The active adult animal has a nutritional stress on it. For this reason, the nutritional requirements for this type of animal are, obviously, increased. The bottom line of this section is that the animal has to eat enough of the right type of food to support the activity it is participating in.
General nutrition of active animals:
Active animals are not only putting a physical stress on their bodies,
they need to eat a diet which will help them perform at their optimal
level and allow their bodies to recover quickly. Most people are familiar
with the concept of carbohydrate being the energy food. That is true, and
some human athletes will consume large quantities of carbohydrate prior to
a competition (carbo-loading). There is also another part of every things
diet which provides more than twice the energy of carbohydrate and that is
fat.
Yes, fat is an energy component of both yours and your pets diet. Unfortunately, fat is also the reason why some foods taste better than others, and consequently, the reason why the foods that taste the best make us gain the most weight.
Since there are not too many cats that perform in these manners, the discussion will be general, but canine in content.
Just as in humans, there are two types of athletic animal: endurance athletes and "sprinters". The sprinters would be the greyhounds of the world who expend the maximum energy in a short period of time. Endurance athletes would be the sporting/hunting breeds, and at the extreme, sled dogs. In fact, much research has been done on sled dogs to improve the nutrition of the other sporting breeds.
It has been shown, in sled dogs anyway, that feeding a higher fat diet results in a more efficient use of the free fatty acids (FFA's) in circulation. This is in contrast to the carbohydrate metabolism (carbohydrate is stored as glycogen), which is minimal in animals fed the high fat diet. The animals fed the high carbohydrate diet also exhibited an increase in lactic acid build-up, which caused muscle soreness and sometimes a stiff gait even when walking. This does not mean that a balanced diet does not need to be fed, on the contrary. Glycogen is still required for an animal to perform at its peak. Glycogen is necessary for these animals to utilize the FFA's during aerobic work and [carbohydrate] should be in the diet at a level of about 10-15%.
An athlete cannot perform on energy alone. Protein is the main building block of muscle, but there are many occasions where the protein is broken down to provide additional energy. Insuring adequate protein in the diet will help performance by aiding in the growth of new muscle, helping to prevent muscle loss, and possibly aiding in the prevention of injury. Providing adequate protein is the key, too much is of no help to your high performance pet. "Extra" protein in the diet will suffer one of two possible fates: it will be broken down for energy, or excreted in the urine. Since most of it will be excreted in the urine, it is not suggested that excess protein be fed to your pet, and a level of around 30 but no greater than 40% of the diet be protein.
Sprinters also require a high level of protein. They also require a balanced diet with a higher level of carbohydrate than their endurance counterparts. During a sprint, energy is derived from glycogen, which is broken down into glucose. For this reason, a moderate level of carbohydrate should be fed (20-25%) and supplementation of carbohydrate after bouts of exercise should be considered.
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