Captive Big Cats Have Neurological Disorders Due to Poor Diet

It turns out that keeping large cats captive is, unsurprisingly, bad for their health. Scientists have discovered a high incidence of neurological disorders among captive large cats in the United Arab Emirates, including demyelination of the spinal cord, which correlated to copper and Vitamin A deficiencies.

In order to better assess the health of large cats, the researchers compared blood and tissue samples among captive large cats, including cheetahs, lions and snow leopards that were fed different diets. The researchers found that about 30 percent of these cats didn't receive supplements and primarily ate poultry meat. This 30 percent displayed clinical neurological signs such as ataxia, lack of coordination, swaying gait and moderate to severe hind limb weakness. In fact, while these animals had normal appetites, they eventually developed hind limb paresis and were eventually unable to stand.

So what caused these conditions? It largely has to do with the fact that the large cats aren't being fed whole carcasses, which is what they eat in the while. Different parts of a carcass have different vitamins, which the cats need to stay healthy.

"We did this study because of all the post mortem findings of the previous year at the CVRL," said Claudia Kaiser, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Due to the fact that there was demyelinization of the CNS in a lot of felids that were ataxic before euthanasia or natural death, we wanted to know if there was a correlation between the symptom and their nutrition. The results showed us that a supplemented diet is one of the key factors of keeping wild animals healthy in captivity. Captive animals cannot care for themselves, so it is our responsibility to optimize their lives in captivity."

The findings reveal that large cats should receive supplements in order to stay healthy in captivity. Their diet is extremely important, and should be taken into consideration.

The findings are published in the journal Food and Nutrition Sciences.

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