Cats' nutritional needs are very specific and the nutritional quality of cat food is one of the most important factors in cats' health and longevity. These resources will help you learn all you need to know about cat food labels, cat food ingredients, and the nutritional needs of cats.
The cat also needs certain nutrients made by the metabolic processes of other animals and not available in plant material. Dogs have a range of biochemical processes that convert nutrients from plant and animal sources into what they require - for example dogs can convert the carotenes found in fruit and vegetables into vitamin A. The cat cannot do this and must obtain vitamin A already preformed in animal sources. Cats ingest not only the flesh and organs of their prey but also the partially and wholly digested vegetable foods the prey had eaten. With the assistance of the prey's own digestive processes, the cat then is able to derive nutrition from various vegetable sources. Thus the cat is more than a carnivore -- the cat is an obligate carnivore. To survive the cat must eat meat.Hence, when some people want to feed their cats a diet consisting largely of vegetable matter for either economy or convenience or to fit in with their own preferences or ethical beliefs, they need to consider that the cat they love for its looks and behavior is as it is because it is a carnivore - a vegetarian cat would probably have developed to look like a rabbit!
