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Acceptability and Digestibility by Adult Cats of Diets Made with Various Sources and Levels of Fat^1,2,

University of California, Davis 95616

Abstract

Three experiments were conducted to determine the acceptance and digestibility by adult cats of purified diets containing various fats. In the first experiment, a two-choice trial, one female and 11 male cats (2 to 7 kg body weight) were used to determine the acceptance of diets made with bleached tallow (BT) versus six alternate fats: chicken fat (CF), yellow grease (YG), lard (L), butter (B), unbleached tallow (UT) and partially hydrogenated vegetable fat (VF). Three groups of four cats each, individually housed, were tested during four consecutive 2-week periods, giving a total of eight cats per choice. The diet made with BT was preferred (P<.001) over those made with B or CF. In the second experiment, a two-choice trial, 14 male and 10 female cats (2 to 5 kg body weight), individually housed, were used to determine the acceptance of diets made with 10, 25 or 50% YG. One group of 12 cats was used to test the inclusion of 25 versus 50% YG, and another group of 12 was used to test 25 versus 10% YG. The diet made with 25% fat was preferred over diets made with 10% (P<.001) or 50% fat (P<.02). The third experiment, with 12 male and 12 female cats (2 to 5 kg body weight), examined the digestibility of purified diets made with 25% CF, BT, UT, L and B and 10, 25 and 50% YG. Each diet was fed to six cats in metabolism cages for a 5-day preliminary period and a 5-day fecal and urine collection period. Chromic oxide was included in all diets as a marker. Digestibility coefficients were computed by both the marker method and the conventional food intake and fecal collection method. Mean digestion coefficients for dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE) and energy (E) for diets made with 25% CF, YG, L, B, UT, BT, 10% YG, 50% YG were, respectively: DM-90.6, 89.5, 90.8, 89.8, 87.1, 88.0, 87.4, 90.2%; CP-91.1, 91.5, 92.7, 92.0, 90.9, 90.8, 87.0, 94.8%; EE-98.6, 98.0, 98.6, 97.5, 98.1, 98.2, 90.4, 97.9%, and E-93.8, 93.0, 93.7, 92.2, 89.5, 89.9, 88.6, 92.8%. Mean digestion coefficients calculated from total fecal collection and from chromic oxide were: 88.5 and 89.9% for DM; 90.8 and 91.9% for CP; 98.0 and 97.3% for EE, and 91.6 and 92.1 for E.

¹ Supported in part by a grant from the Fats and Protein Research Foundation.

² The authors wish to thank John Bryan for his technical assistance, and Florin Tallow Co., Dixon, CA, for supplying the tallow.

³ Dept. of Anim. Sci.

⁴ Dept. of Physiol. Sci.