Answer: I’m fried the answer must be no if you want your cat to remain healthy. The cat has definite need for a high protein diet some of which, at least must come from animal sources. This is because, unlike most mammals, cats can not regulate the rate at which they break down and eliminate protein. Other mammals fed a diet low in protein will reduce the rate which they break down the protein in order to conserve it, but this is not the case with the cat. It seems probable that, because cats their evolutionary development were always strict carnivores feeding on a meat diet, there was never any need for selection to be based on ability to conserve protein. Indeed, because meat is low in carbohydrate, it would be an advantage for cat to have an efficient mechanism that could break down protein in order to provide glucose to act as a source of energy.
There are, of coerce many foods other then meat which contain protein and it is possible to maintain dogs in good health by feeding proteins solely of vegetable origin.
All protein made up of a number of smaller units called amino acids. Altogether there are twenty different amino acids and each type of protein consists of an arrangement of only some of them. In dogs and cats ten of the amino acids are essential for the proper growth and functioning of the body and unless the diet provide all ten of these in adequate amounts then some nutritional disease will develop. Digestible protein which contain all ten essential amino acids in the ideal proportions for use by the body are described as having a high biological value (high quality protein or first class proteins). The best is egg protein, but most other animal-derived protein also have a high biological value. However, proteins from plants or of lower biological value although still useful, but, if properly combined, all the essential amino acids can be supplied from plant source.
In addition to these ten essential amino acids there is anther one, taurine, which must appear in the diet of the cats. This amino acids is necessary to prevent degeneration of the retina in the eye which would lead eventually to blindness. Most mammals, but not the cat, can make sufficient taurine within their bodies out of other amino acids. Since only protein foods of animal origin contain sufficient quantities of taurine it is clear that to maintain good health at least some of the protein in the cat’s diet must be animal origin.
Secondly, let us consider role of the fats. Fats make food palatable, provide a source of energy and help transport the first soluble vitamins. In addition they supply substances known as essential fatty acids, which are necessary for nutrition because they are used in making new cells and in synthesizing prostaglandins. Of the three essential fatty acids, one, linoleic acid, is widely present in the vegetable oils and most mammals have the ability to manufacture the other two essential fatty acids from linoleic acid. However, the cat does not possess this ability, and since the other two fatty acids are only found in animal fat must appear in the cat’s diet. Also, he have already seen that the cat is unable to make vitamin A from plant source; it must be amiable performed in animal tissues.
Therefore, with a proven need for protein, fat and vitamin A of animal origin, a strictly vegetarian diet for the cat is out of the question.
