Comparative Digestible Energy Requirements of Adult Beagles and Domestic Cats for Body Weight Maintenance

Abstract

Digestible energy (DE) needs for body weight maintenance (BWM) of six adult Beagles and six domestic cats were comparatively assessed by using data from thirteen 14-day and nine 21-day consecutive apparent digestibility trials, respectively. In each trial the Beagles and cats were given different commercial foods, and feces were quantitatively collected excluding the first 7 days. The relationship between mean daily body weight change (delta BW) per trial and DE intake was examined by regression analysis of data for individual animals. Pooled mean (n = 6) data from 223 Beagle and 143 cats digestibility trials were analyzed by the same method. Significant (P less than 0.05) linear regressions between delta BW and DE intake were obtained (R2 = 0.43-0.93) for all individual Beagles, five of six cats and pooled mean data for both Beagles and cats. Mean (range) daily DE needs for BWM of six individual Beagles were 70 (63-78), 140 (127-146) and 173 (156-187) kcal for data scaled to kilograms, kilograms0.75 and kilograms0.67 BW, respectively. Respective values for six individual cats were 76 (56-89), 104 (86-114) and 114 (95-122) kcal. Analysis of group mean data for Beagles and cats generated daily DE costs for BWM of 76 and 66 kcal/kg, respectively, equivalent to 148 and 95 kcal/kg0.75. Thus adult cats had significantly (P less than 0.001) lower energy costs of BWM than Beagles when scaled to metabolic BW (kilograms0.75 or kilograms0.67), but not on an absolute BW basis.

Age-related changes in apparent digestibility in growing kittens

“…Halle [8] states that "in commercial food the digestibility of crude protein is subject to greater variations depending on components and preparation [8]". Inherent differences between the individual diets provide a more plausible explanation for the difference in protein digestibility in this study: a phenomenon that has been previously documented for cat foods [4,8,13,25]. However, the variation in apparent digestibility coefficients reported for adult cats maintained on varying diet formats, underlines the fallibility of over interpreting the single values obtained for the two diet formats in this study; especially, in the absence of any other digestibility data in the kitten.…”

“…d -1 respectively; cats maintained on dry food, but, apparent digestibility coefficients obtained from sand cats (Felis margarita) were in the range 0.7 to 0.8 [4], and in domestic adult cats 0.5 to 0.9 [8]. Published figures for adult cats maintained on wet diets show coefficients between 0.5 to 0.95 [4,8,13,25]. Origin of a macronutrient in the diet has been shown to influence apparent digestibility [8,11].…”

Dog Nutrient Requirements: New Knowledge

“…The main variables to consider are as follows: Burger (1994) 97 × P 0,75 Manner (1991) * 103 × P 0,75 Finke (1991) 103 × P 0,75 German Society of Nutritional 108 × P 0,75 Physiology (1989) Finke (1991) 117 × P 0,75 Normal dogs, dogs living in kennels or in group, young dogs NRC (1974) 132 × P 0,75 Kendall et al (1983) 148 × P 0,75 Very active dogs, young and active dogs Burger (1994) 175 × P 0,75 Patil and Bisby (2001) 183 × P 0,75 Nervous and hyperactive dogs, Great Danes living outdoor, Terriers Zentek and Meyer (1992) 200 × P 0,75 * Data obtained in metabolic room.…”

Assessing Behavior in Extinct Animals: Was <i>Smilodon</i> Social?

“…Domestic cats took sixteen weeks to lose 50% body weight on 69 kcal daily, but still resisted cold challenge [Clark et al, 1968]. These cats received only a quarter of their requirement of 261 kcal (76 kcal/kg) for weight maintenance [Kendall et al, 1983]. Extrapolating to complete starvation should take 12 weeks to reach cold challenge failure.…”