I just wish to share something I learnt recently about the importance of taurine in cat food.
Cats need taurine and they get it from their food. It is particularly important for heart health.
From Google:
Taurine is exclusively found in animal-based proteins. It is critical for normal vision, digestion, heart muscle function, to maintain normal pregnancy and fetal development, and to maintain a healthy immune system. Taurine is an essential amino acid in the cat.
Taurine-depleted cats develop retinal degeneration, cardiomyopathy, altered white-cell function, and abnormal growth and development. Taurine deficiency is best estimated from the plasma-taurine concentration, with values less than 30 mumol/l considered deficient.
So, if we buy commercial food, please check the ingredients.
More importantly, if we home cook, please ensure our food is balanced AND contains taurine in the appropriate amount.
I also heard from a reliable source that there has been a significant incidence of even young cats having heart issues nowadays. One of the reasons could be the lack of taurine in the food they eat. Most commercial cat food, I think, contains taurine. So it is the home prepared food where we have to ensure is balanced and contains the essential nutrients that cats need. Also, cats cannot be fed dog food because the nutrient requirements are different.
This is the brand of taurine I use in my home prepared cat food for our seniors and super seniors. For 2.6kg of meat, I use 4000mg Taurine (to be added AFTER the food has been cooked because boiling at a high temperature can destroy taurine). But please do check with a pet nutritionist or an authority (of which I am not!) on the correct amount and brand, and correct food preparation techniques.
This article might be helpful too: https://tailblazerspets.com/blog/2019/02/how-to-add-extra-taurine-to-your-pets-diet/
For commercial food, these are what our cats eat:
Coco&Joe’s (raw food)
Cubgrub (raw food)
Primal Freeze-Dried (raw food)
Cindy’s Recipe’s canned food
Monge’s cat canned food (monoprotein)
This article is only a sharing. Kindly consult a professional source for information on pet nutrition.