Effect of Cats Grooming Behavior on Apparent Digestibility in Domestic Cats

Abstract

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) announced that the number of domestic cat households in 2015 was increased by 63.7% compared to 2012, according to a national survey of public awareness about animal care. This result suggested that the negative perception of cats was reduced and the behavior of independent cats was in harmony with modern life patterns. Cats are engaging in paw licking and face washing as well as licking the pelage in their normal life. A cat can spend approximately 25% to 30% of its time on grooming (Hart, 1976b

Panaman, 1981). Some cats have been observed to spend up to one-third of their awake time for grooming (Loureiro et al., 2014). Daily hygiene routine of grooming in cats results in the formation of hairballs, or trichobezoars when the animals are licked and ingested their own hair (Loureiro et al., 2014). Cats can generally get rid themselves of this problem by retching until the hairball is vomited. This experiment was conducted to evaluate the time budget and organization of grooming both in short-haired and long-haired cats. And the other purpose of this experiment was to assess the effect of grooming behavior of cats on apparent digestibility in domestic cats (Felis catus) by comparing the apparent digestibility of domestic cats using hair-included-feces and hair-removed-feces. A total of 10 adult domestic cats, average 4.3±0.89 kg body weight and average 3.5±1.38 year, were used for behavioral observation. There was no significant difference between long-haired cats and short-haired cats in behavioral time budget and organization of grooming. A total of 14 adult domestic cats, average 4.5±1.21 kg body weight and average 3.3±1.38 year, were used for nutrient digestibility trial. The treatments of digestibility trial were HI

hair-included-digestibility and HR

hair-removed- digestibility. The apparent nutrient digestibility using hair-removed-feces was higher than hair-included-feces. Therefore, the digestibility of dry matter, crude protein, crude ash, ADF and NDF has been underestimated approximately 6%, 7%, 15%, 12% and 10%, respectively when calculated using conventional digestibility method for domestic cats. Because of the chemical composition of hair included in feces, the nutrient digestibility using hair-removed-feces was higher than that of hair- included-feces. The nutrient digestibility between long-haired and short-haired cats had no difference when it was calculated with hair-included-feces. However digestibility of NDF and amino acid in long-haired cats showed higher than that of short-haired cats approximately 4-8%. Therefore, this experiment demonstrated that the presence of hair in the fecal samples should be considered before calculating the apparent nutrient digestibility of domestic cats (Felis catus).