Vegans who own carnivores

sup_dude wrote: »

I don't think that's strictly true for all animals. The likes of horses often need supplements such as copper which the soil is lacking in. There's also supplements like Biotin for poor hooves.
I do agree that if the human controlled diet is causing problems, then it needs to be seriously thought about.

adrenalinjunkie wrote: »

Yes but again that's a man-made situation. If horses were free to roam where they wanted the nutrients in the grass they were eating would likely balance out over time. They are contained in fenced fields so they can't do this. They have no choice but to eat the grass that is available to them.

I think you're both correct in different ways. The supplements sup_dude is on about will improve an animals life, but without them they will not die. Even in our cattle (high-molybdenum soils) some animals will be affected by low copper and others will be grand. The ill thriving ones will have a dull coat & eye, thinner and will just look off, they won't however, die like a cat with no thiamine.
For a comparison though, you could take tetany. Cows eat grass, right? That should be fine for cows and calves to eat during summer. Nice fat cow, feeding away, strong calf drinking from her. BOOM, calcium/magnesium levels drop and you have a matter of hours to get them into her before death occurs. Grass can also be too lush, contains too much potassium and cause a different strain of tetany as the minerals internally go out of whack.
It's monitoring their diet and ad libbing minerals that the animals can reach easily that prevent them dying. Things like that I'd see as necessary to an animals diet.