MUCH ADO ABOUT TAURINE

You may have seen advertisements and supplements claiming your cat needs extra taurine to stay healthy - and while these products often reference real science, they leave out an important set of facts.

"Taurine deficiency in cats was identified decades ago and is now well understood in veterinary medicine. Modern commercial cat foods are formulated to meet cats’ taurine requirements, and additional supplementation is not necessary for cats eating a balanced diet. This is considered basic feline nutrition science.” — Jennifer Kong, DVM

Why Taurine Is Essential

Cats are obligate carnivores, which is a fancy way of saying  their bodies are designed to run on nutrients found in animal tissue, not plants or fillers. Unlike humans, cats don’t have much flexibility in their diet which means they can’t easily adapt when something essential is missing. One of those essential nutrients is taurine. Taurine is an amino acid that plays a critical role in heart function, vision, digestion, and normal neurological development in cats. It’s involved in everything from how the heart muscle contracts to how the retina functions in the eye.

Here’s the important part:  cats cannot make taurine on their own. Humans and dogs can synthesize taurine from other amino acids, but cats don’t have that ability. If taurine isn’t present in their food, they don’t get it at all. Because taurine naturally occurs in meat, diets built around animal protein are the foundation of feline nutrition. This is why cats require diets that are fundamentally different from omnivores - and why balance is so important.

A Turning Point In Feline Nutrition

In the 1980s, veterinarians and scientists began noticing a pattern. Cats eating certain diets were developing serious and sometimes irreversible health problems, including dilated cardiomyopathy (a form of heart disease) and blindness. After years of research, taurine deficiency was identified as the underlying cause. This discovery was a turning point in feline nutrition. Once taurine was recognized as essential and something cats couldn’t produce themselves the cat food formulation changed quick. Taurine supplementation became standard practice in commercial cat foods, and the incidence of these devastating conditions dropped dramatically. Today, this information is considered basic feline nutrition science. It’s taught in veterinary programs and built into modern pet food standards. The widespread taurine deficiency seen decades ago is now rare in cats eating properly formulated diets. In other words, this is a problem that was identified, studied, and largely solved for the feline community.

So Where Does That Leave Us?

For most cats, taurine is already taken care of. Commercially prepared cat foods and balanced meat-based diets are formulated to include the taurine cats need, so there’s usually no benefit to adding anything extra. Taurine deficiency is uncommon today and is most often linked to specific feeding choices, such as:

  • Unbalanced homemade diets
  • Feeding only human-grade tuna, which does not contain enough taurine (Canned tuna made specifically for cats is supplemented and safe.)

This is why taurine still comes up in veterinary conversations - not because modern cat foods are lacking, but because certain well-intentioned diet choices can accidentally leave it out. With the rise of social media, influencer content, and AI-driven advertising, it can be hard to sort through what’s evidence-based and what’s simply persuasive marketing. If something about your cat’s diet is worrying you, or if you’re interested in feeding a homemade, raw, or alternative diet, the best next step is always to talk with a trusted professional. Working with a veterinarian or veterinary nutritionist can help ensure your cat’s diet is truly balanced and meets all of their nutritional needs. Asking questions, and even seeking a second opinion, is all part of being a thoughtful and informed pet owner!


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