Can I get vegetarian cat food for my cat?
It kind of surprised me, but yes. There are actually several
brands of vegetarian cat foods available out there.
While no one can really
expect their cat to convert to a vegan any time soon (they're still going to
run around eating bugs and chasing mice), pet owners might have a moral issue
with having to kill other animals in order to keep their pets alive. Cats are
natural carnivores, and I can't certify whether it's the healthiest diet for
your pet or not (I've found lots of people claiming that, but I'm a little
skeptical).
What I can say is that if you want to do it, buy the cat food and don't try to start feeding your cat vegetable-based stuff that you make yourself. There are a lot of nutrients a cat needs, and if you make your own diet for them without being informed about what to do it can cause serious health issues. For example, cats fed exclusively dog food often go blind - not because of anything in the food, but because they don't get any taurine (a nutrient found in the muscle meat of animals). Taurine is usually put as a supplement into cat foods, so you don't have to worry about it if you buy it. The downside: vegetarian cat food is expensive. But you do have several options:
Vegetable Stew Cat Food is $40.00 and is available online here.
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This is a wet cat food made to be 100% vegetarian. It comes in a 23-pound case - not sure how many cans that is, but it should be a good amount. It's supplemented with vitamins that cats need (specifically, taurine) without using animal products to make it. The wet chow is a bonus - cats in the wild normally get most of their water from eating meat, not from drinking. Many cats can get dehydrated if all they have is dry chow. |
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This is a 100% vegetarian dry chow version - again supplemented, and it's made to taste like gourmet pasta so you're really pampering your cat. It claims to increase the life expectancy of your cat dramatically. You can get a bag online here for $64.70. |
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Your final option is a nutritional supplement. This is for if you're trying to make your cat's own food using only vegetables - it's to get around the nutritional deficiencies that these kinds of diets create. Again, if you do this, you'd better be careful about it. But it's your cat - and I wouldn't do it without some sort of nutritional supplement like this to make absolutely sure my cat wasn't going to get sick or die from it. This is stuff that you are supposed to sprinkle into the food to supplement it. HOWEVER - while this product says it is vegetarian, I cannot find whether it includes taurine. So use at your pet's own risk - and MAKE SURE to read the label first before you try to cook something up. You can get it here for $14.82. |
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