Research overview: obligate carnivory and the dietary constraints of cats

Cats are strict, or obligate, carnivores, and this overview reviews what that means metabolically and why it sets cats apart. Through evolutionary specialisation on a meat diet, cats have lost or reduced the ability to synthesise certain nutrients themselves and must obtain them preformed from animal tissue, making a plant-based diet inadequate. Their digestive and metabolic physiology is tuned for protein and fat rather than carbohydrate. Researchers establish these constraints through nutritional studies and comparative biochemistry. Why it matters: obligate carnivory shapes everything from the cat dentition and gut to its specific nutrient requirements, and understanding it is essential for proper feeding and welfare. It also frames the cat as an evolutionary specialist that traded dietary flexibility for efficiency on prey, with consequences that ripple through its anatomy, behaviour, and health.