Answer: Certainly there is evidence that cat favor the high fat and high protein foods essential in their diet, but tests have shown that some foods which they find very palatable are not nutritionally adequate if use over an extended period. Unfortunately, the palatability of the food is not reliable indicator of its nutritional value.
Liver is highly acceptable food, often preferred to muscle meat. Some cats develop a marked preference for is and will refuse other foods. But this should not be primate because a diet consisting solely of liver will result in the excessive absorption of vitamin A, which would be followed by the development of serious and painful bone deformities which effectively cripple the cat. Usually it is adult cats who suffer, developing pain and stiffness in the nick and sometimes in the limbs. Liver in normal amounts is not at all harmful; it is simply that you can have too much of good thing.
Next to liver, muscle meat is often the food most prefer by the cats. Unfortunately, both liver and muscle (and also heart) contain relatively low levels of calcium and relatively and high levels of phosphorous. All meat diet which are not supplemented by the correct amount of calcium lead to the development of structurally weak bones and skeletal abnormalities. An example is the condition juvenile osteodystrophy which occurs in growing cats at three or six months of ages, and especially in the Siamese. These kittens show lameness, especially in the hind legs, and their bones will readily facture. Affected animals have a shortened body and neck with a relatively long, large head and are referred to as ‘square cats’. Giving extra vitamin D (as contained in cod liver oil) only makes this condition worse. A diet rich in muscle meat is therefore definitely not a good diet. An acceptable compromise would be diet containing five part if fatty meat to one of liver, though additional calcium in the form of sterilized bone flour (1/8 oz (4g) per day) or milk (7fi oz (200ml) per day) would also needed.
In addition liver and other meat products are relatively low in iodine, although this deficiency is readily corrected if the animal also eats fish. On the other hand liver and muscle meat are rich in vitamin B1 (thiamine) for which cats have a relatively high requirements.
Many cats find the small cans of special variety foods (tuna, fish, beef, rabbit, etc.) highly palatable, as of course the manufacture intends. But these specialty diet are not intended to be balanced diet and should not be fed exclusively day after day, even though the cat express a clear preference for one of them. Some owners reserve these ‘special’ treads as a reward for good behavior in training and never feed them ay other times.
In summary, therefore, as will as owner sometimes feeding there animals on totally unsuitable diets, the cat itself does not necessarily know best when it comes to selecting his own diet.
