title: Nitrogen requirement of the kitten.
abstract: Three experiments were conducted to determine the nitrogen (N) requirement of the young kitten. The feline basal diet contained minimal requirement levels of each indispensable amino acid (IAA) to comprise a total dietary N concentration of 2.52% and an IAA N to dispensable amino acid (DAA) N ratio (I/D) of 0.70. In experiments 1 and 2, both the dietary N concentration and I/D ratio were varied through changes in either the DAA level (experiment 1) or IAA level (experiment 2). The results revealed that a reduction in either dietary N or in I/D ratio from basal levels (ie, 2.52% N and I/D ratio of 0.70) depressed (P less than 0.05) kitten weight gain, feed efficiency, and N retention, whereas simultaneous increases in each resulted in no further improvement in these responses. Comparison of this feline basal diet with a commercial ration (experiment 3) revealed no differences (P less than 0.10) in gain, gain/feed, or N retention, although the purified diet showed superiority (P less than 0.01) when gain/N intake was determined (13.3 vs 5.7). Therefore, the feline dietary N requirement has been estimated to be 2.52% (15.75% protein equivalent) or 16% of the calories as protein. In the process of these experiments, creatinine and orotic acid excretion from kittens fed the purified diet were constant, averaging (+/- SEM) 24.7 +/- 0.7 mg/kg of body weight and 9.95 +/- 2.3 micrograms/mg of creatinine, respectively. Urea-N and ammonia-N comprised approximately 83.0% and 3.8% of the total urinary nitrogen.
mesh_terms: D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight; D002415:Cats / Q000378:metabolism*; D003404:Creatinine / Q000652:urine; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000652:urine; D009751:Nutritional Requirements; D009963:Orotic Acid / Q000652:urine
chemical_list: D009963:Orotic Acid; D003404:Creatinine; D009584:Nitrogen