body to properly function. That doesn t sound like much but taurine doesn t have to be a major factor in your cat s diet. The aafco lists 2 as the minimum for canned wet. Cats belong to the carnivores and are therefore pure carnivores.

Taurine is one of the most important essential amino acids for the proper functioning of a cat s heart muscle vision digestive and reproductive system. So trust your kitty s appetite and feed him a raw food diet of beef lamb chicken fish or shrimp. It s difficult to overdose the pet as excess taurine isn t stored but excreted. So you will have to look for high animal protein content food so that your cat gets more taurine.

The average cat needs about 1000mg of taurine for every 2 2 pounds of food or roughly 100mg per day. Plant based proteins are avoided because they do not have enough amino acids that are essential for the cats which is easily found in animal based protein. Unlike other mammals cats do need this amino acid to be present in their organism. There is no precise feline requirement for taurine in raw cat food as many factors influence requirement levels.

A species appropriate prey model raw pmr diet is abundant in taurine it is important to note that heat destroys more than half about 65 of the taurine content and vegetables contain almost no measurable amounts of taurine. While i can t find a quick answer it is in the guaranteed analysis of each food. These include protein source dietary fiber levels food processing sulfur containing amino acid content and the metabolic needs of the individual cat. You also can add small amounts 1 2 teaspoon per serving of nutritional yeast to your cat s diet to supplement his taurine intake if he is a particularly finicky eater.

Formerly wild cats ate rodents and ingested the taurine stored in rodents brains. Taurine is an essential amino acid produced by most mammals in the body in the liver itself. Look at the ingredient description when buying. When it says for example taurine 0 10 min that means that taurine will be almost exactly 0 10.

Most cat foods have about 0 2 taurine. Maybe just the tiniest bit higher so that they never mess up.