Following are selected posts to the Holisticat (TM) Mailing List on the subject of vitamins. There's a lot of information here, and the posts are arranged in ascending chronological order. If there is a particular word you're looking for, it's probably best to utilize the "Find in Page" function in your edit menu!
Happy hunting :)
<23 Jul 1998 From Donna Re Michelle's questions>
> > 2. Several books advised not giving poultry skin - why? Is that because of salmonella or other bacteria?
<< I think it's because skin is nothiing but fat and that can cause problems in some animals. Sandy doesn't take off any skin from her chickens and I take off about 1/4 of the fattier chunks. Depends on how active your cats are.>>
According to the USDA database, 100g of chicken skin has:
Calories 349
Protein 13.33 g (I was quite surprised by this)
Fat 32.35 g
Calcium 11 mg
Phos 100 mg
Potass 103 mg
Sodium 63 mg
Vit. A 262 IU
Plus lower levels of other vits and mins.
Donna
Ummm- Kritter kitchen defunct some time ago so found this one about 5 months ago - good stuff.... http://www.dataweb.nl/~sham/nutrient/index.html
Jacqueline
Hi all,
The Merck Vet Manual, 6th edition 1986, devotes approx. 10 pages to feline nutrition. Here are the recommeded nutrient allowances for cats. This info was adapted from _Nutrient Requirements of Cats_, National Research Council, 1978.
The percentage or amount given is per kilogram of diet, dry basis.
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Donna, Sasha, and Corky
Anita writes:
<<Since we are on the topic..how much vit. E should a kitty get
?>>
Anita and all,
Sometime back Tricia (btw, how is Hoggy doing, Tricia?) posted this
so for those who weren't on the list at the time, here it is again.
I'd go w/ the lower range on the fat-soluble ones like A and E.
_________________________
I looked up a couple vitamin recommendations for older kitties in case
you're interested, and here is what I found:
*Complementary and Alternative Veterinary Medicine* ed. Schoen &
Wynn Geriatric dog or cat: (daily dose range)
B complex:
B1, B2, B6...................5-30 mg
Folic Acid, B12.........10-100 ug
Vitamin C.......................250-400 mg
Vitamin E........................50-200 IU
Coenzyme Q10............20-100mg
Primrose oil...................500-2000mg
Fish oil............................250-1000mg
Digestive enzymes.....4-160mg
Dimethylglycine.........24-100mg
Zinc................................1-15mg
Chronic illness:
Vitamin C......................................500-6000mg
Vitamin E......................................100-400 IU
Proanthocyanidin complex.....10-200mg
Digestive enzymes.....................10-200mg
Hi All, Here is an information from Vegetarian Society about cat's diet.
Cats - a Vegetarian Diet?
Although it is possible to keep dogs on a vegetarian
diet
satisfactorily, cats are more specialised
and you are advised to
consider carefully before changing your cat to a
vegetarian diet.
Cats are natural carnivores and are unlikely to willingly
forego meat
from their diet. Cats fed on vegetarian diets are
likely to look
elsewhere for their preferred meat diet, and many
cats will hunt and
kill small rodents and birds.
Cats require certain nutrients from meat that
cannot be obtained in
sufficient amounts from plant foods. These
include taurine,
arachidonic acid, vitamin A, and vitamin B12.
Taurine
Taurine is an amino acid essential for cats
but not for other
mammals. In the prolonged absence of taurine,
a cat's retina slowly
degenerates and the cat suffers eye problems
and can become
irreversibly blind. This condition is called
central retinal
degeneration (CRD). Cow's milk is a poor source
of taurine and there
is none in plant foods. The only rich source
is meat.
Arachidonic acid
Cats need a dietary source of essential fatty
acids which they can
then convert into other essential substances.
A dietary source of the
essential fatty acid, arachidonic acid, is
not needed by humans as
they can synthesise it from linoleic acid
present in vegetable fat.
However, cats lack the necessary enzymes to
synthesise arachidonic
acid and so a dietary source is essential.
Fatty tissues and milk
contain almost none and only small amounts
occur in eggs. Meat is the
only major source.
Arachidonic acid deficiency takes some time
to develop but its effect
on the cat is profound.
Vitamin A
Cats cannot utilise the provitamin A of vegetables
and therefore
require preformed vitamin A (retinol) which
occurs only in animal
foods. There are only small quantities of
vitamin A in eggs and dairy
produce. The richest source is liver.
Vitamin B12
Cats cannot synthesise their own vitamin B12
and a dietary source is
necessary. Vitamin B12 is present only in
animal products.
Niacin
Unlike other mammals, cats cannot synthesise
useful quantities of
this vitamin from protein and therefore require
a good dietary
supply. Eggs and dairy produce are very poor
sources and the niacin
in cereals is largely unavailable to cats.
A diet based on cereals,
milk and eggs will always be deficient in
niacin for cats. Meat is a
rich source.
Thiamin
Cats are very susceptible to deficiency of
this vitamin, which is
rapidly destroyed by heat. Eggs and dairy
produce are poor sources,
wholemeal cereals and pulses are fair sources,
meat is a good source.
Protein
Cats require large amounts of protein in their
diet and this can be
a problem on a vegetarian diet. Over 25% of
a cat's diet should be a
protein.
Whilst cats may enjoy certain plant foods,
vegetarian diets high in
fibre and polyunsaturated fatty acids may
be detrimental to a cat's
health. High fibre foods can fill the cat's
digestive system without
providing the necessary nutrients in sufficient
concentrations.
Excess polyunsaturated fatty acids in vegetable
oils can lead to a
vitamin E deficiency related illness.
People who feed vegetarian diet to their cats would say, they can find supplements to cover the missing nutrients. However, if certain nutrients are only obtainable from animal source, then where does these supplements are coming from? If it's not from animal source, then I bet you it's manmade. I personally don't like to use something man-made if possible. Besides, I don't have the religious belief that restrict food form animal source, and my guys love raw meat, and I have no problem feeding animal products to my cats.
-- Yumi
In a message dated 5/19/99 11:14:55 PM Pacific Daylight Time, dhicks@
writes:
<< that I can go to a USDA database and find the information
I would need to check and adjust the ratio. >>
Yes, that's what you do. Here's the url:
http://www.rahul.net/cgi-bin/fatfree/usda/usda.cgi. Also,
there's another
site that will figure the ratio for you - Vick? I can't find
the url for that one. That makes it MUCH easier. I had to have
Vick help me do it cause I couldn't get my feeble brain around it.
So when the time comes if she won't eat bone, you can go to the sites and
figure it out.
Lee
Hi all
<<I Just wondered if anyone would be kind enough to comment about
what I am doing right or wrong by giving my cat Onyx the following diet
etc below. Onyx has IBD.
Vitamin C 125-250mg (rose hip base)
Vitamin B complex containing all of the following :
B1 3.3mg
B2 2mg
B6 2.7mg
B12 4ug
D 70iu
A 1333 iu
E 3mg
Ca--two types, $B!" (Banhydrous ascetic 40mg and sediment carbonic
75mg (these are direct and bad translations
but I don't know what they would be called in English, sorry)
Also, I give derm caps ES, .5 mg which has 23 iu Vit E--52% linoleic, 4% gamma lino, 8% eicosapentaneoic, and 6% docosahexaenoic acid.>>
Judi, sounds like you're doing well under some difficult conditions! :)) Here are some thoughts...
The amount of vit C seems fine.
The avg healthy cat requires from 50 to 100 IUs/day of vit D. They do get some D from diet and can mfr it in their kidneys as well as from sun exposure. It's present in liver, butter, fatty fish, fish oils, egg yolks.
The avg healthy cat requires between 1,000 and 3,000IU/day of vit A. The best sources are liver, kidneys, egg yolks, butter and fish liver oils. Both A & D are fat soluble and will accumulate in the body.
Vit E RDA is 5 to 15 IU for an avg healthy cat, and it's found
in liver, wheat germ, and egg yolks. "Steatitis - inflammation of body
fat - was found to occur in kittens and cats fed diets of raw fish and
especially red tuna in the absence of vitamin E." [E. Dorosz, DVM] and
since you're feeding quite a bit of raw fish, you probably shd supplement
with E. Cats utilize only d-alpha tocopherols.
Can you buy vit E d-alpha toc gelcaps? I give one 400 IU cap a week.
Cats have a high requirement for the soluble vit B complex every day.
B vits are found in brewer's yeast, heart, liver, meat, whole grain cereals.
RDA's:
B1 - 0.2 to 1.5mg;
B2 - 0.2 to 1.5mg;
B3 - 2.7 to 7.5mg;
B5 - 0.5 to 1.5mg;
B6 - 0.2 to 1.5mg. [Dorosz]
Run it by your vet, but if you can find chicken liver, hearts and gizzards you could feed those once or twice a week, plus a couple of egg yolks each week, which would supply all the above vitamins in food form. Liver will also provide some vit C. Heart will supply extra taurine.
<<am starting to take leaves from my landlords aloe instead.>>
Feed only the inner gel, not the outer green leaf...
<<I also believe I have read much research showing that Ca supplementation in any form doesnt do a hoot of good. Please tell me if this is not right! Im>>
Onyx will get some of his required calcium from the chicken bones - how frequently does he get them? Calc:phos:mag ratios are something I struggle with so I'm sure someone else on the list will have better info than I! :)
BTW, I agree with Sandy that Onyx might need more oils and EFAs in his diet to prevent the dandruff - egg yolk, vits A & E, olive oil, cod liver oil, flaxseed oil, and fish body oil would all be potential sources. Boy, isn't this a learning experience for us all?! :)
Jean, Saski B & That-Amber
Lee,
Actually, all these different oil/fat contains some of omega 3, 6, 9, not just one kind. However, flax seed oil contains about 58% omega 3, olive oil contains 64 % omega 9, sunflower/safflower oil contains 56 % omega 6. Omega 6 mainly comes from animal fat. poultry fat is a good source of omega 6. So if you are feeding chicken pieces with fat/skin attached to it, you don;t have to worry about omega 6. But you would need to add some omega 3. ( Dr. Billinghurst said that tissue of wild animal contains more omega 3 than those commercial farming animals. ) If you wish to obtain omega 6 from plant, sunflower oil, corn oil, soybean oil, are the good source. Omega 9, I think, should be up to 10% of total fat intake. But this amount can be obtained by other fat that you are feeding. For example, flax seed oil also has 19% omega 9. Rice bran oil has 45% omega 9, and 37% omega 6.
Yumi
Howdy -
Is the cat dose 1/8 the human or 1/10? I'm erring on the side of caution and going with 1/10 for now, but Max's heart combo pills have all sorts of stuff in 'em, and I don't want him to get too much...
Thanks :)
Vick and the kitties: Skippy, Sam, Max and Jezebel
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<22 Jun 99 Jill replied:
"1/10"
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