Cleaning cat hairballs off the carpet may be an activity of the past thanks in part to research at UW-Madison.
Mark Cook, professor of Animal Sciences, and his collaborators invented a new formula for use in cat food that will completely eliminate hairballs.
Bezoars, the scientific term for hairballs, are the result of cats swallowing their own hair as they groom. Fat will accumulate around the swallowed strands of hair in a cat's stomach. When the hairballs get too large, cats cough them up.
Cook and his researchers discovered that fat makes up 30 percent of hairballs, which can be disintegrated by emulsifiers. Emulsifiers are often seen in our daily lives.
\When we have fat on our hands, we use detergent to emulsify it. Food-grade detergents are natural occurring substances that we eat all the time,"" Cook explained.
The team set up an apparatus to resemble a cat's stomach. Hairballs were dropped in two beakers that contained water. No chemical reaction occurred. Cook then asked Beth Drake, the research specialist, to add emulsifier to one of the beakers. Drake used detergent, a kind of emulsifier, from their lab sink. She came back shortly and exclaimed, ""The fats all broke up!""
Traditional hairball removal formulas consist of considerably high amounts of fiber, which is indigestible and will pass through the animal, carrying hair with it. As a result, cat owners have to change their pets' litter boxes often. Moreover, a high amount of fiber will reduce the absorption of important nutrients such as zinc, copper and iron.
The new formula, devised by Cook, his team and Nestle Purina, includes soy lecithin, a natural emulsifier and a low amount of fiber. As a cat eats its food, the emulsifier is released, cleansing the cat's stomach and preventing fat from developing around the hair. Essential nutrients are preserved.
""Purina said this is what they want, and they tried it in cats, and it worked,"" Cook said.
