NRC 2006 — Your Cat's Nutritional Needs (public-education booklet)

The NRC booklet *Your Cat's Nutritional Needs — A Science-Based Guide For Pet Owners* is a consumer-level pamphlet written by Dale Feuer based on the 2006 report Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats. It is explicitly 2006 release of Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats and frames cats as carnivorous animals whose protein is best derived from animal-based sources.

On macronutrients, the booklet states that provide the most concentrated source of energy in the diet and that At a minimum, cat foods should have a fat content of about 9% of dry matter. For protein it stresses that acid taurine is a dietary essential for cats and that Strict vegetarian diets are not appropriate for cats unless supplemented with the nutrients not found in plants. The booklet notes that neither cats nor dogs can make on their own the ten specific essential amino acids. On label reading it observes that Pet food labels must list the percentage of protein, fat, fiber, and that cats approximately 2 milliliters of water for every gram of dry food eaten.

The booklet also reproduces DAILY RECOMMENDED ALLOWANCES tables for an adult 9-lb cat (250 kcal/day) and, for crude protein/total fat, separate rows for kittens (1.8 lb), adult cats (9 lb), and nursing cats (9 lb with 4 kittens). These are selected single-point allowances only.

HONEST SCOPE NOTE: This topic was built from the NRC *public-education booklet*, not the full 2006 NRC monograph Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats. The complete NRC 2006 requirement matrix — the minimum/maximum nutrient concentrations tabulated by life stage (growth, gestation, lactation, adult maintenance) and expressed per 1000 kcal and per kg of diet — was NOT obtained. The numeric tables below list the booklet's single-point Daily Recommended Allowances for the reference adult animal only (9-lb cat at ~250 kcal/day); crude-protein/total-fat rows additionally give kitten and nursing values where the booklet prints them. These are selected single-point allowances, not a life-stage min/max matrix. Sub-life-stage min/max values, AAFCO/FEDIAF-style nutrient profiles, and the safety (maximum) tolerances across all nutrients therefore remain pending and must not be inferred from this booklet.

Daily Recommended Allowances (NRC 2006 booklet)

Single-point daily allowances for an adult 9-lb cat at ~250 kcal/day (kitten/nursing values given where the booklet lists them). Figures are verbatim from the booklet's DRA tables.

Protein and Fats

Vitamins

Minerals

Source: pdf-raw/nrc-2006/cat_nutrition_final.txt (extracted from NRC PDF, landed 2026-08-11).

Claims (verified C1 substrings of source_file — paraphrase mode)

• At a minimum, cat foods should have a fat content of about 9% of dry matter.
• acid taurine is a dietary essential for cats.
• Strict vegetarian diets are not appropriate for cats
• approximately 2 milliliters of water for every
• Pet food labels must list the percentage of protein, fat, fiber,
• neither cats nor dogs can make on their own.
• Crude Protein
• 10 g
• 12.5 g
• 41 g
• Total Fat
• 4g
• 5.5 g
• 12 g
• Vitamin A
• 63 µg
• Vitamin D
• 0.4 µg
• Vitamin E
• 2.5 mg
• Vitamin K
• 82 µg
• Vitamin B1
• 0.33 mg
• Riboflavin
• 0.27 mg
• Vitamin B6
• 0.16 mg
• Niacin
• Pantothenic
• 0.4 mg
• Vitamin B12
• 1.4 µg
• Folic Acid
• 47 µg
• Calcium
• 0.18 g
• Phosphorus
• 0.16 g
• Magnesium
• 25 mg
• Sodium
• 42 mg
• Potassium
• 0.33 g
• Chlorine
• 60 mg
• Iron
• 5 mg
• Copper
• 0.3 mg
• Zinc
• 4.6 mg
• Manganese
• Selenium
• 19 µg
• Iodine
• 88 µg