Taurine

Taurine is a sulphur-containing amino acid that is strictly essential for cats and important for dogs, and it is the textbook example of why the cat is an obligate carnivore. Unlike most amino acids, taurine is not built into body proteins; instead it floats free in tissues, where it is vital for heart muscle function, the health of the retina, bile-acid conjugation and reproduction. Cats cannot synthesise enough taurine from its precursors [methionine](/glossary/methionine) and [cysteine](/glossary/cysteine), and they lose it constantly because they can only conjugate bile acids with taurine, so they have an absolute dietary requirement met only by animal tissue. The consequences of deficiency were a landmark discovery in veterinary nutrition: in the late 1980s, taurine deficiency was identified as a cause of feline dilated cardiomyopathy and of central retinal degeneration leading to blindness, and supplementing the diet reversed the heart disease (NRC, 2006; FDA CVM). That finding reshaped how cat foods are formulated. Dogs can make some taurine of their own, but certain breeds and certain diets have been linked to low taurine and heart disease, keeping it on the radar for dogs too. The richest sources are meat, fish and shellfish; plant materials contain essentially none. On a label, added taurine is listed among the amino acids, especially in cat food. See the [Petipedia glossary](/glossary).

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