Abstract
Obesity is a well-known syndrome of excessive body fat in cats (Felis catus) that affects the health, welfare and lifespan of animals. Consequently, different diet strategies aiming to reduce voluntary feed intake in cats have been studied. One of these consists in reducing energy intake based on reduction of feed intake. Several clinical studies have demonstrated that dietary fibre inclusion in food reduced efficiently voluntary feed intake (VFI) in dogs. However, little clinical data is available regarding the impact of dietary fibre inclusion on cat’s feeding behaviours and VFI. The aim of the current study was to test the performance of sugar cane fibre included at three different levels in extruded feline diets. The main purpose was to measure the impact of fibre inclusion on the cats’ VFI, while maintaining palatability. Four feline diets were formulated with different inclusion levels of sugar cane fibre expressed on an as fed basis (0% sugar cane fibre (control), 3.7% of sugar cane fibre (SF3.7), 5.5% of sugar cane fibre (SF5.5) and 7.3% sugar cane fibre (SF7.3)). The VFI and palatability were evaluated in two different methods: a new method using 79 cats, called ‘consumption kinetics’ based on the dynamic measure of cat’s daily consumptions in ad libitum conditions providing information about cat’s feeding pattern, and the standard palatability two-bowl (versus) test using more than 30 cats. All foods had identical palatability performance, regardless of sugar cane fibre inclusion level, while the VFI of products containing 5.5% and 7.3% sugar cane fibre decreased significantly compared to the control diet. The level of supplementation of sugar cane fibre was efficient to reduce felines VFI without impairing food palatability level, and may be a useful ingredient to add to feline diets to improve the success of the weight management programs.
Highlights
Obesity is a well-known disease affecting feline health and welfare (German, 2006)
Number of animals performing at least one feeding event during the first 30 minutes Number of animals with at least one refusal voluntary feed intake (VFI) (g/cat) Overall calories intake Change in energy intake/control in kcal) % energy intake/control Food intake at the first feeding event (g/cat) Maximum food intake reached for one feeding event throughout the test (g/cat) Number of feeding events with food intake
The decrease in VFI, and, in energy intake, measured for products enriched in sugar cane fibre, can be attributed solely to diet composition effects and, to fibre inclusion
Summary
Obesity is a well-known disease affecting feline health and welfare (German, 2006). Obesity has been identified as one of the most prevalent clinical conditions occurring in indoor cats (Cave et al, 2012; Chandler et al, 2017; Corbee, 2014; Courcier et al, 2010, 2012; German, 2006). Cat obesity has increased from a range of 6-12.5% in the 1970s to 63% in occidental countries in recent reports (Cave et al, 2012; Colliard et al, 2009; Corbee, 2014; Rowe et al, 2015; Tarkosova et al, 2016).
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