Little nutritional information has been collected from domestic cats fed raw meat diets. The objective of the present study was to evaluate differences in N metabolism of domestic cats fed raw beef-based diet (66 % crude protein (CP) and 20 % fat), bison-based diet (49 % CP and 39 % fat), elk-based diet (79 % CP and 6 % fat) and horse-based diet (60 % CP and 26 % fat). A total of eight intact adult female cats were fed to maintain body weight in a cross-over design. Daily food intake, faecal and urinary outputs, and N metabolism were measured. Dietary N was highly digestible (96·8 (sem 0·7)) for all treatments. Urinary N accounted for a majority of total N excretion, and differences in total N excretion reflect differences in urinary N. Differences in N intake and N absorption were due to differences in CP levels among diets. N retention was similar to values reported in the literature for domestic cats fed purified and traditional extruded diets. Despite differences in protein concentrations and N intake, all raw meats tested maintained N metabolism.
