Table 4. Faecal mineral excretion of cats fed a diet with different levels of dicalcium phosphate.

Mean and standard deviation, n = 10 / diet¹.

	Group (% Ca in DM)						Polynomial contrasts (P-values)
	0.6	0.8	1.5	1.9	2.2	2.4	Lin.	Quadr.
Amount of faeces (g/d)	23.0 ± 7.22	22.6 ± 7.57	23.7 ± 10.2	23.7 ± 7.18	21.1 ± 7.84	30.6 ± 12.4	0.152	0.069
DM of the faeces (%)	35.0 ± 3.70	35.0 ± 2.72	42.3 ± 4.30	42.3 ± 3.63	45.8 ± 5.56	43.6 ± 6.07	< 0.001	0.017
Amount of faeces (g DM/d)	8.00 ± 2.39	7.80 ± 2.26	9.73 ± 3.55	9.88 ± 2.68	9.39 ± 2.71	12.9 ± 4.43	< 0.001	0.374
Faecal Ca (mg/g DM)	36.3 ± 3.26	50.9 ± 3.50	83.2 ± 12.4	107 ± 7.45	119 ± 11.0	119 ± 30.7	< 0.001	0.006
Faecal Ca excretion (mg/kg BW/d)	73.0 ± 18.4	101 ± 18.0	208 ± 89.5	266 ± 56.6	276 ± 58.0	416 ± 251	< 0.001	0.868
Apparent digestibility of Ca (%)	8.49 ± 10.2	- 0.44 ± 16.5	- 4.24 ± 32.1	- 4.54 ± 17.5	4.36 ± 19.6	- 28.7 ± 41.2	0.102	0.653
Faecal P (mg/g DM)	23.8 ± 1.86	28.7 ± 3.21	50.8 ± 3.43	62.2 ± 2.30	72.0 ± 3.72	60.1 ± 11.7	< 0.001	< 0.001
Faecal P excretion (mg/kg BW/d)	48.8 ± 16.5	57.1 ± 11.7	125 ± 45.1	155 ± 29.5	166 ± 28.9	193 ± 56.7	< 0.001	0.052
Apparent digestibility of P (%)	36.8 ± 15.5	41.7 ± 11.3	25.6 ± 16.9	33.4 ± 10.5	36.1 ± 8.72	28.1 ± 15.8	0.288	0.720

¹For the group 3.0% Ca: n = 8.