More cat owners are turning to vegan diets for their pets. But is a plant-based diet actually safe for cats?
An online survey of 1,305 cats found that those eating vegan diets had 34% lower odds of being assessed as overweight than those eating conventional meat-based food
The findings came from caregiver reports of veterinary assessments. All cats had followed their diets for at least one year, with conventional meat-based diets accounting for most (90%) and vegan diets for the remainder (10%)
Researchers calculated the difference after accounting for age, sex, neuter status, activity, and feeding practices
The lower rates of excess weight came despite feeding habits that might have tipped the scales the other way, as Knight explained, “Interestingly, most vegan-fed cats were eating predominantly dry food and were more likely to have food available throughout the day. These are feeding patterns normally associated with increased overweight risk. Yet we still observed lower rates of overweight in this group.”
That observation came from study author Andrew Knight, an adjunct professor at Australia’s Griffith University School of Environment and Science. He emphasized that the relatively small vegan-fed group limited what researchers could conclude
Veterinary studies estimate that around 30–60% of domestic cats are overweight or obese. Excess weight is associated with a