High variability within pet foods prevents the identification of native species in pet cats' diets using isotopic evaluation.

ABSTRACT: Domestic cats preying on wildlife is a frequent conservation concern but typical approaches for assessing impacts rely on owner reports of prey returned home, which can be biased by inaccurate reporting or by cats consuming prey instead of bringing it home. Isotopes offer an alternative way to quantify broad differences in animal diets. By obtaining samples of pet food from cat owners we predicted that we would have high power to identify cats feeding on wild birds or mammals, given that pet food is thought to have higher C isotope values, due to the pervasive use of corn and/or corn by-products as food ingredients, than native prey. We worked with citizen scientists to quantify the isotopes of 202 cat hair samples and 239 pet food samples from the US and UK. We also characterized the isot

SUBMITTER: McDonald BW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6982418 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature