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Taxonomy...classifications of animals into diet related classes the evolution and differences between diets in the wild and captivity
This post...is my attempt...first attempt actually...to help people understand what certain as I call them "grunt words" mean in context of where they come from ... we put "labels" on people and animals...without really understanding what those labels mean..."black person" or "person of colour" or "ethnic white" or "native"
All sorts of "labels" like...Mammals...marine life...birds...reptiles...primates (sub category of mammals) warm blooded...cold blooded...marsupial...insects...
Taxonomy....additional clarification...is evolutionary classification.
classifying groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics
It is NOT a dictate of what any animal has to be fed in captivity...not at all. It is simply based on what animals in the wild historically ate and did. Most of all ...it is NOT a scientific proof of the "healthiest diet" for any of the classified species ! why not ? well it is just what they ate historically classification...what is the HEALTHIEST diet is not necessarily what animals ate historically...animals eat...what is available...and evolve...some worse some better due to genetic influences.
What natural diets wild animals ate or eat...are often in fact scientists are finding out...NOT the healthiest diets for them.
The full name of an organism technically has eight terms.
The major ranks: domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species, applied to the red fox, Vulpes vulpes. The hierarchy of biological classification's eight major taxonomic ranks. Intermediate minor rankings are not shown.
Now before we go on...read that sentence again carefully ..." the full name of an organism technically has eight terms "
So ? that means...we cannot just grunt "carnivore" out as some blanket classification that is all that is needed.
now....here i come ! dogs...are descendants of a cat like creature ! and we all descended from fish that landed then took to flight...birds being the highest latest form of evolution therefore logically. hardly good to mention "bird brained"... magpies are the only non mammal that can recognise its own self in a mirror. here are common cat/dog ancestors of cats and dogs !
PLANTS come under the CARNIVORE taxonomy in fact not just mammals or fish etc.
When people talk glibly with grunts about "carnivores" they really are being unspecific as that could mean plants.
Simply put...since time immemorial...meaning from the Dinosaur age to now...the percentage of animals who were Carnivorous or Herbivorous for diets is the same...70% herbivores 30% carnivores.
Plant-eating dinosaurs include the Brachiosaurus, the Diplodocus, the Stegosaurus, and the Triceratops. titanosaur Argentinosaurus huinculensis, which is the largest dinosaur known from uncontroversial evidence, estimated to have been 50–96.4 metric tons (55.1–106.3 short tons) and 30–39.7 m (98–130 ft) long
Of the twelve hundred or so known species described to date, more plant-eating dinosaurs have been identified than meat-eating ones. It has been suggested that basal members of the Dinosauria were all bipedal, cursorial carnivores and plant-eating was a later adaptation as this group of reptiles diversified.
A ratio in excess of 70:30 in favour of herbivorous (or semi-herbivorous) has been suggested.
Life began in the Oceans, Water...Fish then Insects then Birds then Mammals including Humans. So long ago...but it is all FISHY WATERS ! We are all related.
A Carnivore eats warm flesh of immediately killed organism.
A Necrovore (like vultures can be though there are also Vegan vultures) eat putrid decaying dead a long time before eating organisms.
A Herbivore eats plant organisms.
Carnivores often eat the dung of herbivores so are not really 100 percent flesh based diets additionally as nutrients in dung of herbivores have vegetable matter with nutrients needed even by carnivores often.
Farley Mowat, in his book “Never Cry Wolf,” described his experience observing wild wolves in the Alaskan tundra. He found, to his surprise, that wolves naturally ate large amounts of grasses, proving that their diet was by no means exclusively carnivorous.
Dogs digest certain nutrients such as starches better than Wolves ...due to centuries of living and eating off scraps from humans tables. Cats lost the ability to digest certain nutrients well. Taurine is one that is destroyed by cooking so today all standard manufactured CATFOOD whether vegan or not has SYNTHETIC taurine in it...proving it is "nutrients not ingredients" that matters for nutrition. Some species of animals have "fang"like teeth developed to tear things easier than other species that graze or eat off trees berries fruits, intestines of flesh eaters tend to be very short to allow fast passage of dangerous to health decaying flesh....
Teeth are a "red herring" about what an animal eats...having a gun does not mean you need to shoot people is an analogy about teeth ...and anyway... The hippopotamus has the largest canine teeth of any land animal, reaching sixteen inches each. Herbivore.
So all the "taxonomy classification" of animals by shared caracteristics shows is...what the general "theory" of diet is. It does not state what is ESSENTIAL to the animal to thrive on...only what the most commonly available and eaten nutrition of the wild animals is.
It is NOT therefore a dictate about what any animal in captivity needs to be fed.
Since none of the designated "carnivores" in the wild ate exclusively animal meat...it is obvious they were digesting plant nutrients for proteins ? just as well from plants as animal flesh.
Can this be proven with science studies done today ?
yes.
4 studies I mention of enormous significance about EVOLUTION and differences in wild animals compared to domesticated captive animals...
1. The massive difference in captive dog species ability to digest starches as compared to wild wolves...27 times more able to digest starches genetically proven in dogs as compared to wolves.
www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com
2. Captive cats massive ability to digest plant proteins even better than dogs.
Cats Have Increased Protein Digestibility as Compared to Dogs and Improve Their Ability to Absorb Protein as Dietary Protein Intake Shifts from Animal to Plant Sources
This food had an average protein digestibility of 88% in dogs and 96.1% in cats.
Simple Summary
Because dogs are omnivores and cats are obligate carnivores, it is of value to pet owners and nutritionists to know how well they digest protein from plants and animals. This study evaluated the difference in digestibility using plant and animal protein sources, which are used in the pet food industry. These plant and animal sources resulted in protein digestibility that met or exceeded that expected for dogs and cats. As previously shown, cats had superior protein digestibility as compared to dogs. Regarding the difference in digestibility between the proteins from plants or animals—as a class, there was no difference between plant and animal protein in dogs. However, in cats, the protein from plants was more highly digested than animal protein.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
3. A peer reviewed study comparing the nutrients and effects of pet dogs and cats found that vegan diets were healthy and had even health benefits above the animal contents pet foods.
Scientific research has found what is healthy nutrition and is more able to eliminate the toxins and risks of unnatural farmed animals humans breed and kill in captivity.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
4. Last but not least...the massive difference in captive farm animals to wild animals as nutrition for any carnivores omnivores ...
This whilst i list last...is actually the imho most important factor to realise and be even alarmed about.
Why ?
People fantasise...that the anyway mostly ignorant of the details of the nutrients and measures optimum for the health of animals that are needed are the same in farm animals to wild animals !!!
WRONG ! very very wrong.
They are so different they really are very unhealthy.
This was i admit the most shocking surprise to me at first when i realised this.
How is it ? that if we or our pets eat "meat" that this can be so unhealthy compared to wild animal meat ?
surely it must be healthy and the same ! ?
no !
I provide...some very alarming facts...just a few...but very serious for health issues.
1. OMEGA 6 to 3 ratio... in farm animals are up to 40 times higher than the healthy ratio for hearts of those who eat them !
EEEEK ! the worst is ? chicken. Wild game...have a ratio of omega 6 to 3 of about 6 to `1. Scientists in charge of pet foods have found maximum of 10 to 1 ratio is the optimum for pets. Omega 3 is the heart healthy omega...that even in humans is destroyed if too much omega 6 is eaten...and...for example...coconuts (picked by abused monkeys in the Far East) are 100% only omega 6 and no omega 3 content...so very heart unhealthy. eeek hey. only in small doses. Vegans...can die of a heart attack...if they keep eating high in omega 6 foods like coconuts which destroy as they compete with the omega 3. Dr Greger does a good youtube explanation on this matter for humans I add.
2. FATS in farm animals are 2 times ...double...the healthy quantities for those who eat them !
Now without needing to provide refererences...everyone into pets...or human food ...knows that obesity levels are at record levels and heart disease in pets also high today.
Well think about those 2 issues hey !
www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com
Oh WHY ? are farm animals so different nutrition to wild animals ? simple...turns out...they are fed...high in omega 6 food as it fattens them up faster...and GMO but lets not go there hey...but all gmo soy...is fed to farmed animals not humans...the soy in vegan pet foods is not gmo animal feed grade but human grade. Turns out...soy that is gmo has got some health issues..and hey...that is what pets and humans are stuffed with if they eat the word "meat" of course.
The real "soy boys" are those who eat meat ...gmo soy boys.
It is not known if this has been due to EVOLUTION or a factor since centuries ... unlike the dogs starch digestion which can be seen as reliably due to EVOLUTION and changed eating habits over centuries of captive pet dogs...the cats digesting plant proteins extremely well is not known if this is evolutionary or has always been there.
What IS known about evolution of cats is...that the species unlike dogs and mammals like apes and humans...lost the ability to produce TAURINE naturally in their bodies.
This is a very interesting matter...why ? would wild dogs in Africa not lose the ability to create their own taurine but wild cats did ?
One suggestion is ? that the FELINE cat species is genetically more fragile...less healthy than the canine dog species...they do suffer much more from kidney renal diseases than wild dogs...74% of wild big cat lions die of kidney diseases...something which whilst far less a health problem in modern captive pet cats...shows that the cat species is evolutionary wise genetically weak in health as compared to the canine species. Less healthy.
This high percentage was found in several studies...this one was even higher.
(87%) showed renal lesions
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
All well fed big wild cats...plenty water to drink...but fed mostly raw flesh diets.
What zoos now have done...to reduce this high kidney and urinary tract health diseases in wild big cats ...is change their diets massively...away from raw flesh with all the toxins and risks of damage to kidneys which process all toxins...to mostly plant based diets...massively soy protein based.
Here is a link to the world top big wild cat nutrition supplier to zoos...take a look at the high percentage of plant based proteins and added nutrients like taurine that are all in commercial cat foods synthetic so vegan today.
Now specifically formulated diets or meat mixes for zoo carnivores are available with all the necessary nutrients, vitamins and minerals included, which makes feeding animals a formulated diet easier than trying to quantify the nutritional composition of naturally occurring foods (Hosey, Melfi and Pankhurst, 2009).
Replaces meat and requires no supplementation.
Replaces nutrients which are low or deficient in raw meat.
Ingredients Dehulled Extracted Toasted Soya, Maize, Wheat, Maize Gluten Meal, Poultry Meat Meal, Soya Bean Oil, Wheat Germ, Chicken Fat, Sugar Beet Pulp, Whey Powder, Yeast, Minerals and Vitamins, Fish Meal. (Ingredients may be subject to change due to seasonal availability)
5. not very important issue but one people ignorant about nutrition "grunt" out often so I just due to that provide the explanation i have repeated a million times...TAURINE is just 1 of some essential nutrients cats in particular need in their food as unlike us humans and dogs the cat species along the evolution route became inadequate and lost the ability to produce it in their bodies.
Taurine is synthetic...so vegan...in all commercial cat foods. Since the 1970s when cats were going blind and dying on their "meat" based tinned and packet pet foods.
Why ? well without going on again about the "unnatural process of pet food production" because in reality...our pets if fed non vegan are not "carnivore" diets but "necrovore" diets...no animal in the wild...eats long dead flesh....that is what vultures with strong digestion ability stomacs to deal with the toxins do...eat dead animals...
Us hairless ape humans however...process things...unnaturally...and so...we fatten up farm animals unnaturally full of the wrong levels of fats omegas vitamins etc....then we kill them...take off their feathers fur bones etc...and then pack them up and freeze them and cook them. etc etc and shove them in freezers all sorts.
And what happens in all this unnatural in the wild process ? nutrients get lost ! and taurine bigtime.
So that is why cats went blind and died due to lack of taurine in their pet foods until then 1970 got China to produce most of the world taurine synthetically and half of it is put in the worlds pet foods.
Actually i do add...due to so many dogs getting heart diseases ...DCM being a recent hyped scare the FDA reported on...dog foods have taken to adding taurine in dog foods lol...well watch out...too much taurine can damage kidneys i must add. Best to feed a balanced not overdosed in especially minerals or calcium pet food.
Anyway. Am i telling the truth about synthetic not in meat taurine ? yes. This raw feeding cat expert link explains it. Nothing against synthetic taurine and the experts say...raw flesh...is high risk of not having taurine in it as it is lost in the processing of the dead flesh of animal process.
feline-nutrition.org
So...i hope i have not BORED you...i could write much more...i tried to be brief as verbosity is one of my defects as well as qualities.If you like me like DETAILS.
I can assure you...that without Arachidonic acid ...another cat essential peculiarity...cats would be dead in days not weeks.
in the USA ...the FDA government authority control and recall pet foods and human foods.
AAFCO are the USA pet food standard setters.
AAFCO establishes the nutritional standards for complete and balanced pet foods ...
To have "complete and balanced" in the nutritional adequacy statement, a dog or cat food must either:
www.fda.gov
32 pages of details of what nutrients and what quantities for what life stages of what species of animals.
The AAFCO Dog and Cat Food Nutrient Profiles were designed to establish practical minimum and some maximum nutrient concentrations for dog and cat foods
We have EVOLVED hey..we have SCIENCE now...to know how to avoid 1 in 8 of a litter of dogs in "nature" only making it to adulthood if in the wild for our captive pet dogs...or the 50% of did not make it to adulthood litter of lion cubs in "nature" for our captive pet cats. If we really want our pets to live as they would in "nature" then high mortality is what is natural there.
well we never had all this detailed information in the time of the dinosaurs hey !
We never knew...what quantities of "protein" we were eating from broccoli or rabbits or avocados hey !
We never knew...and still do not know if dealing with RAW FLESH...what the quantities of vital minerals vitamins and taurine (well mostly certain it is missing in farmed processed raw meat of course see comments above as to why) are in those foods either hey.
What we can know...is "what nutrients should be" ..and if on labels...for which laws exist...what the content is. Except of course...not everything has to be on the labels...it is legal...to just use terms like "meal" meaning animal parts without specifying if the animals ground up bits are euthanised dogs cats or the usual rabbits as the easiest bunny boiler animal to put in pet food.
Except that i am sure...none of the last mentioned animals are in vegan pet foods of course...there are laws about labelling anything "vegan" meaning animal free.
The closest WILD ANCESTOR of both our DOGS AND CATS...a TREE CAT type animal !
Mammalian carnivores can trace their lineage back to a creature in the early Eocene, 55 million years ago. Fossils that were discovered in Belgium have gotten researchers one step closer to finding the ancestor of these animals. The name, Dormaalocyon latouri, an homage to the Dormaal region where the fossil was located. The team was able to describe the animal based on over 250 teeth and bones located in the ankle. These newly discovered bones add to two teeth that were found previously. The results come from a research team led by Floréal Solé and were published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. https://www.livescience.com/42342-tiny-carnivore-ancestor-discovered.html 2014 Scientific Article on the Belgian Discovery. The carnivore ancestor Dormaalocyon latouri, roamed Europe 56 million years ago. Credit: Art by Charlène Letenneur (MNHN) and Pascale Golinvaux (RBINS) (picture of large Cat ancestor related. The smaller picture is another source of another common ancestor of cats and dogs) "
Lou replied and asked over an hour ago...so i edit to reply with the details here...
You only mention "obligate carnivores" once. but provide no definition or context. That is a word thrown around a lot and I think it is worth more than a mention.
If I remember my biology correctly an obligate carnivore does not produce the digestive enzyme amylase. Cats are a good example of this. Amylase starts the digestion of starches. Not sure if obligate carnivores can digest starches at all. An omnivore produces this enzyme and the presence of that enzyme probably is what separates omnivores from carnivores.
Another something worth discussing in the diet is fiber.
[/QUOTE]
lol i got ticked off for too much info so had to cut some out to get the post released lol...but...i will try and put a reply in brief to your good points made in a short while in edit here wink...
here is the article to reply to the AMYLASE enzyme in cats...they do have this enzyme...lower levels than in dogs i add...but it is in their bodies...in cats the amylase is not in their saliva but internal organs i add.
The easiest carbohydrate for dogs and cats to digest is ? rice. I add Brown long grain rice has the highest level of nutrients. NOT wild rice...that name is for some reason not actually correct in calling it rice..i do not know why i just read ignore the label wild rice but go for long grain brown rice for the best and of course organic and avoid USA and Bangladesh rice as high in toxins ...arsenic in fact...but i must be brief...deary me...i have a problem i have so much info it is hard to keep details down...
deary me...i need to address 2 more issues you raised of good points...but i LOVe detail so if you want it i am very happy...
here is the scientific explanation of amylase in carnivores...great title...peer reviewed article of course.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Vet Sci. 2017 Dec; 4(4): 55.
Published online 2017 Nov 15. doi: 10.3390/vetsci4040055
PMCID: PMC5753635
PMID: 29140289
Cats and Carbohydrates: The Carnivore Fantasy?
brevity...to deal with point 2 now the "obligate carnivore" term.
The word "obligate" comes from the French word "obligee" meaning "forced to be"
This matters...it means...in the wild...due to not having alternatives...some species of animals are "forced" to eat animal flesh to get certain nutrients to even live. OBLIGED to.
However...when it comes to the captive wild species or captive pet species of those animals...it is a very different matter...here is the list of the "obliged" to get from animal flesh nutrients for "obligate carnivores...and note...how SHORT the list is...retinol, arginine, taurine and arachidonic acid.
4 nutrients only hey ! astonished ? and if you read as i am sure you did my detailed explanations about how all taurine is synthetic so vegan in all commercial cat foods...you will realise...that captive lions and pet cats actually all get this from not animal flesh meat but man made synthetic produced sources.
So all "obligate carnivore" means is...if in the wild...some species of animals need animal flesh to get those 4 nutrients from that plants cannot provide naturally.
the last point you ask about...fibre...is simple...yes fibre is useful ...it is actually more needed in cats who do not eat a plant based diet...why ? because animal flesh causes harder stools so more constipation risks and toxicity if food does not move fast through the body. Flesh is very toxic...so the intestines of carnivores are short to make the time it is in their bodies as short as possible. Fibre helps move food through. Cleanses the gut and is a useful obesity control too. 3.5% crude fibre is what i recall ami vegan cat food fibre content is...aafco set the standards of course.
ps not wishing to go on and on but...you did not mention Vitamin D and it is a very interesting topic that i have read a great deal about. There are various sources of vitamin D ...2 and 3 classifications...now in the EU... EU and UK as an additive for pet food is D3 (cholecalciferol), which is derived from the lanolin in sheep fleeces and is therefore not vegan. So ? vegan pet foods use vitamin D2. It is odd is it not ? that only sheep fleeces have this vitamin D3 hey !!! i mean what about carnivores where there are no sheep in the wild i thought lol...anyway. Vitamin D2 is in my vegan cat food. Lichen actually are a source of vegan vitamin D3 i recall.
Your questions were very useful...so thank you...it meant clarification that i had missed about exactly WHAT the missing nutrients of all the 30 odd pages list of aafco listed essential nutrients cats need in pet food to thrive in "complete" cat food were...only 4 of them...are actually what "obligate carnivores" in the wild cannot get from plants...but obligate carnivores in captivity can get from plants and synthetic sources created nutrients by humans.
This post...is my attempt...first attempt actually...to help people understand what certain as I call them "grunt words" mean in context of where they come from ... we put "labels" on people and animals...without really understanding what those labels mean..."black person" or "person of colour" or "ethnic white" or "native"
All sorts of "labels" like...Mammals...marine life...birds...reptiles...primates (sub category of mammals) warm blooded...cold blooded...marsupial...insects...
Taxonomy....additional clarification...is evolutionary classification.
classifying groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics
It is NOT a dictate of what any animal has to be fed in captivity...not at all. It is simply based on what animals in the wild historically ate and did. Most of all ...it is NOT a scientific proof of the "healthiest diet" for any of the classified species ! why not ? well it is just what they ate historically classification...what is the HEALTHIEST diet is not necessarily what animals ate historically...animals eat...what is available...and evolve...some worse some better due to genetic influences.
What natural diets wild animals ate or eat...are often in fact scientists are finding out...NOT the healthiest diets for them.
The full name of an organism technically has eight terms.
The major ranks: domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species, applied to the red fox, Vulpes vulpes. The hierarchy of biological classification's eight major taxonomic ranks. Intermediate minor rankings are not shown.
Now before we go on...read that sentence again carefully ..." the full name of an organism technically has eight terms "
So ? that means...we cannot just grunt "carnivore" out as some blanket classification that is all that is needed.
now....here i come ! dogs...are descendants of a cat like creature ! and we all descended from fish that landed then took to flight...birds being the highest latest form of evolution therefore logically. hardly good to mention "bird brained"... magpies are the only non mammal that can recognise its own self in a mirror. here are common cat/dog ancestors of cats and dogs !
- Hypercarnivore: more than 70% meat
- Mesocarnivore: 30–70% meat
- Hypocarnivore: less than 30% meat
- Omnivore: the eating of both plants, animals, fungi, bacteria etc. The term means "all-eater".
- Herbivore: the eating of plants
PLANTS come under the CARNIVORE taxonomy in fact not just mammals or fish etc.
When people talk glibly with grunts about "carnivores" they really are being unspecific as that could mean plants.
Simply put...since time immemorial...meaning from the Dinosaur age to now...the percentage of animals who were Carnivorous or Herbivorous for diets is the same...70% herbivores 30% carnivores.
Plant-eating dinosaurs include the Brachiosaurus, the Diplodocus, the Stegosaurus, and the Triceratops. titanosaur Argentinosaurus huinculensis, which is the largest dinosaur known from uncontroversial evidence, estimated to have been 50–96.4 metric tons (55.1–106.3 short tons) and 30–39.7 m (98–130 ft) long
Of the twelve hundred or so known species described to date, more plant-eating dinosaurs have been identified than meat-eating ones. It has been suggested that basal members of the Dinosauria were all bipedal, cursorial carnivores and plant-eating was a later adaptation as this group of reptiles diversified.
A ratio in excess of 70:30 in favour of herbivorous (or semi-herbivorous) has been suggested.
Life began in the Oceans, Water...Fish then Insects then Birds then Mammals including Humans. So long ago...but it is all FISHY WATERS ! We are all related.
A Carnivore eats warm flesh of immediately killed organism.
A Necrovore (like vultures can be though there are also Vegan vultures) eat putrid decaying dead a long time before eating organisms.
A Herbivore eats plant organisms.
Carnivores often eat the dung of herbivores so are not really 100 percent flesh based diets additionally as nutrients in dung of herbivores have vegetable matter with nutrients needed even by carnivores often.
Farley Mowat, in his book “Never Cry Wolf,” described his experience observing wild wolves in the Alaskan tundra. He found, to his surprise, that wolves naturally ate large amounts of grasses, proving that their diet was by no means exclusively carnivorous.
Dogs digest certain nutrients such as starches better than Wolves ...due to centuries of living and eating off scraps from humans tables. Cats lost the ability to digest certain nutrients well. Taurine is one that is destroyed by cooking so today all standard manufactured CATFOOD whether vegan or not has SYNTHETIC taurine in it...proving it is "nutrients not ingredients" that matters for nutrition. Some species of animals have "fang"like teeth developed to tear things easier than other species that graze or eat off trees berries fruits, intestines of flesh eaters tend to be very short to allow fast passage of dangerous to health decaying flesh....
Teeth are a "red herring" about what an animal eats...having a gun does not mean you need to shoot people is an analogy about teeth ...and anyway... The hippopotamus has the largest canine teeth of any land animal, reaching sixteen inches each. Herbivore.
So all the "taxonomy classification" of animals by shared caracteristics shows is...what the general "theory" of diet is. It does not state what is ESSENTIAL to the animal to thrive on...only what the most commonly available and eaten nutrition of the wild animals is.
It is NOT therefore a dictate about what any animal in captivity needs to be fed.
Since none of the designated "carnivores" in the wild ate exclusively animal meat...it is obvious they were digesting plant nutrients for proteins ? just as well from plants as animal flesh.
Can this be proven with science studies done today ?
yes.
4 studies I mention of enormous significance about EVOLUTION and differences in wild animals compared to domesticated captive animals...
1. The massive difference in captive dog species ability to digest starches as compared to wild wolves...27 times more able to digest starches genetically proven in dogs as compared to wolves.
Dogs Naturally - Natural Dog Health And Nutrition
Dogs Naturally cares about your dog. Our dog food nutrition and natural health information will help give your dog a healthy, happy life.
www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com
2. Captive cats massive ability to digest plant proteins even better than dogs.
Cats Have Increased Protein Digestibility as Compared to Dogs and Improve Their Ability to Absorb Protein as Dietary Protein Intake Shifts from Animal to Plant Sources
This food had an average protein digestibility of 88% in dogs and 96.1% in cats.
Simple Summary
Because dogs are omnivores and cats are obligate carnivores, it is of value to pet owners and nutritionists to know how well they digest protein from plants and animals. This study evaluated the difference in digestibility using plant and animal protein sources, which are used in the pet food industry. These plant and animal sources resulted in protein digestibility that met or exceeded that expected for dogs and cats. As previously shown, cats had superior protein digestibility as compared to dogs. Regarding the difference in digestibility between the proteins from plants or animals—as a class, there was no difference between plant and animal protein in dogs. However, in cats, the protein from plants was more highly digested than animal protein.
Cats Have Increased Protein Digestibility as Compared to Dogs and Improve Their Ability to Absorb Protein as Dietary Protein Intake Shifts from Animal to Plant Sources - PMC
Because dogs are omnivores and cats are obligate carnivores, it is of value to pet owners and nutritionists to know how well they digest protein from plants and animals. This study evaluated the difference in digestibility using plant and animal ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
3. A peer reviewed study comparing the nutrients and effects of pet dogs and cats found that vegan diets were healthy and had even health benefits above the animal contents pet foods.
Scientific research has found what is healthy nutrition and is more able to eliminate the toxins and risks of unnatural farmed animals humans breed and kill in captivity.
Vegetarian versus Meat-Based Diets for Companion Animals - PMC
Many owners of companion animals are interested in vegetarian diets for their animals, as concerns increase about the consequences of animal farming, for health, animal welfare, and the environment. However, are vegetarian diets for cats and dogs ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
4. Last but not least...the massive difference in captive farm animals to wild animals as nutrition for any carnivores omnivores ...
This whilst i list last...is actually the imho most important factor to realise and be even alarmed about.
Why ?
People fantasise...that the anyway mostly ignorant of the details of the nutrients and measures optimum for the health of animals that are needed are the same in farm animals to wild animals !!!
WRONG ! very very wrong.
They are so different they really are very unhealthy.
This was i admit the most shocking surprise to me at first when i realised this.
How is it ? that if we or our pets eat "meat" that this can be so unhealthy compared to wild animal meat ?
surely it must be healthy and the same ! ?
no !
I provide...some very alarming facts...just a few...but very serious for health issues.
1. OMEGA 6 to 3 ratio... in farm animals are up to 40 times higher than the healthy ratio for hearts of those who eat them !
EEEEK ! the worst is ? chicken. Wild game...have a ratio of omega 6 to 3 of about 6 to `1. Scientists in charge of pet foods have found maximum of 10 to 1 ratio is the optimum for pets. Omega 3 is the heart healthy omega...that even in humans is destroyed if too much omega 6 is eaten...and...for example...coconuts (picked by abused monkeys in the Far East) are 100% only omega 6 and no omega 3 content...so very heart unhealthy. eeek hey. only in small doses. Vegans...can die of a heart attack...if they keep eating high in omega 6 foods like coconuts which destroy as they compete with the omega 3. Dr Greger does a good youtube explanation on this matter for humans I add.
2. FATS in farm animals are 2 times ...double...the healthy quantities for those who eat them !
Now without needing to provide refererences...everyone into pets...or human food ...knows that obesity levels are at record levels and heart disease in pets also high today.
Well think about those 2 issues hey !
Fats For Dogs: The Ultimate Guide - Dogs Naturally
Next to protein, fats are the second most important part of your dog's diet. Here's our Ultimate Guide to balancing the fats for dogs and foods.
www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com
Oh WHY ? are farm animals so different nutrition to wild animals ? simple...turns out...they are fed...high in omega 6 food as it fattens them up faster...and GMO but lets not go there hey...but all gmo soy...is fed to farmed animals not humans...the soy in vegan pet foods is not gmo animal feed grade but human grade. Turns out...soy that is gmo has got some health issues..and hey...that is what pets and humans are stuffed with if they eat the word "meat" of course.
The real "soy boys" are those who eat meat ...gmo soy boys.
It is not known if this has been due to EVOLUTION or a factor since centuries ... unlike the dogs starch digestion which can be seen as reliably due to EVOLUTION and changed eating habits over centuries of captive pet dogs...the cats digesting plant proteins extremely well is not known if this is evolutionary or has always been there.
What IS known about evolution of cats is...that the species unlike dogs and mammals like apes and humans...lost the ability to produce TAURINE naturally in their bodies.
This is a very interesting matter...why ? would wild dogs in Africa not lose the ability to create their own taurine but wild cats did ?
One suggestion is ? that the FELINE cat species is genetically more fragile...less healthy than the canine dog species...they do suffer much more from kidney renal diseases than wild dogs...74% of wild big cat lions die of kidney diseases...something which whilst far less a health problem in modern captive pet cats...shows that the cat species is evolutionary wise genetically weak in health as compared to the canine species. Less healthy.
This high percentage was found in several studies...this one was even higher.
(87%) showed renal lesions
Pathology in Captive Wild Felids at German Zoological Gardens - PMC
This retrospective study provides an overview on spontaneous diseases occurring in 38 captive wild felids submitted for necropsy by German zoological gardens between 2004 and 2013. Species included 18 tigers, 8 leopards, 7 lions, 3 cheetahs and 2 ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
All well fed big wild cats...plenty water to drink...but fed mostly raw flesh diets.
What zoos now have done...to reduce this high kidney and urinary tract health diseases in wild big cats ...is change their diets massively...away from raw flesh with all the toxins and risks of damage to kidneys which process all toxins...to mostly plant based diets...massively soy protein based.
Here is a link to the world top big wild cat nutrition supplier to zoos...take a look at the high percentage of plant based proteins and added nutrients like taurine that are all in commercial cat foods synthetic so vegan today.
Now specifically formulated diets or meat mixes for zoo carnivores are available with all the necessary nutrients, vitamins and minerals included, which makes feeding animals a formulated diet easier than trying to quantify the nutritional composition of naturally occurring foods (Hosey, Melfi and Pankhurst, 2009).
Replaces meat and requires no supplementation.
Replaces nutrients which are low or deficient in raw meat.
Ingredients Dehulled Extracted Toasted Soya, Maize, Wheat, Maize Gluten Meal, Poultry Meat Meal, Soya Bean Oil, Wheat Germ, Chicken Fat, Sugar Beet Pulp, Whey Powder, Yeast, Minerals and Vitamins, Fish Meal. (Ingredients may be subject to change due to seasonal availability)
5. not very important issue but one people ignorant about nutrition "grunt" out often so I just due to that provide the explanation i have repeated a million times...TAURINE is just 1 of some essential nutrients cats in particular need in their food as unlike us humans and dogs the cat species along the evolution route became inadequate and lost the ability to produce it in their bodies.
Taurine is synthetic...so vegan...in all commercial cat foods. Since the 1970s when cats were going blind and dying on their "meat" based tinned and packet pet foods.
Why ? well without going on again about the "unnatural process of pet food production" because in reality...our pets if fed non vegan are not "carnivore" diets but "necrovore" diets...no animal in the wild...eats long dead flesh....that is what vultures with strong digestion ability stomacs to deal with the toxins do...eat dead animals...
Us hairless ape humans however...process things...unnaturally...and so...we fatten up farm animals unnaturally full of the wrong levels of fats omegas vitamins etc....then we kill them...take off their feathers fur bones etc...and then pack them up and freeze them and cook them. etc etc and shove them in freezers all sorts.
And what happens in all this unnatural in the wild process ? nutrients get lost ! and taurine bigtime.
So that is why cats went blind and died due to lack of taurine in their pet foods until then 1970 got China to produce most of the world taurine synthetically and half of it is put in the worlds pet foods.
Actually i do add...due to so many dogs getting heart diseases ...DCM being a recent hyped scare the FDA reported on...dog foods have taken to adding taurine in dog foods lol...well watch out...too much taurine can damage kidneys i must add. Best to feed a balanced not overdosed in especially minerals or calcium pet food.
Anyway. Am i telling the truth about synthetic not in meat taurine ? yes. This raw feeding cat expert link explains it. Nothing against synthetic taurine and the experts say...raw flesh...is high risk of not having taurine in it as it is lost in the processing of the dead flesh of animal process.
Feline Nutrition - No Bull, Taurine Is a Must for Kitty | Hare Today
feline-nutrition.org
So...i hope i have not BORED you...i could write much more...i tried to be brief as verbosity is one of my defects as well as qualities.If you like me like DETAILS.
I can assure you...that without Arachidonic acid ...another cat essential peculiarity...cats would be dead in days not weeks.
in the USA ...the FDA government authority control and recall pet foods and human foods.
AAFCO are the USA pet food standard setters.
AAFCO establishes the nutritional standards for complete and balanced pet foods ...
To have "complete and balanced" in the nutritional adequacy statement, a dog or cat food must either:
- Meet one of the Dog or Cat Food Nutrient Profiles established by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO)External Link Disclaimer; or
- Pass a feeding trial using AAFCO procedures.
Complete and Balanced Pet Food
You can determine if a pet food meets your pet’s nutritional needs by looking at the nutritional adequacy statement on the label.
32 pages of details of what nutrients and what quantities for what life stages of what species of animals.
The AAFCO Dog and Cat Food Nutrient Profiles were designed to establish practical minimum and some maximum nutrient concentrations for dog and cat foods
We have EVOLVED hey..we have SCIENCE now...to know how to avoid 1 in 8 of a litter of dogs in "nature" only making it to adulthood if in the wild for our captive pet dogs...or the 50% of did not make it to adulthood litter of lion cubs in "nature" for our captive pet cats. If we really want our pets to live as they would in "nature" then high mortality is what is natural there.
well we never had all this detailed information in the time of the dinosaurs hey !
We never knew...what quantities of "protein" we were eating from broccoli or rabbits or avocados hey !
We never knew...and still do not know if dealing with RAW FLESH...what the quantities of vital minerals vitamins and taurine (well mostly certain it is missing in farmed processed raw meat of course see comments above as to why) are in those foods either hey.
What we can know...is "what nutrients should be" ..and if on labels...for which laws exist...what the content is. Except of course...not everything has to be on the labels...it is legal...to just use terms like "meal" meaning animal parts without specifying if the animals ground up bits are euthanised dogs cats or the usual rabbits as the easiest bunny boiler animal to put in pet food.
Except that i am sure...none of the last mentioned animals are in vegan pet foods of course...there are laws about labelling anything "vegan" meaning animal free.
The closest WILD ANCESTOR of both our DOGS AND CATS...a TREE CAT type animal !
Mammalian carnivores can trace their lineage back to a creature in the early Eocene, 55 million years ago. Fossils that were discovered in Belgium have gotten researchers one step closer to finding the ancestor of these animals. The name, Dormaalocyon latouri, an homage to the Dormaal region where the fossil was located. The team was able to describe the animal based on over 250 teeth and bones located in the ankle. These newly discovered bones add to two teeth that were found previously. The results come from a research team led by Floréal Solé and were published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. https://www.livescience.com/42342-tiny-carnivore-ancestor-discovered.html 2014 Scientific Article on the Belgian Discovery. The carnivore ancestor Dormaalocyon latouri, roamed Europe 56 million years ago. Credit: Art by Charlène Letenneur (MNHN) and Pascale Golinvaux (RBINS) (picture of large Cat ancestor related. The smaller picture is another source of another common ancestor of cats and dogs) "
Lou replied and asked over an hour ago...so i edit to reply with the details here...
You only mention "obligate carnivores" once. but provide no definition or context. That is a word thrown around a lot and I think it is worth more than a mention.
If I remember my biology correctly an obligate carnivore does not produce the digestive enzyme amylase. Cats are a good example of this. Amylase starts the digestion of starches. Not sure if obligate carnivores can digest starches at all. An omnivore produces this enzyme and the presence of that enzyme probably is what separates omnivores from carnivores.
Another something worth discussing in the diet is fiber.
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lol i got ticked off for too much info so had to cut some out to get the post released lol...but...i will try and put a reply in brief to your good points made in a short while in edit here wink...
here is the article to reply to the AMYLASE enzyme in cats...they do have this enzyme...lower levels than in dogs i add...but it is in their bodies...in cats the amylase is not in their saliva but internal organs i add.
The easiest carbohydrate for dogs and cats to digest is ? rice. I add Brown long grain rice has the highest level of nutrients. NOT wild rice...that name is for some reason not actually correct in calling it rice..i do not know why i just read ignore the label wild rice but go for long grain brown rice for the best and of course organic and avoid USA and Bangladesh rice as high in toxins ...arsenic in fact...but i must be brief...deary me...i have a problem i have so much info it is hard to keep details down...
deary me...i need to address 2 more issues you raised of good points...but i LOVe detail so if you want it i am very happy...
here is the scientific explanation of amylase in carnivores...great title...peer reviewed article of course.
Cats and Carbohydrates: The Carnivore Fantasy? - PMC
The domestic cat’s wild ancestors are obligate carnivores that consume prey containing only minimal amounts of carbohydrates. Evolutionary events adapted the cat’s metabolism and physiology to this diet strictly composed of animal tissues and led to ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Vet Sci. 2017 Dec; 4(4): 55.
Published online 2017 Nov 15. doi: 10.3390/vetsci4040055
PMCID: PMC5753635
PMID: 29140289
Cats and Carbohydrates: The Carnivore Fantasy?
brevity...to deal with point 2 now the "obligate carnivore" term.
The word "obligate" comes from the French word "obligee" meaning "forced to be"
This matters...it means...in the wild...due to not having alternatives...some species of animals are "forced" to eat animal flesh to get certain nutrients to even live. OBLIGED to.
However...when it comes to the captive wild species or captive pet species of those animals...it is a very different matter...here is the list of the "obliged" to get from animal flesh nutrients for "obligate carnivores...and note...how SHORT the list is...retinol, arginine, taurine and arachidonic acid.
4 nutrients only hey ! astonished ? and if you read as i am sure you did my detailed explanations about how all taurine is synthetic so vegan in all commercial cat foods...you will realise...that captive lions and pet cats actually all get this from not animal flesh meat but man made synthetic produced sources.
So all "obligate carnivore" means is...if in the wild...some species of animals need animal flesh to get those 4 nutrients from that plants cannot provide naturally.
the last point you ask about...fibre...is simple...yes fibre is useful ...it is actually more needed in cats who do not eat a plant based diet...why ? because animal flesh causes harder stools so more constipation risks and toxicity if food does not move fast through the body. Flesh is very toxic...so the intestines of carnivores are short to make the time it is in their bodies as short as possible. Fibre helps move food through. Cleanses the gut and is a useful obesity control too. 3.5% crude fibre is what i recall ami vegan cat food fibre content is...aafco set the standards of course.
ps not wishing to go on and on but...you did not mention Vitamin D and it is a very interesting topic that i have read a great deal about. There are various sources of vitamin D ...2 and 3 classifications...now in the EU... EU and UK as an additive for pet food is D3 (cholecalciferol), which is derived from the lanolin in sheep fleeces and is therefore not vegan. So ? vegan pet foods use vitamin D2. It is odd is it not ? that only sheep fleeces have this vitamin D3 hey !!! i mean what about carnivores where there are no sheep in the wild i thought lol...anyway. Vitamin D2 is in my vegan cat food. Lichen actually are a source of vegan vitamin D3 i recall.
Your questions were very useful...so thank you...it meant clarification that i had missed about exactly WHAT the missing nutrients of all the 30 odd pages list of aafco listed essential nutrients cats need in pet food to thrive in "complete" cat food were...only 4 of them...are actually what "obligate carnivores" in the wild cannot get from plants...but obligate carnivores in captivity can get from plants and synthetic sources created nutrients by humans.
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