Cheetahs In Captivity Die Early Due To High PUFA / Low Glycine Diet

haidut

Member
Forum Supporter
Joined
Mar 18, 2013
Messages
19,798
Location
USA / Europe
I know cheetahs are not the most applicable model to humans but the dramatic decrease in life expectancy for captive cheetahs caught my eye, as well as the fact that the two factor (high PUFA, low glycine) were the only metabolic abnormalities identified so far. I think the glycine deficiency is probably the main reason behind the gastritis and poor digestion given glycine's role in stomach acid and bile acid production. The poor digestion combined with high inflammation from PUFA can lead to pretty much any chronic disease known in mammals and confirm once again that the toxicity of PUFA is not limited to the human race.

How to Help Cheetahs Live Longer in Captivity | Science | Smithsonian

"...Despite improvements in husbandry conditions in zoos and other captive facilities around the world, cheetahs continue to suffer from a number of unusual diseases that are rarely reported in other captive cats. These include gastritis, various kidney ailments, liver abnormalities, fibrosis of the heart muscle and several ill-defined neurological disorders. Post mortem findings in cheetahs housed at captive facilities in both North America and South Africa found that over 90% had some level of gastritis when they died. Similarly, the incidence of kidney disease affected more than two-thirds of captive cheetahs. In contrast, these diseases are extremely rare in wild free roaming cheetahs."

"...We measured the concentrations of hundreds of amino acids, fatty acids, acylcarnitines,sugars and other products of metabolism. In the first part of the study, we compared the fatty acid profiles of captive cheetahs to those of wild cheetahs. Abnormal fatty acids levels have been linked to a variety of disease processes in humans and other animals. We found very low levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the blood samples of wild cheetahs compared to those from cheetahs in captivity."

"...We found that the cheetahs were excreting a numbers of particular compounds known as phenolic acids. They form because proteins arrive in the large intestine undigested. Some amino acids from these proteins are changed by gut bacteria into potentially toxic compounds that are then absorbed into the bloodstream and either directly excreted or detoxified by the liver before being excreted. This is a problem because studies suggest that phenolic acids may have a negative effect on the production of dopamine. Dopamine plays an important role in gut and kidney function. We also discovered that cheetahs use a particular chemical process to detoxify the phenolic acids. Known as glycine conjugation, it requires large quantities of a different amino acid: glycine. Glycine levels are low in the muscle meat diets of captive cheetahs since they don’t often get fed skin, cartilage or bones that contain much higher amounts. Together with an increased demand for glycine for detoxification, these animals are likely to end up with a deficiency of this amino acid. Glycine is very important in several body functions and a deficiency could therefore have many negative health effects."
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jul 6, 2017
Messages
75
Wild cheetahs typically hunt and consume small antelope. These species have a high saturated and low polyunsaturated fatty acid content in their tissues. Captive cheetahs, on the other hand, tend to be fed meat from animals, like horses, donkeys and chickens, which have high polyunsaturated fatty acid content.

Why do these animals have higher PUFA levels? Is it because of the diet we feed them, or do they just naturally have higher levels?
 

charlie

Admin
The Law & Order Admin
Joined
Jan 4, 2012
Messages
14,359
Location
USA

paymanz

Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2015
Messages
2,707
Im curious What they feed them, what type of meat, they supplement them minerals?

Some minerals can't be found in meat.

Vitamin A also is can't be found in it but I'm almost sure they provide it for them either by liver or supplement.

For high pufa maybe the cause is high paultry with paultry fat.. Or maybe they go further and feed them some vegetable oils? It is known these animals need high fat intake, so maybe they add pufa oils as a cheap source. That's crazy if they do it but what else may be explanation for higher pufa level in their blood?
 

paymanz

Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2015
Messages
2,707
In wild life these animals also feed on their prey's organs, intestinal,etc.for example it is a difference.
 

TubZy

Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2016
Messages
1,649
Location
USA
They probably feed them crappy refined food or just chopped up refined bottom of the barrel muscle meats only even then I bet the so called muscle meats are low grade.

I think "pet" food in the US is absolute crap with PUFA along with lack of glycine and that doesn't even include any added excipients. Another reason why cats and dogs have so many issues as well these days.
 

noordinary

Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2016
Messages
209
They probably feed them pork. At least thats what i see most, when animals are fed raw meat diets. I doubt they add supplementary vegetable oils (zoo diatitions feed animals better than most people eat), but just pork will be enough to boost high PUFA levels.
I have a 100 lb GS (german shepherd), untill i got reed of all poultry and pork i could not fix his multiple skin and joints issues.
when i got him, he was malnourished with multiple blemishes on skin and limping.
That was one more avidance for me to not eat poultry or pork myself.
Now i feed him lots of cheap skim milk mozarella from Costco (made in US, but all ingridients are fine, nothing added, the milk is not grass fed obviously, but its still ruminant milk and he is 100lbs and eats a lot, i have to compromise), raw meat trims (veal, goat, lamb) from local slautger house directly, raw veal neck bones, some raw eggs, some milk sometimes, icecream and condensed milk couple times a week as a treat (he loves icecream and condensed milk above everything), some sweet fruits at times, he likes watermelon, kiwi, oranges. And leftovers from my bone broth, all the leftover soft cartilage (not bones).
So he is heathly now and been for more than a year, no skin problems, healthy joints (i thought the shoulder and limping is a birth deffect and never will go away, and it did go away!).
The fact that i refused to fix him (and persisted refusing every time at a vets office) probably also helped, i mean having the testicles hepled with producing protective hormones (he is more competitive and maybe a bit more reactive (not aggresive) because of that though and thats inconvenient, but i keep him on a leash in dog parks, oh and females, though spaded, follow him arroud, their owners literally sometimes have to come up and pick them up and carry away lol, talking about those male hormons lol)
His teeth are good too, but he is relatively young, so will see. His coat is amazing and other dog owners complement on it a lot.
But when i tell them how i feed him they say its expensive and inconvenient, yet i calculated and its only 50$ a month more expensive than feedler. And we ve been at vets affice for immunizations only (mandatory) and he never gets sick or anything, and vets visit is 80$ plus labs or drugs if needed.
And i see pets suffering from cheap feedlers, i see adds of dentists to pull dogs and cats teeth out at the vets office, because they are so malnourished.
And cheetahs get sick the same way i guess.
If you have a pet and want to try feed him meats look up slaughter houses around you. I found one an hour drive away and drive there once a month to stock up and freeze everything . They sell RUMINANT meat trims (the one that go into ground) cheap and cut veal necks for me. Its not a nice place to go, but i compromise once a month.
 

noordinary

Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2016
Messages
209
Oh, forgot organ meats. I give him liver and kinneys. He loves liver , if i hide it under bones and meat and eggs , anything, he will dig with his nose and fish out the liver first and eat it.
And i give him "green tribe" from cows, once a while. Livers and kidneys i get for free from the slaughter house or sometimes buy local grassfed in store for the dog and myself (i dont eat kidneys , cant stand the smell), its cheap in US, there i live they are 3$/lb grassfed, conventional are even cheaper.
I also buy him cheap oysters once a month , at my local Costco there are cheap chucked local oysters in big plastic jars. Those are cooking oysters, not to be eaten raw by humans. About 9$ per big jar. I give them to the dog raw once a month, he loves them, and he loves any shell fish. But i live in Seattle area, local shellfish in cheap here.
And the skim milk mozzarella i buy is 4$ for 2 lbs, and is a base of his diet.
Yep, some dogs are fed better when some humans... but i found a way to feed him a nutritious diet on a budget and avoid vets bills.
 

lampofred

Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
3,244
The article states that cheetahs in the wild eat full antelopes whereas cheetahs in captivity are fed only lean muscle meat.
 

encerent

Member
Joined
Sep 16, 2014
Messages
609
Oh, forgot organ meats. I give him liver and kinneys. He loves liver , if i hide it under bones and meat and eggs , anything, he will dig with his nose and fish out the liver first and eat it.
And i give him "green tribe" from cows, once a while. Livers and kidneys i get for free from the slaughter house or sometimes buy local grassfed in store for the dog and myself (i dont eat kidneys , cant stand the smell), its cheap in US, there i live they are 3$/lb grassfed, conventional are even cheaper.
I also buy him cheap oysters once a month , at my local Costco there are cheap chucked local oysters in big plastic jars. Those are cooking oysters, not to be eaten raw by humans. About 9$ per big jar. I give them to the dog raw once a month, he loves them, and he loves any shell fish. But i live in Seattle area, local shellfish in cheap here.
And the skim milk mozzarella i buy is 4$ for 2 lbs, and is a base of his diet.
Yep, some dogs are fed better when some humans... but i found a way to feed him a nutritious diet on a budget and avoid vets bills.

That skim milk mozzarella gas 0 fat right? I didn't know what existed. I'll have to look.
 

noordinary

Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2016
Messages
209
That skim milk mozzarella gas 0 fat right? I didn't know what existed. I'll have to look.
Actually no, 6g total fat stated on the label (attached)
 

Attachments

  • IMG_8472.JPG
    IMG_8472.JPG
    408.7 KB · Views: 53
OP
haidut

haidut

Member
Forum Supporter
Joined
Mar 18, 2013
Messages
19,798
Location
USA / Europe
Why do these animals have higher PUFA levels? Is it because of the diet we feed them, or do they just naturally have higher levels?

The chickens do have a lot of PUFA. The donkeys and horses should not have much tissue PUFA but it probably still depends on what they are fed. I suspect the feed is mostly chicken byproduct as it is very cheap. Donkey and horse meat is much harder to obtain and much more expensive.
 

Drareg

Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2016
Messages
4,772
They probably have a better chance to burn off PUFA quicker in the wild,probably have longer periods of fasting in the wild along with inconsistent meal times adding to this burn off,their fast sprinting will burn off anything,probably don't get the same workout in a cage,meals are set in captivity along with glycine issue as mentioned.
 
OP
haidut

haidut

Member
Forum Supporter
Joined
Mar 18, 2013
Messages
19,798
Location
USA / Europe
They probably have a better chance to burn off PUFA quicker in the wild,probably have longer periods of fasting in the wild along with inconsistent meal times adding to this burn off,their fast sprinting will burn off anything,probably don't get the same workout in a cage,meals are set in captivity along with glycine issue as mentioned.

That's what the study said. The cheetahs in the wild eat less often and much better food, so they have much lower PUFA stores. Maybe we should watch this as it unfolds since it may push one of the vets to find a way to detox the cheetahs from PUFA. Given that animal diet and medical interventions are not bound by the same dogma as humans, there won't be much backlash against a vet trying to get cheetahs rid of the deadly PUFA.
 

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom