Digestible Bites of Short and Snappy Facts

L'il Bite of the Day - Taurine

8/27/2013

Plant matter is a very poor source of taurine, a critical amino acid essential for normal heart and vision function in a cat.

The best available information I can unearth reveals that a small cat's "perfect" nutrition package - a mouse - contains a very high amount of taurine relative to other meats - approximately 2.4 mg/gram. The good news is that taurine is present in most raw meat muscle meat, but it is abundant in the heart and brain. Chicken hearts are a fantastic source of taurine if you're making cat food.

(FYI, I procure chicken hearts in bulk from a really great place in PA called Hare Today Gone Tomorrow - they ship the hearts in 2-lb packages, frozen, right to the door. The packages always arrive in great shape and I use a small chest freezer to store the packages until food-making day.)

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3 Comments

Amanda Coffin

2/25/2014 09:37:19 pm

Hello! I notice that your recipes for raw food (and others as well) recommend using chicken hearts and livers rather than beef organs. Why is this? Thank you!

Anne link

2/25/2014 09:51:35 pm

Hi Amanda - I posted this to Facebook about a week or two ago - hope it helps!

Why I don't feed beef liver to cats.

This issue has come up in the last few days and I wanted to clarify. I know that some folks successfully use beef liver (and beef heart) in homemade cat food; I'm in no position to object or say that's a bad idea! I personally don't use it or recommend it on my website since the number of stories of folks feeding beef liver with cats new to raw feeding that then immediately end up projectile vomiting is too high for my taste.

Suggestions on the Cat Nutrition website are based on my desire for folks to successfully make a transition to healthier feeding for their cats - and not run away from the idea if it doesn't go smoothly at first. I tend to steer clear of ingredients that seem to have a high "kitty rejection" rate. There are few things that turn people off the idea of raw feeding faster than cleaning up cat vomit immediately after they've finally gotten their beloved furry one to eat a raw meal.

In general, I favor the idea of sticking to meat sources that are closer to a cat's natural prey size - like rabbit, chicken, Cornish Game Hen, etc.

Also, FYI, the nutrient profile of beef liver is DIFFERENT than chicken liver. Beef liver is considerably higher in Vitamin A content (a vitamin we shouldn't over-do for cats), higher in protein, and higher in carbs.

Amanda Coffin

3/11/2014 06:51:13 pm

That is extremely helpful, Anne -- thank you! It makes excellent sense, and I appreciate the caveat about the Vitamin A levels in beef liver.

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L'il Bite of the Day - Taurine

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