Taurine Deficiency in Cats: Symptoms, Treatment, and Diet Tips

Unlike dogs and humans, cats cannot synthesize taurine from other amino acids within their bodies. Instead, they must obtain it through animal protein, such as fresh, unprocessed meat. Since taurine is vital for their health, it’s essential to ensure your cat gets an adequate amount in their diet.

The Importance of Taurine for Cats

Taurine is an amino acid that cats cannot synthesize from other food ingredients, making it an essential part of their diet. It plays a vital role in maintaining overall health and supporting the proper functioning of the eyes, heart, immune system, and gastrointestinal tract. Additionally, taurine is crucial for maintaining healthy teeth and a shiny coat in cats.

Most indoor cats don’t make many changes to their daily routine; they wake up, play with toys, take a nap, cuddle with their owner, have some kitty kibble, and get ready for bed again. Many indoor cats don’t spend a lot of time outdoors, and most of them don’t hunt and eat wild meat. Therefore, many of our feline friends need an additional source of taurine.

Taurine Deficiency in Cats

Taurine deficiencies can be hard to recognize or detect. Symptoms of taurine deficiency in cats often progress slowly, leading to blindness and heart failure. A cat’s eye health and vision will slowly start to decline, and it will become harder for the heart to deliver blood throughout the body. Because taurine deficiencies can become life-threatening, it’s important to ensure that your cat is receiving enough taurine.

What You Can Do

You can start by choosing a good quality cat food and by making sure that taurine is listed as an ingredient in your cat’s food. Taurine in cat food is an easy way to ensure your cat is receiving taurine. If you feed your cat homemade food, it’s important to know that heat destroys taurine. Therefore, you should feed raw meat to your cat, rather than cooked meat. Raw meat has 70% more taurine than cooked meat. Cats should be eating meat products daily to meet their dietary requirement of taurine.

It’s also a good idea to give your cat a taurine supplement. Excess taurine is excreted from the body, so you shouldn’t have to worry about your cat receiving too much taurine.

Felo Taurine: A Taurine Supplement for Cats

Because taurine is essential for the health of cats, Lots of Love Pet Products created Felo Taurine, a water-soluble taurine powder for cats. It helps support normal cardiovascular and eye function, plus it supports the immune system and promotes digestive health. It is easy to administer and easy to digest, plus it will leave your cat happy and healthy!

Take the proper steps to ensure that your cat is receiving enough taurine. Choose a good quality cat food, consider offering raw meat, and look into giving your cat a taurine supplement. Your cat’s health depends on it!