Why do cats and dogs need Taurine?

Last Updated August 11, 2020

Taurine is something that is getting more popular nowadays and you might be wondering why this is so. If pet food in the past already has the “complete essentials” for your pets, why is this “Taurine” getting so much steam? The main reason for this is that it really is and should be part of the essentials for your pets.

So, first and foremost - what is Taurine? To put it simply, it is an amino acid. It's one of the building blocks of protein for muscle development. It also helps a lot of the important systems in our pets’ bodies function properly - it aids in cardiac function, strengthens the immune system, supplements eye health and many more

But why is it essential? Most other nutrients also does the job in keeping your pets healthy, so why is Taurine special? To answer this question we must go back in time a bit to further illustrate the situation.

Back when technology was still pretty new, there were few effective food processors in the market so initial pet food was mostly canned meat. As time goes by and technology develops, more and more food processors become sophisticated to the point that it started the trend of using animal carcasses instead of the actual meat. This paired with the fact that some grain-based ingredient would be ultimately cheaper as an ingredient, the quality of pet food eventually went down to the point that it no longer gave the right amount of Taurine. With the lack of Taurine in this specific era of history pets, predominantly cats, suffered serious and fatal diseases. Taurine is present primarily in muscle-meat. Since manufacturers then used these tactics to create pet food, it did not contain the needed amount of Taurine. The lack of Taurine in the diet caused dangerous heart and eye diseases to develop. The lack of Taurine was eventually discovered in many commercialized pet food and Taurine was then added as an “essential” for pets.

Great! Now that manufacturers know that Taurine is essential, then all of the commercial pet food should contain it now right? Well, not exactly. There are still a lot of pet food products out there that do not give the right amount of Taurine for our pets since they still employ the same tactics to increase their profits.

Some argue that it is not that important since some pets (mostly dogs) can produce Taurine all by themselves. While this is true, a recent study shows that even if dogs can produce this on their own, there is still a chance that they may suffer from Taurine-deficiency. This deficiency can cause heart problems in dogs called Dilated Cardiomyopathy or DCM. This disease causes the heart muscles to weaken, which reduces blood pumped by the heart that goes through your dog’s body. As this condition progresses, it causes congestive heart failure and ultimately, death.

Early signs of this disease may include lethargy, a persistent cough, difficulty breathing, weakness or loss of appetite. So if you catch a whiff of these early signs, try feeding your dog healthy food that includes Taurine. Together with giving your dogs the right healthy food, you should also consider helping your dogs stay fit! Lastly, if you notice that your dog's condition gets worse, bringing in a vet's opinion is always good.

No arguments have been made for cats simply because cats really need Taurine in their diet since they cannot produce it on their own. If not given the amount of Taurine, your cat may develop eye problems as Taurine deficiency causes blindness in cats. Similar to dogs, cats can also develop heart problems without Taurine. Yikes! Better be safe and feed your cats the right food and do the right things to keep your cats fit!

As pet owners, we should always give our pets what they need in order to live a healthy and happy life. So, it is imperative that you make sure that the next cat food and dog food you buy should contain the right amounts of Taurine. Lucky for you, BidaBest contains enough Taurine to keep your pets safe and healthy - a benefit that separates us from any other pet food out there.

RELATED ARTICLES