Taurine- do we all know the importance of it?

[lollydollydrop]

Just found out today that the wet food we thought was really good due to high real meat content is actually terrible as it contains next to no Taurine, which is an essential amino acid for cats and deficiencies can cause a few nasty things- blindness one of them.

I feel like such a terrible parent, my maine coon is my baby :(

Heres a link, please read and check your products. Please dont flame me I feel guilty enough as it is, just dont want other people making the same mistake as us. The product was Applaws.

Incidentally, what food would you recommend? My OH is currently researching and German brands appear to be best, but only 2 are available in the UK. They are paste like pates though, which we tried on Merry and she didnt like. I think she prefers some texture.

www.petwave.com/Cats/Basics/Taurine-Deficiency.aspx

Hmmm, Cozie, could be some danger of inadvertent outing, I suspect, if we are not careful [smile}
If I mention Cat Fancy ...... shoot me!

Only if they eat them lolly!

Apparently all animals have Taurine in them, apart from poor pussy cats :( We are going to get her to the vets anyway, apparently there is a test they can take to check deficiencies :D

Yes royal canin is a complete food so she is having that a she diet and the applaws as a supplement.
She will be fine, promise. If she was displaying symptoms of taurine deficiency you would be aware.
It is stressful with out cat feeding, but her diet seems fine and you know now not to give the applaws wet food as often.

*with our

Thank you! The only symptoms I can see is that she seems to molt a lot, a lot more than our last MC (no bald patches, just hair all over house/me!)

The other one is that she is completely clumsy, she is so funny but she can fall off her perch/not make jumps properly/slip off the back of sofa etc. This is hard to class as a symptom for sure though as shes a coonie and they are notoriously clumsy

Taurine is still important it is an amino acid that other animals can make cats can't and it is mainly found in liver.
If complementary foods are feed alongside a complete food then nutrition is likely to be complete.