Sandy tell you why do you always find taurine in most cat foods?

Most cat owners know that their cats need taurine in particular, and you can find taurine exsit in kinds of cats food.So what it is, what it does, how to get it and how much you need in a day, let's remove the mystery of taurine.

History of taurine

In 1827, scientists discovered taurine in the bile of bulls (which is why it got its name), and it proved to be important for heart function, vision, and brain development, but in the 1970s it became known that cats could get sick if they lacked it, and in 1982, Taurine has become more widely known as an essential nutrient for cats since the Animal Research Centre in France published and understood the level of requirements for taurine.

What is taurine

Taurine is a sulfur-containing non-protein amino acid, also known as taurine, exists in a free state in the body and does not participate in the biosynthesis of proteins in the body. Taurine is widely distributed in animal tissue cells, especially in Marine animals. Mammalian tissue cells also contain high levels of taurine, especially in nerves, muscles and glands.

What does taurine do to cats

Taurine is a kind of amino acid that cats must ingestion in daily diet. It has certain benefits for cats' eyes, heart, brain, intestines and stomach, immunity, etc., among which the most obvious is the cat's eyes.

Effects on the eyes

If the cat lacks taurine, their big eyes are not bright, and the central retina is deformed, which will make the cat's vision begin to decline. If the cat lacks taurine for a long time, it may cause blindness.

Effects on the heart

Taurine deficiency has been linked to heart and liver diseases, such as dilated cardiomyopathy, where cats don't have enough taurine to keep their heart muscles from contracting properly, eventually leading to congestive heart failure.

Effects on the brain

Taurine plays an important role in maintaining brain function and development. It also helps to move electrolytes in and out of cells and strengthen brain function. It also helps to lower levels of gluten in the brain and protect the brain. If young cats do not get enough taurine from a young age, it can be very damaging for their future development.

Effects on pregnant female cats

Pregnant female cats can not lack taurine, otherwise their chances of abortion will greatly increase, even if the birth of kittens, because the maternal lack of taurine will lead to poor visual development and slow growth of kittens.

Effects on immune function

Taurine can protect the cat's intestines and stomach, liver, enhance resistance, lack of taurine cats will make immune function decline, easy to catch a cold. It also has a great impact on the digestive system. In the case of taurine deficiency, bile cannot be secreted smoothly.

How to take taurine

Taurine is widely found in many foods, such as the heart, brain and liver of mammals, and the most abundant in Marine fish and shellfish. If you eat more of this kind of food, you can get more taurine.Additional, besides beef, taurine in general meat is less. If you have time, make a love meal for your cat, which is made from sea fish. Your cat will love it. But it should be noted that the sea fish may have allergies or indigestion symptoms, cat owners can first a small amount to the cat to eat, observe whether there are adverse reactions, so as to rest assured oh.

Characteristics of taurine - water soluble

Taurine is a water-soluble nutrient that needs to be metabolized by the kidneys, so it doesn't stay in cats for long. Due to the highly water-soluble nature of taurine, water loss occurs when food is thawed. For example, when you buy a big package of raw meat/offal/bone products and go home and thaw and see a lot of blood, it actually contains a lot of taurine, and if you throw away the blood, you throw away a lot of taurine.

To reduce taurine loss, we need to preserve as much water as possible in food and meat. For example, when you cook meat, reduce the amount of water in the meat as much as possible. This will help the juices to absorb back into the meat itself. Steaming food does not leach amino acids, but rather leaches taurine into the watery form of gravy.

How much taurine does a cat need in a day?

The prescribed requirement for taurine for an adult cat is 400mg/kg dry matter, but the actual requirement for commercially available pet food is 1000mg/kg dry matter for products and 2500mg/kg dry matter for canned food. The rationale for the need to increase taurine supplementation was determined only after studies using stable isotope techniques. Kittens, on the other hand, require less than adults, about half as much taurine as adults.

Taurine will not supplement in excess

Cats rarely suffer from an excess of taurine because they do not have the ability to store this particular amino acid, much less in their fat or other fatty tissues. If overfed, the cat's body will expel the excess taurine from its body.

If the owner likes to make fresh food for the cat, steaming instead of boiling is recommended to maintain the taurine nutrients in the food.