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From: winograd@nbires.UUCP (Steve Winograd)
Newsgroups: net.veg
Subject: Vegetarian Cat Food ??
Message-ID: <285@nbires.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 23-Feb-84 18:57:03 EST
Article-I.D.: nbires.285
Posted: Thu Feb 23 18:57:03 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 26-Feb-84 01:23:31 EST
Organization: NBI, Boulder
Lines: 24



I am investigating a vegetarian diet for my cats and would like comments on
two areas of concern:

1. Practical -- Is there any commercially available cat food with no meat?
   Does anyone have experience in making home-made vegetarian cat food?
   Can cats thrive on such food?

2. Philosophical -- I don't believe in killing animals for food for humans
   and I feel bad about the fact that someone kills animals for my cats'
   food.  It seems to me that meat is, alas, the natural food for cats.
   Nature has equipped them for hunting (acute sense of smell, great
   sensitivity to noises made by prey, stealth, speed) and killing
   (sharp front claws to catch prey, strong legs and rear claws to rip
   them open, specialized teeth for tearing them up, etc).  These physical
   traits are accompanied by a powerful hunting instinct (most of their
   play is really hunting behavior).  Is it reasonable to consider a
   meatless diet for such creatures?  On the other hand, their natural prey
   is small rodents and birds, not the meat byproducts, liver and
   animal fat in most commercial cat food (ever seen a cat kill a cow?).

                                 Steve Winograd
                                 {allegra|ucbvax}!nbires!winograd