Skip to main content

REVIEW article

Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1393890

Considerations on amino acid patterns in the natural felid diet: A review

Provisionally accepted
Mengmeng Sun Mengmeng Sun 1*Annelies D. Cuyper Annelies D. Cuyper 1Ellen S. Dierenfeld Ellen S. Dierenfeld 2Geert P. Janssens Geert P. Janssens 1
  • 1 Veterinary and Biosciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
  • 2 Veterinary and Bioscience, Ghent University, Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Amino acids are essential for the growth, development, and reproduction of carnivores. This literature review summarizes the amino acid patterns of different raw diets including whole prey, body tissue and muscle for felids under human care. In general, natural prey (and its parts) meet the minimum essential amino acid requirements outlined by the National Research Council for adult cats. On a whole-prey diet, lysine and methionine far exceed requirements, while histidine approaches the minimum threshold. However, histidine concentration is higher in muscle meat. Body tissues, except for the skin, demonstrate no deficiency in essential amino acids. Notably, non-essential amino acids are found in raw meat diets in elevated concentrations, and their levels remain stable, akin to those of essential amino acids. Although felid requirements for non-essential amino acids are not specified, attention should be paid to their role in nutrition. While the amino acid patterns of diverse raw diets show no significant variation, the impact of prolonged single-source protein may require attention.

    Keywords: Amino Acids, felid, whole prey, Tissues, Muscle

    Received: 29 Feb 2024; Accepted: 24 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Sun, Cuyper, Dierenfeld and Janssens. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Mengmeng Sun, Veterinary and Biosciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.