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© 2006 The American Society for Nutrition J. Nutr. 136:1973S-1975S, July 2006

Supplement: The WALTHAM International Sciences Symposia Innovations in Companion Animal Nutrition: Obesity

Retrospective Study on the Energy Requirements of Adult Colony Cats1–3,

Ellen Kienzle*,4, Gertrude Edtstadtler-Pietsch* and Robert Rudnick{dagger}

* Institute of Physiology, Biochemistry, and Animal Nutrition, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, D-85764 Oberschleißheim München, Germany and {dagger} Nestle Purina PetCare Research, St. Joseph, KS

4 To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kienzle{at}tiph.vetmed.uni-muenchen.de.

KEY WORDS: • symposium • energy requirements • overweight • neutering • cats

Maintenance energy requirements of adult cats reported in the literature range from about 20 to 100 kcal metabolizable energy (ME)/kg body weight (1). Effects of overweight, neutering, and age on energy requirements are not yet completely understood (2–10). The present retrospective study was carried out to enlarge the database on maintenance energy requirements of cats.


   MATERIALS AND METHODS
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RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
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Energy intake during periods of weight constancy longer than 4 wk was retrospectively evaluated in 138 adult European shorthaired colony cats (30 intact females, 33 neutered females, 12 intact males, and 63 neutered males). All experiments carried out in this colony were approved by the Friskies Petcare Animal Use and Care Committee. Age ranged from 1 to 15 y, body weight from 2.35 to 9.07 kg. The animals were group housed (7–15 cats/group) in cages of 4.5 m x 3.5 m that were enhanced by climbing material, higher plateaus for lying, and other playing material. Room temperature was kept constant at 21°C. Food and water were offered freely. Food intake was registered by a transponder feeding system. The cats were offered complete dry foods or complete moist foods. Digestible energy content in the food was determined by digestion trials, and metabolizable energy (ME) was calculated from digestible energy by subtraction of 0.9 kcal/g digestible crude protein (1). Energy density ranged from 3.6 to 5.1 kcal/g dry matter. Energy requirements were expressed either in kcal ME/kg body weight or as recommended for populations with overweight cats as kcal ME/kg body weight0.4 (1,2,8). Female cats were considered to be light if below 3.5 kg body weight and heavy if above 3.5 kg body weight, male cats were considered light or heavy if below or above 4.5 kg, respectively. Means and standard deviation were calculated, two means were compared by Student's t test (P < 0.05). Depending on data distribution, a 1-way or a 2-way ANOVA was calculated for comparison of more than two means, and an all-pairwise multiple comparison procedure by the Holm-Sidak method was carried out using Sigmastat 3.0 (P < 0.05).


   RESULTS
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 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
DISCUSSION
 LITERATURE CITED
 
Body weight of male cats averaged 5.1 ± 2.1 kg, and the mean body weight of female cats averaged 3.9 ± 1.1 kg. There was no clear-cut effect of neutering. Weight distribution also varied according to age (Fig. 1). The mean energy requirement of adult cats was 60 ± 18 kcal ME/kg body weight (range 27–139). Maintenance energy requirements per body mass unit decreased with increasing body weight. Mean energy requirements of cats with a body weight of up to 3 kg were 76 ± 15 kcal ME/kg body weight, whereas heavy cats with a body weight of over 5 kg needed only 49 ± 12 kcal ME/kg body weight for weight maintenance. Energy requirements of this cat population were best described by a function with an exponent of 0.48 for metabolic body mass (energy requirements in kcal = 123 x body weight0.48; r = 0.5). Effects of overweight on energy requirements of intact and neutered cats disappeared when the data were expressed per kg of body weight0.4. Intact male cats had higher energy requirements per kg body weight0.4 than neutered male cats. Neutered female cats had even lower energy requirements than neutered male cats (Table 1).


Figure 1
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  		FIGURE 1  Weight distribution of young, middle-aged, and old cats as a percentage of the total number of young, middle-aged, and old cats, respectively (all 138 cats included).

 

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  		TABLE 1 Energy requirements of intact and neutered cats1

 
Young adults below 2 years of age had higher energy requirements per kg body weight than cats between 2 and 5 y. The energy requirements of cats 6 y old and older were even lower. There was no clear-cut effect of old age (10 y and older). In all age groups there was a significant difference between the energy requirements of heavy and light cats when the requirements were expressed per kg body weight (data not shown). The difference between light and heavy cats in all age groups disappeared when the requirements were expressed per kg body weight0.4. Age effect is demonstrated in Fig. 2.


Figure 2
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  		FIGURE 2  Effect of age on maintenance energy requirements of adult cats (all cats included). Numbers of observations in the age groups 10, 57, 37, and 34, respectively. Means without a common superscript letter differ, P < 0.05.

 

   DISCUSSION
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 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
LITERATURE CITED
 
The study was retrospective and the cats were not systematically scored for body condition. As far as data exist, heavier cats (i.e., females >3.5 kg and males >4.5 kg body weight) were overweight cats. In addition, there were weight records that clearly showed that heavier middle-aged cats had been light cats when they were young adults. Overweight cats are likely to have a reduced percentage of lean body mass. This explains why the best fitting exponent for calculating metabolic body weight in this population was so low (0.48). These results agree with previous studies (2,8) in cat populations that included a considerable number of overweight individuals. It also agrees with the recommendation (1) to use a lower exponent for calculating metabolic body weight in overweight cats (0.4). The study is, however, based on data from cats that became spontaneously overweight or stayed lean under similar conditions, an experimental design that differentiates between animals that are predisposed to overweight and animals that are not. Therefore, it is not possible to decide whether those animals that stayed lean did so because they were metabolically different from those that became fat or whether they were metabolically different from the fat cats because they were lean.

There appear to be interactions of overweight and sex as well as age if data are expressed per kg body weight. The effects of overweight disappear as soon as data are expressed per kg body weight0.4. This demonstrates the importance of taking into account overweight or expressing the energy requirements per kg of body weight0.4 when interpreting effects of sex, neutering, or age on energy requirements.

In our study neutered males had lower energy requirements than intact males, whereas in some other studies there was no difference, or the difference was attributed to weight gain (7,9,10). These differences could be caused by differences in physical activity, which might be stimulated under certain housing conditions, for instance, by the odor of females in estrus.

The present study demonstrated a decrease of energy requirements in young adults and during early middle age but not in old age. These findings are in agreement with a previous investigation (5), but there were some discrepancies with other previous observations (3). In this study the pattern of energy requirements in different age groups as measured in digestion trials with the cats whose energy requirements were determined agreed reasonably well with the own results. An increase of energy requirements in old age, however, was seen when ME in the food was predicted by the AAFCO equation (3.5 x protein + 8.5 x fat + 3.5 x carbohydrate; kcal/g). This discrepancy was explained by a decreased fat digestibility in the old cats (3). In our investigation ME in the food was measured, but not always in the same cats in which the energy requirements were determined. Therefore, the fat digestibility in the old cats is not known. If it had been decreased, then their energy requirements would have appeared to be increased. If fat digestibility was not decreased, there are 3 possible explanations: 1) the ability to digest fat is not impaired in all old cats but only in some old cats; 2) their energy requirements decreased to the same extent as fat digestibility; or 3) there was a difference in the fat quality of the food. The latter is unlikely because in both studies good quality complete foods were used. In the present study 5 different products were fed (dry or moist food, fat content from 10 to 39% dry matter), whereas in the previous study a moist food with about 20% fat in dry matter was used. By contrast, it is quite likely that, like other features of aging, a decrease in the ability to digest fat does not occur in all elderly individuals at the same age and to the same extent. As mentioned above, our study was retrospective, and we selected cats that maintained their weight for at least 4 wk. This way we might easily have selected those elderly individuals whose ability to digest fat was not impaired. In fact, a recent study (11) carried out in part in the same cat colony demonstrated that the percentage of old cats maintaining their weight was smaller than in younger cats. There were no cats over 15 y that maintained weight (11). In this study the percentage of cats with decreased ability to digest fat was high in geriatric cats (one-third of cats older than 12 y; 11). The selection for cats that maintained their weight for at least 4 wk is also a likely explanation for the unusual weight distribution in the older cats in the present study.


   FOOTNOTES
 
1 Published in a supplement to The Journal of Nutrition. Presented as part of The WALTHAM International Nutritional Sciences Symposium: Innovations in Companion Animal Nutrition held in Washington, DC, September 15–18, 2005. This conference was supported by The WALTHAM Centre for Pet Nutrition and organized in collaboration with the University of California, Davis, and Cornell University. This publication was supported by The WALTHAM Centre for Pet Nutrition. Guest editors for this symposium were D'Ann Finley, Francis A. Kallfelz, James G. Morris, and Quinton R. Rogers. Guest editor disclosure: expenses for the editors to travel to the symposium and honoraria were paid by The WALTHAM Centre for Pet Nutrition. Back

2 Author disclosure: no relationships to disclose. Back

3 This study was published as abstract 276: Investigation of the energy requirements of adult cats. J Anim Sci 81: Suppl 1/J Dairy Sci. 86: suppl 1 p.70, 2003. Back


   LITERATURE CITED
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 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 LITERATURE CITED
 

1. National Research Council. Nutrient requirements of dogs and cats. Washington, DC: National Academy Press; 2006.

2. Earle KE, Smith PM. Digestible energy requirements of adult cats at maintenance. J Nutr. 1991;121:S45–6.[Free Full Text]

3. Taylor EJ, Adams C, Neville R. Some nutritional aspects of ageing in dogs and cats. Proc Nutr Soc. 1995;54:645–56.[Medline]

4. Flynn MF, Hardie EM, Armstrong PJ. Effect of ovariohysterectomy on maintenance energy requirement in cats. J. Am. Vet. Med. Assoc. 1996;209:1572–81.[Medline]

5. Laflamme DP, Ballam JM. Effect of age on maintenance energy requirements of adult cats. St Louis, MO: The Purina Nutrition Forum; 2001.

6. Laeuger S. Der energieumsatz von katern vor und nach der kastration. [The energy expenditure of male cats before and after neutering.] 2001; Doctoral thesis, University of Zürich

7. Martin L, Siliart B, Dumon H, Backus R, Biourge V, Nguyen P. Leptin, body fat content and energy expenditure in intact and gonadectomized adult cats: a preliminary study. J Anim Physiol Anim Nutr (Berl). 2001;85:195–9.[Medline]

8. Nguyen P, Dumon H, Frenais R, Siliart B, Martin L, Blewis P, Frégier T. Energy expenditure and requirement assessed using three different methods in adult cats. Abstract. A Supplement to Compendium on Continuing Education for the Practicing Veterinarian 2001;23(9A):86.

9. Hoenig M, Ferguson C. Effects of neutering on hormonal concentrations and energy requirements in male and female cats. Am J Vet Res. 2002;63:634–9.[Medline]

10. Kanchuk ML, Backus RC, Calvert CC, Morris JG, Rogers QR. Weight gain in gonadectomized normal and lipoprotein lipase-deficient male domestic cats results from increased food intake and not decreased energy expenditure. J Nutr. 2003;133:1866–74.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

11. Kelly M, Perez-Camargo G. New advances in feline aging research. Abstract. 9th Congress of the European Society of Veterinary and Comparative Nutrition, Grugliasco, Italy, September 22—24, 2005, p. 63




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