6 Cat and Dog Nutrition Flashcards
Dry Matter
Contains the remains after removal of water
Why is it important to consider dry matter? Example
In terms of energy source, water provides nothing; so need to take it away to compare nutritional value
1 kg of grass will give less energy than 1 kg of hay
- the difference is due to the water dilution effect (grass holds more water, heavier than what it should be)
- cant compare wet pasture to dry hay
Energy
baseline feed requirement in animal nutrition - measured as calories
Calorie
amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1g water by 1C
Why use calorie instead of DM?
When we dry food in industrial processes, things like fat which is quite sticky and has a high water content wont dry particularly well (meat too)
1 Calorie to Joules
4.184J
Crude protein
measure of how much protein is in food, based on laboratory tests studying the food’s chemical composition; protein content on label
Ideal protein
How the protein maps to animal’s need (how useful it is to the animal)
*there can be a lot of protein in a specific food but if it doesnt map to the animals needs, food is considered empty
Biological value (BV)
amount of absorbed protein that is retained by animal
The order Carnivora contains animals that are:
carnivorous, omnivorous and herbivorous
- cats and dogs both belong to the Carnivora group but cats are an ‘obligatory carnivore’ and dogs will survive more readily on veg diet (more omnivorous)
Differences between cats and dogs (3)
1) Teeth
2) Digestive tract
3) Dietary requirements
Differences between cats and dogs: digestive tract
Cats shorter small intestine and caecum (pouch connected to the junction of the small and large intestines)
Why are cats intestines short?
- small intestine for absorption
- the more complicated your diet, the longer the absorptive process is (herbivore who eats diet thats very different from it’s own body tissue has a very long set of intestines bc it needs a longer time to absorb all the plant materials)
- animal who eats something close to it’s own tissues (eg simple meat diet), much easier to absorb
Differences between cats and dogs: dietary requirements (3)
Cats require dietary:
1) arachidonic acid
2) pre-formed vitamin A
3) taurine
* dogs can get from other sources
Why does energy requirements vary according to the size of the animal?
- In these animals, the biggest driver of energy intake is maintaining a stable internal body temp.
- when you lose heat out of the body, have to replace it
- little animals get cold much more quickly bc it has a large SA:V ratio.
- bigger animal core is more enclosed; less SA so lose hear more slowly
- therefore lower energy intake per kilo
Gigantothermy
As animal grows, though it’s bigger, it’s SA/V ratio decreases
Essential Fatty Acid (EFA) elongation
Pathway by which short chain fatty acids are elongated by a series of enzymes
Essential FA (Cats) (2)
Essential: must be supplied in diet, animal lacks the biochemistry to produce it
1) linoleic acid
2) arachidonic acid
Why cant cats undergo EFA elongation
- Cats dont have delta 6 desaturase (enzyme which starts the chain conversion of SCFA to LCFA)
- All these amino acids are already present in their meat based diets so they dont need to waste energy on these biochem pathways
EAAs difference between cats and dogs (1)
- taurine is essential for cats but not for dogs
- thats why dogs can survive on cat food but not vv
Taurine requirements (cats)
- 400mg/kg for growth and maintenance
- 500mg/kg for reproduction
Taurine deficiency (cats) (3)
side effects are seen very quickly
- retinal degeneration
- impaired vision and immune function
- cardiac abnormality
Dietary requirement: Vitamin A (Cats)
- Important for vision; deficiency can lead to blindness
- cant synthesise from it’s precursors (beta carotene) bc meats are full of vitamin A (eyeballs, liver)
- dont need the biochemistry to convert one to another
Vitamin A hypertoxicity
Too much vitamin A intake can lead to serious toxicity
- caused by eating too much organ meat, esp liver which contains high levels of vitamin A
- There seems to be considerable variability in how susceptible individual cats are to this problem. Some cats can eat large quantities of vitamin A and never develop problems while other cats seem much more prone to develop the problem. This condition is extremely unlikely to develop if you feed your cat a high-quality commercial cat diet produced by a reputable manufacturer.
EAAs (cats) (3)
1) arginine
2) lysine
3) taurine
Effect of arginine deficiency
1) lethargy
2) hyperglycaemia (high blood sugar)
3) rapid weight loss (in 24hrs)
4) inability to stand
Senior cats diet
Requires lower energy diet that is highly palatable and digestible
- reduced physical activity
- reduced appetite and digestive capacity
What happens when you feed senior cats a regular cats diet?
Will just accumulate, need to feed less as they dont require as much energy (become increasingly sedentary)
Carbohydrate requirements (cats)
None; cats can form sugars that they dont need through their meat based diets
Wean meaning
accustom (an infant or other young animal) to food other than it’s mothers milk
Amount of food required as dogs grow
Increases than plateaus
- Over the first 2-6 months, amount of food increases (putting more energy in but animal is growing at the same time so less energy/kg BW)
- after 6 months, growth rate declines so less energy required
Essential FA (dogs)
linoleic acid OR arachidonic acid (dont need both unlike cats)
EAAs (dogs)
same as cats excluding taurine
Carbohydrate req (dogs)
Like cats; Dont have dietary requirements for carbs
