# Raising a kitten to be a vegetarian: stupid, cruel, disastrous, or all three? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 8, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107 "2009-10-08T21:18:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107/41 "2009-10-09T04:07:13Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > I interpreted this the same way, however I find the implication that her “heart is in the right place” to be dead wrong and ignorant. This fallacy that vegetarianism is somehow evidence of being a good person needs to end. It’s the equivalent of me not liking sushi and being lauded for it. That’s the point, I think. The vegetarian woman believes that she is doing a good thing. So her heart is in the right place because she is trying to be ‘good’. But in fact she’s doing a bad thing. So ‘bless her heart’ is an insult. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107/42 "2009-10-09T05:11:59Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Here’s something from [PETA](http://www.peta.org/factsheet/files/FactsheetDisplay.asp?ID=34) on how to raise a vegetarian cat or dog Is a companion animal something vegetarians have sex with? Please tell me this is mountain lion. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107/43 "2009-10-09T06:14:31Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > Totally, totally stupid. And cruel. And will be disastrous for the cat’s health. This woman needs to reconsider getting the kitten or this decision. > > FWIW, I’m a vegetarian and I feed my cat meaty cat food. I’m evolved to be able to be healthy without meat. He isn’t. > > Obligatory kitty picture: [Max the Bulgarian Cat](http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v351/15/46/1120903582/n1120903582_30170799_1182.jpg). I see your mostly-white cat has selected a pile of mostly-dark clothes to shed on! ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107/44 "2009-10-09T07:19:39Z")
We’ve had mostly vegetarian dogs (they got a lot of their protein in the form of soya and eggs, and meat-based dog biscuits) that were happy and healthy, but even in my strictly vegetarian family, the cats have always got cat food or fish. It just doesn’t work any other way. As people upthread have said, if you want a vegetarian pet, get a pet that’s designed to be vegetarian. Our dogs now, incidentally, have meals that are half commercial dog food, before someone gets all hysterical about that. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107/45 "2009-10-09T08:03:15Z")
Tell her she needs to get a black bear cub instead of a cat. Bears are omnivorous, and mostly survive on berries, nuts and leaves anyways\*. Bears are cute and cuddly. Who doesn’t love bears? \*and murder. Delicious mouthwatering murder. ---
**Author:** ![BottledBlondJeanie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/0ea827/32.png) [@BottledBlondJeanie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BottledBlondJeanie)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107/46 "2009-10-09T09:40:37Z")
She’s all 3, but I raise your “stupid” to “idiot.” It’s not a damn choice for cats. Seriously, steal the kitten and make it your evil albeit lovable minion. You need one right now. I bet you could get it to shoot bees out of its ass too. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107/47 "2009-10-09T12:22:07Z")
> [@BottledBlondJeanie](#): > > She’s all 3, but I raise your “stupid” to “idiot.” It’s not a damn choice for cats. > > Seriously, steal the kitten and make it your evil albeit lovable minion. You need one right now. I bet you could get it to shoot bees out of its ass too. I needed a Simpson fix this morning. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107/48 "2009-10-09T12:27:13Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > I see your mostly-white cat has selected a pile of mostly-dark clothes to shed on! And seems quite pleased about his choice. 😛 \<– Max’s face. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107/49 "2009-10-09T12:36:38Z")
Cats fed a diet deficient in taurine will go blind and die. Taurine can only be obtained from animal sources. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107/50 "2009-10-09T12:38:37Z")
All three and more. David Attenborough once telecast a segment showing a lion dispatching an antelope (or some such beast) and got a horrified letter from a viewer who said something like, “Couldn’t you train the lion to eat grass instead?” I don’t know what he replied to her, but I would have been tempted to say: why don’t you live on nothing but grass for a year and let me know how it works out. Incidentally, without vitamin B12 supplement it is not possible for a homo sap to live on a vegan diet either. Which is one answer to the claim I have sometimes heard that humans are, by nature, vegans and meat eating came late. AFAIK, no primate is vegan; they all eat insects (wait till PETA hears about that) and, when they can find it, other mammals. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107/51 "2009-10-09T12:42:46Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > When I was a little kid, I found a giant toad in the yard and I decided to keep it as a pet. I made a little box for him, with wooden sides and little windows that I filled in with mesh screens. I kept him in my room; but I didn’t know how to feed him, so I just gave him lettuce. He never ate it. Then one day he hopped out of his cage, in desperation, and was attacked by the dogs, who killed him in very short order. I found him under a radiator, dead. It was one of the saddest moments of my life, and I regret to this day that I didn’t get some kind of a book on how to care for toads or something, and assumed that he would be happy eating lettuce. > > The moral of this story is DON’T FEED VEGETABLES TO A FUCKING CAT! Didn’t your parents notice you had a toad in your room? Would they really trust a little kid to take care of a toad and know what to feed it? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107/52 "2009-10-09T12:50:59Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > Cats fed a diet deficient in taurine will go blind and die. Taurine can only be obtained from animal sources. After a couple of shots of Jägermeister the cat will probably be ready for some Red Bull. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107/53 "2009-10-09T13:57:15Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > I see your mostly-white cat has selected a pile of mostly-dark clothes to shed on! Yes. He is terribly pleased with himself about it, too. He won’t be happy until I’m totally covered in white hairs. ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107/54 "2009-10-09T14:12:34Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > I don’t see any problems with feeding a cat a vegetarian diet. Except that cats can go blind from not having meat in their diets. That seems like a problem to me. > [@Wikipedia](#): > > An important nutrient is the amino acid derivative taurine, as cats cannot synthesize the compound. Cats fed a taurine-deficient dog food may develop retinal degeneration and go blind, for example.[1] > > \ > > Even when adequately supplemented, vegetarian diets may present other risks, such as urine acidity problems. While there are anecdotal reports linking a vegetarian diet with urinary tract problems, no documented case report or study exist.[15] One vegan cat food manufacturer has stated that “because of the relative acidity of meat to vegetable protein, many vegan cats suffer from [Urinary tract problems].”[24] A survey done during the above study showed that a quarter of respondents perceive feline lower urinary tract disease as a health risk of feeding a vegetarian diet.[15] IMHO, feeding a cat a veg diet is all three: stupid, cruel, and disastrous. The woman should take her kitten back to wherever she got it and tell them she’s too stupid to have a cat. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107/55 "2009-10-09T14:13:14Z")
Both the OP and the side story about the toad and the lettuce reminds me of back when I was in college and had a couple of ferrets. Because of that fact, when someone in my giant-ass apartment complex found a ferret that had gotten loose, I became the de facto rescuer. I went to the apt. of the guy who found the little critter, and he had it in a cardboard box, with a little bowl of water and … you guessed it … some lettuce. He took the time to point out to me that the ferret hadn’t seemed interested in eating the lettuce. :rolleyes: (Yes, ferrets are obligate carnivores, just like cats. Yes, the clueless shitbag in the OP’s story is all three, and worse, and will fry in a special place in hell if the religious folk are right about that whole afterlife thing.) ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107/56 "2009-10-09T14:20:12Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > Except that cats can go blind from not having meat in their diets. That seems like a problem to me. You got whooshed. > [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > I don’t see any problems with feeding a cat a vegetarian diet. > > I mean, cats are little bitty things… and a vegetarian is a full-sized human. Heck, the cat probably wouldn’t need more than one or two of 'em a year, if they’re properly butchered, portioned out, and frozen until needed. > > I’d suggest starting with the colleague. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107/57 "2009-10-09T14:26:38Z")
I’m raising my puppy to be a Banjo player. Similar results are expected. ---
**Author:** ![NajaNivea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NajaNivea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NajaNivea)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107/58 "2009-10-09T14:42:51Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Didn’t your parents notice you had a toad in your room? Would they really trust a little kid to take care of a toad and know what to feed it? I kept a pair of mice in one of those little plastic cages for nearly a year before my parents found out, and then it was mostly because I got tired of hiding them. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107/59 "2009-10-09T14:44:21Z")
> [@NajaNivea](#): > > I kept a pair of mice in one of those little plastic cages for nearly a year before my parents found out, and then it was mostly because I got tired of hiding them. Wow. That’s mindblowing to me. I know for sure my parents would have noticed the smell…or me bringing the mice into the house. I was pretty well monitored. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107/60 "2009-10-09T14:45:47Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > (Yes, ferrets are obligate carnivores, just like cats. Yes, the clueless shitbag in the OP’s story is all three, and worse, and will fry in a special place in hell if the religious folk are right about that whole afterlife thing.) Yup. I’m a vegetarian with an omnivorous husband and a carnivorous pet. I provide each of them with those diets, respectively. If you have an ideally healthy cat and a taurine-supplemented, carefully controlled vegetarian feed, you _could_ keep the cat thriving on that food. However, as stated previously, cats can develop issues with digesting certain foods, and it may come to the point where you can no longer feed the cat on that diet. Therefore, for **humane reasons** , you should not own a pet that has a typical diet which you have objections to providing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-kitten-to-be-a-vegetarian-stupid-cruel-disastrous-or-all-three/513107.md?page=4)