Food provides the cat with nutrients - proteins, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, vitamins, and water - that are crucial to the growth, reproductive, and adult stages of its life cycle. Cats require two essential amino acids - taurine and arginine. Taurine deficiency in cats causes reproductive problems, blindness, and heart disease. An arginine-deficient diet leads to a situation in which the cat develops toxicosis because it can't adequately convert the harmful waste product ammonia into urea (normally eliminated via the urinary system). To avoid the dangers of taurine and arginine deficiencies in cats: make sure that the cat's diet contains adequate amounts of these and other essential amino acids.