One of my FB friends just posted that she'll now be feeding her dogs V-dog food, which appears to be a mostly vegan dog food. I say mostly, because I don't know of another plant based way of getting taurine, so there must be some animal product in it I'd assume. Here's the site: http://v-dog.com/pages/for-pooch

Ingredients:
http://v-dog.com/products/v-dog-kibble

Thought it would be interesting to see what people on here think of it! lol.

Though I believe a human can thrive on a plant-based diet ( though I will take this moment to say whoever did that blood type thing when we spoke about veganism was right because after 4 months I felt like I was dying!), I would never, ever feed my dogs a vegan diet. I am a strict believer dogs are carnivores. Even when I was vegan, my dogs got meat. I have a friend who is a hardcore animal activists and promotes veganism like a mad woman, but even she understands that cats and dogs are meant to eat meat and since they are domesticated animals, it is our duty to provide for them what is best.

Nope not gonna happen with my kidz. My guess is that the taurine they use they get from seaweed, which is a low quality source since it would be absorbed from the water. Plus the lack of animal base vitamin B-12 the last thing we need to do is make our Huskies crazier then they already are.

Natural Balance, Nature's Recipe, and AvoDerm Also have Vegan Formulas. (can't find the Nature's Recipe one on their site right now but the other 2 exist still)

All three are written as and marketed as "Vegetarian" but they contain zero animal products.


PETA - Vegan Dog food



I agree 100%. Though I feel limiting or a complete elimination of animal based food in humans is perfectly acceptable, I would never stop feeding the girls meat. It just isn't in their nature to eat a plant restrictive diet in my mind, and I wouldn't push that onto them. No matter what my diet was, or my personal beliefs.

~Chris~

Ugh - this just makes me sad. Is it not obvious dogs descend from wolves?

That was me, Heather! I have to have red meat at least once every 2 weeks or I get massive headaches...I'd love to eat totally vegetarian but I always end up with these strange headaches and all out icky feelings when I go a few weeks on it. Once my body purges toxins, it wants GOOD meats back in my diet.

How can someone feed vegan food to a dog? To me this is totally irresponsible. Dogs are carnivores, that fact does not change just because humans want them to be vegan.

I think the dog could survive on that diet, but I personally think it would be a very unhealthy animal and may even cause more health issues.

In the wild wolves do eat meat, but they are also scavengers and survive on plant life when meat isn't available, but given the choice they would take meat.

I would never feed my dog's vegan, I only give them what is best and in my opinion meat is #1. If I give them veggies/fruit it's only as a treat or just tossing them a piece every now and then.

To make a dog vegan I believe is depriving them of of vital nutrition.

Not so fast. While I tend to agree with all of you, there are at least two studies, one on pure-bred racing siberians published in the British Journal of Nutrition, that showed the dogs performed just as well and were just as healthy on a diet with no animal protein.

The diets used were formulated with the exact amino acid balance found in meat-based diets.

Taurine is generally synthesized by dogs anyway. Some breeds and large or giant breed dogs do in fact synthesize less so supplementation makes sense.

There may be a very good reason to use this type of diet on some dogs rather than protein isolate diets.

I will never be an advocate of a meatless diet for canines, under any circumstances. I think the health of the dog will suffer, not necessarily right away, but in time.

Even in talks with my daughter's pediatrician (I know, not the best source but bear with me) about diet and meat inclusion for her we have discussed alternatives if I don't feed her meat (which I do). Anyway, I'd have to put her on iron supplements if she didn't eat meat (she does though so I don't need to supplement) and even then the body doesn't absorb the iron anywhere near the way it does from the iron in meat. I'm using this (not so great) example to say that how do we know there wouldn't be deficiencies built up over time in dogs. I'm sure they could survive but I don't think they'd really thrive or be as healthy as they could be on a diet that nature intended.


Toomanyhuskies, do you have a link to the study and results that we can check out? I'd like to also know if the study was long term.

I am a veterian, and I have never thought of feeding my puppies a vegan diet. I am eating for my health and I will feed my puppies for their health.

no no no. never feed your dog's vegan. I am very anti pets and the promote it. That upsets me.

prentiss80 wrote:

I am a veterian, and I have thought of feeding my puppies a vegan diet. I am eating for my health and I will feed my puppies for their health.

But the difference between a dog and human is that a dog is, infact, a carnivore by all means. Science proves this.

Humans are perfectly capable living on a plant based diet and some may argue they are meant to be herbivores, not omnivores. Dogs were designed to eat meat, even a friend of mine who is a crazy hardcore vegan for moral reasons understands that.

I meant never thougt of feeding my puppies a vegan diet.

Lol that's better :p

I've been a vegetarian for 42 years.
I would never consider feeding my dog a vegetarian or vegan diet.

Look at a dog's teeth.
Do you see any flat, grinding teeth for nuts or grains?
Humans have both tearing and grinding teeth, so we can go either way.
But dogs have evolved to be carnivores.

jalepeno wrote:

I've been a vegetarian for 42 years.
I would never consider feeding my dog a vegetarian or vegan diet.

Look at a dog's teeth.
Do you see any flat, grinding teeth for nuts or grains?
Humans have both tearing and grinding teeth, so we can go either way.
But dogs have evolved to be carnivores.

That's a very good observation! Well done. I knew dogs were carnivores, but that sparks the cylinder right there.

I have a friend who is vegan and we've had this conversation before. She pointed out their teeth, like Michael did, and said that even if she didn't believe in eating meat, she couldn't force that onto her dogs, who were built to eat meat. She even said that raw was one of the best ideas for a dog's diet, but she feeds a good kibble because she can't deal with having "dead" meat in her house.