HAHAHAHA. Actually, they don't 'need' meat, they need the high grade protein and then some core vitamins. Hmm, cant remember them now, and those vitamins are mostly found in meat. There is one vegan form that, if iirc, comes from shrooms.
Cats should never have dry, females can eat it safely, but males no. And most canned is so poorly made, well, no. The best canned is too expensive for me to feed to 5 cats. I tried the homemade raw, and only two like that, lol. I feed them canned and mix it up a lot, with human tuna, and chicken thigh/raw hearts & liver and I toss in some squash for hairballs! =)
Those cats loved the vegan food better than mouse, or canned foods. I really thought it would take me forever to swap them over, and keep them healthy. Noooo, one bite of the new food and that was it.
The dogs were harder to swap over. They looked at it, tasted it, and snubbed it, lol.
The one cat died at 18, and the other was 21 when she passed. My sweet babies.
They say vegan for cat is better than any purchased canned, i dont know. I just did it because i was vegan then. But making all the dogs food and hanging it all over the house to dry, then baking it.. ack what a pain.
I stopped making it that way and made waffles with it. Much easier, but then more teeth cleanings are needed.
The place i purchased my vitamins at used to be called harbinjersofanewage. Oh i just searced it, its vegepet now. Nice to see its still there.