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I'm getting ready to start making cat food and want to buy my supplements. Given that cats are obligate carnivores, I want the supplements to come from animal sources when possible. I started looking to purchase vitamin E and found if it's natural, it's largely from sunflower or wheat germ oils.
A healthy adult cat, around 9 lbs, with a goal of 250 calories/day, needs 30 IU vitamin E/day. If we're using the d- form (not dl-), then 30 IU converts to 2.5 mg/day. If a cat is consuming fish oil, they need additional vitamin E. Per 500 mg of fish oil, 3.4 mg of Vitamin E should be added. So now we're at 5.9 mg Vitamin E/day.
Using this source for whole prey nutrient composition, the highest amount of vitamin E found in the animals studied was in neonatal rats. I calculated that neonatal rats contain 315 mg / kg, which is 1.9 mg / 170 g (170g = 6 oz). Obviously that would not be a balanced diet of itself, but it shows that it is impossible to meet the bare minimum vitamin E requirements of cats from the meat sources commercially available.
That last source also states that the diet of the prey affects their vitamin E content. Also, the nutritional requirements set for zoo animals are the minimum to prevent deficiency. More is required for a healthy immune system. We should probably be aiming much higher for our cats, easily 8 mg/day.
So, after spending most of my day off researching cat nutrition, I feel the need to breed rats and feed them sunflowers so my cats can have a species appropriate source of vitamin E.
Does anyone have anything to add about vitamin E?
A healthy adult cat, around 9 lbs, with a goal of 250 calories/day, needs 30 IU vitamin E/day. If we're using the d- form (not dl-), then 30 IU converts to 2.5 mg/day. If a cat is consuming fish oil, they need additional vitamin E. Per 500 mg of fish oil, 3.4 mg of Vitamin E should be added. So now we're at 5.9 mg Vitamin E/day.
Using this source for whole prey nutrient composition, the highest amount of vitamin E found in the animals studied was in neonatal rats. I calculated that neonatal rats contain 315 mg / kg, which is 1.9 mg / 170 g (170g = 6 oz). Obviously that would not be a balanced diet of itself, but it shows that it is impossible to meet the bare minimum vitamin E requirements of cats from the meat sources commercially available.
That last source also states that the diet of the prey affects their vitamin E content. Also, the nutritional requirements set for zoo animals are the minimum to prevent deficiency. More is required for a healthy immune system. We should probably be aiming much higher for our cats, easily 8 mg/day.
So, after spending most of my day off researching cat nutrition, I feel the need to breed rats and feed them sunflowers so my cats can have a species appropriate source of vitamin E.
Does anyone have anything to add about vitamin E?
