Have You Ever Purchased Vegetarian Dog Food?

[Muskeg]

I don't feed my dogs vegetarian and never would but I do know a dog who lived to be a strong, healthy 15.5 year old (50 lb mixed breed) on veggie kibble. Never any medical issues until the very last month of her life. This dog was amazingly vibrant for her age.

I certainly wouldn't call it animal abuse to feed veg. And not everyone can afford to feed humanely raised-free range-organic meat to their dog or has the room or time to raise or hunt their own "dog food". I do think diet is important, but I feel it may be less important for our dogs, who live to be 15 at maximum, generally, than for people, who live to be over 70 on average.

[Jo_in_TX]

"I certainly wouldn't call it animal abuse to feed veg. And not everyone can afford to feed humanely raised-free range-organic meat to their dog or has the room or time to raise or hunt their own "dog food".

True, just don't feed your dog rabbit food.

[Magwart]

My understanding is that there are some canine medical conditions in which this food may be necessary -- I read something that slips my mind now about some conditions that create digestive problems processing meat, and this sort of diet being one of the ways it gets treated. I just don't recall what it was though.

I'm a vegetarian too, but we feed our dogs meat-based kibbles and canned food.

[Gharrissc]

No I feed my dogs a raw diet now. I brought this up because I saw an advertisement for their food, and remembered trying it 7 years ago when I was still researching what the best way to feed my animals was. The guarantees that they offered were pretty much just a written guarantee of dogs/cat living twice as long. They had a couple of written 'testimonials',but of course nothing that you could prove.

Freestep, the claim of living twice as long was made by the manufacturer,but they took that guarantee off the the site when some customers started questioning it.

Originally Posted by ChancetheGSD

Are you interested in feeding a vegetarian diet?

[wolfy dog]

I buy vegetarian dog food on a regular basis; for my pet rats!

[WDC]

I think vegetarian diets and vegan diets are just awful. For a week of cleansing in an adult dog its fine, but a full on diet is just not capable of meeting the needs of the dog.

Met quite a few folks who tried it and their dogs ended up slightly neurotic and quite thin.

[Freestep]

Originally Posted by Magwart

My understanding is that there are some canine medical conditions in which this food may be necessary -- I read something that slips my mind now about some conditions that create digestive problems processing meat, and this sort of diet being one of the ways it gets treated.

Oh, I didn't even think of that. That would probably be the only good reason to feed a vegetarian diet to a dog... unless there was nothing else available and the dog was starving.

I imagine that street dogs of India (and other places) eat a lot of vegetable matter, bread, grains, etc., whatever they can scrounge up. There's probably not a great deal of meat available to them, and they seem to survive. They don't look great, though.

[Capone22]

I agree about the soy bit. I try to stay away from soy based products even for myself. I was a vegetarian for years and fed my dog raw. Dogs are meant to eat meat. If you can't handle that, don't get a dog.


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[julie87]

Feeding your dog vegetarian food sounds like punishment. People enjoy food, dogs should be able to as well.

[SusiQ]

For female humans, the latest recommendation from the American Dietetic Assn. and Academy of Medicine is to not have more than 2 servings of soy/week. A new study just came out that indicates that a high soy intake increases the chance of estrogen related cancers in women - this includes soy milk for those who use it. As for canines, I would also avoid it - just not for the same reasons.