Question:
I've heard that tuna is bad for cats, but there are many kinds of canned cat food that have "tuna" on the label. What's the truth?
G.M., Washington, DC Mar 14, 2010
Answer:
Manufactured cat foods are notoriously mislabeled. Read the small print. A "tuna dinner" isn't all tuna -- it could include other fish, chicken byproducts, meat byproducts and heaven knows what else.
While some cats are allergic to fish, others become addicted, especially when given a taste of canned tuna, and they turn up their noses at their regular food. I joke that regular feeding of tuna turns cats into thermometers because of the mercury content in fish. But on a more serious note, mercury residues can cause neurological problems; and flame retardants and other chemical contamination of seafood may be a factor in feline hyperthyroidism.
Regular consumption of tuna can lead to painful muscular weakness called steatitis or yellow fat disease. This disease is caused by vitamin E deficiency and unsaturated fats from the fish being oxidized into a substance called ceroid. This gives the cat's body fat a yellow-brown pigmentation, triggering an inflammatory reaction that can make it painful for cats to be handled, even petted.
Tuna is also low in such essential nutrients as taurine and has too little calcium and too much phosphorus. It contains an enzyme that destroys vitamin B1 (thiamin), and deficient cats can develop neurological problems, including a staggering gait and seizures -- a condition called polioencephalomalacia, which is fatal if left untreated.
The overfishing, dolphin-killing, sea-life-depleting seafood industry notwithstanding -- that includes the harvesting of whale food such as krill to feed farm animals -- lay off the tuna for cat's sake!
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