Lactating cats not only increase their total calorie consumption, they also significantly alter the make-up of their diet to meet the demands of feeding a litter, a new study has found.
Lactating cats not only increase their total calorie consumption, they also significantly alter the make-up of their diet to meet the demands of feeding a litter, a new study has found. In the study presented at the Waltham International Nutritional Sciences Symposium in Portland, US, researchers provide strong evidence that cats are able to adapt their macronutrient intake to meet their physiological requirements. “It’s no surprise that, just like humans, cats require more energy during pregnancy and when feeding their young. However, this research shows that lactating cats, particularly those with large litters, select their foods to alter the proportions of protein, fat and carbohydrate they consume,” said Dr Adrian Hewson-Hughes, from the Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition, UK. “If given the choice, cats with large litters will significantly alter their diet composition when feeding kittens to ensure a much greater proportion of energy is obtained from fat,” he said. In the study, seventeen adult female cats were offered a choice of three nutritionally-complete wet foods with different proportions of protein, fat and carbohydrate. During pregnancy, the cats significantly increased their total energy intake, and the amounts of protein and fat consumed also increased linearly.
