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Insect Diet for Dogs

6K views 43 replies 16 participants last post by  Saco 
#1 ·
#2 ·
It's nice to see this- the raw diet for dogs is very environmentally unfriendly, while kibble generally not as much so (uses parts of the animal people don't want), but with more and more people owning dogs these days, an insect based food is a good alternative.

Ideally we'd all raise our own free-range rabbits, chickens and goats for our dogs, off our land, but with more and more people living in urban centers, that's not practical. I'll be interested to see how this takes off. I'd try it, if it were available here.
 
#4 ·
Heidi, I do hope you are joking.

You also should realize that dogs literally evolved eating human waste, and by human waste I mean trash and unwanted food, and also quite literally human waste. Insects, mice, rotting carcasses. Domestic chickens and beef cattle were never on the menu, until recently.

I'm not going to be dragged into a global warming "debate", all you need to do is read the latest US Gov't report on climate change to find plenty of facts and evidence to demonstrate that anthropogenic greenhouse gases are causing the global temperature to warm at a pace that is far more rapid than any seen during the 10,000 or so years of human civilization. Humans have been around far longer than 10,000 years, but not enjoying anywhere near the standard of living we now take for granted, and at much smaller numbers living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, with most of us dying as infants or toddlers, and old age being around 25- 30.
 
#8 ·
You truly believe this? Also curious what age group you fall into and assuming that you are in the US?
Global warming is far from a hoax. It seems ONLY US citizens that are convinced it is. The rest of the world is pretty aware we are now on borrowed time. And before you go there the US also has one of the worst public education systems of any developed country. Not trying to slam anyone but facts are facts. You are correct about common sense being lacking in the US though, although that may be a world wide issue.
 
#6 ·
For years now I have heard off and on that in some cultures, people eat bugs and think it odd that we don't. Some bugs would make for a better diet and be easier to grow as a food source. To put that in terms of dog food doesn't surprise me. Newspapers have to find something interesting for their "lifestyle" pages and giving just a tid-bit of information keeps people interested.

Side note, I adopted a dog that was found stray. For awhile, if I took her to a concert at a park and bugs started to come up out of the grass, she would try to catch and eat them. As she was snapping at gnats I'd say, "Bailey, I feed you now. You don't have to eat bugs". It took her about a year to get over the felt need to hunt bugs.
 
#9 ·
So taking the whole climate thing away cattle destroy land at an alarming rate. At least in the quantities that we are producing them. Keep in mind that domestic cattle are a human invention, just like dogs. There have never been wild Holsteins running around any more then there were wild poodles.
Also understand that with our "evolved" culture we waste far more then we consume. Yes leather is still used, but not in the quantities we slaughter cattle at. We also do not use much of the bone, tendon or organs. Keep in mind also that by some estimates as much as 60% of the food produced in the US is wasted. In Alberta, Canada were I was living there are fields of cattle that will never get sold. Why? Multiple reasons relating to age and market prices.
Which takes me full circle to the cattle destroying the land. Because they do not migrate like wild animals they walk on the same land year round, which destroys grassland and waterways, disrupts marsh land, interferes with the natural travel of other species and pollutes the ground. Understand that commercial herds number in the thousands commonly, which also plays into the spread of disease. Then we have the impact of transporting and processing.

I need to be really clear, a family raising a few stock for food is a much different impact then the commercial farms of today.

Bring on the grubs!
 
#38 ·
Haha, I live in a ranching community. Cattle properly managed do not destroy the landscape and actually help it. Ranchers just make good scapegoats. MT is a large ranching state but the emissions we produce don't even rank on the scale of larger heavily populated states. But if cattle were so horrible we be much higher on the list. And people are just picky eaters when it comes to meat. Lots of good meat will go into other products such as dog food because we don't like the taste of say an old cow vs. a young cow. Personally I don't care but that's not the majority.

That said I don't see anything wrong with feeding our dogs insects as long as it was a properly formatted diet with the correct insects. For example grasshoppers are high in protein but they aren't very digestible so you'd want to avoid issues like that. Where the product should be nutritionally good based on the numbers and analyzing it, but most of it ends up not actually digestible for the animals. I could also see it being extremely beneficial to animals with severe allergies which is becoming far too common. My friend has a dog that is allergic to nearly every meat protein including fish. Ideally people would stop breeding their allergic animals but maybe this could be a good option for the animals with it.
 
#16 ·
Oh my, you better have Benedryl ready. That is a major reaction and can get worse with the next sting. Deja hunts for them, eats them without ever having being stung. She gets mad at them when she is eating raw in the summer and just adds them to her meal. I don't get it.
 
#15 ·
Seems like a good "unique protein" to try for dogs with allergies, too. Many people around the world eat grubs for protein and fat. It's just the ick factor that would prevent me from eating grubs, hard to get around it. Although, lobsters and crabs are pretty much big sea bugs, and people pay lots to eat them, so maybe it's all about really good marketing.

Similar to how the Patagonian toothfish became the much more palatable sounding "Chilean sea bass".
 
#21 ·
Bugs have had their reign back in the Carboniferous/Permian periods, let’s not open that door. Keep them small and sqaushable please :wink2:
I'd like to make a veeeeeeery nerdy Starship Troopers joke right now, but I'll control myself.

I read an article about 'Cricket Flour' that was fascinating, if I can find it again I'll post it. It pointed out that insects don't carry the risks of accumulated heavy metals, toxins, etc. that animals higher up on the food chain do. Example - mercury in carnivorous fish, and so on... Would still have to be wary of pesticide residue. Interesting.
 
#23 · (Edited)
Thanks for posting! Very interesting article. I think it is fascinating and extremely exciting to see products like these hitting the markets! Not just in terms of environmental sustainability but also as another option for those who have dogs riddled with sensitivities and allergies. Talk about a novel protein. LOL

They have done studies on insect protein for dogs. Looks like the digestibility and crude protein is on par with fish and chicken meal.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4473158/

For those of us who do believe in the science behind climate change, there are things we can do to lessen our dog's carbon foot print.

As far as common commercially available meat goes, the general flow of sustainability from most to least is:

Chicken>Turkey>Farmed Fish>Pork>Beef>Lamb (wild caught fish varies wildly dependent on the species and the area it is caught. Check out Montery Bay Aquarium's seafoodwatch.org for best choices if you feed your dog seafood)

Feed your dogs what it does best on from lowest down the list you can.

Another thing to consider is the rise of using invasive species in pet food. Wild Boar is an invasive species in the US that finds its way into the petfood chin fairly regularly. It's been a while since I contacted the manufacturer but a few years ago Sojos was sourcing its wild boar for its food and treats from trapped/hunted board from the Southern US. Marsh dog makes treats out of invasive nutria. BareItAll is currently offering treats for both dog and cats made from invasive asian carp. The University of Maine has been researching the use of invasive green crab in pet foods, but there is nothing on the market yet. Hopefully within the next few years.

Buy these products and show demand for environmentally friendly options. More will follow suit.
 
#26 ·
My rescue was abandoned in a wilderness area as a puppy and based on her behavior since then, probably survived by eating bugs. She still digs them up, and tries to eat them years later. There may not be any correlation but of all the dogs I’ve owned, she has had the most unusual illnesses. At around age 2 she had a strange growth removed. A few years later she got a rare cancer and was treated succcessfully. Now she has ulcers. Dogs aren’t meant to eat bugs, they are carnivores. If people want to eat bugs, go ahead. If you want to feed them to your dogs as an experiment, they are your dogs. But please don’t tell me I have to eat bugs or feed them to my dogs.
 
#27 ·
Dogs aren’t meant to eat bugs, they are carnivores.
well... insects aren't plants.

Just about every wild species of canid have been documented eating bugs. Some of the smaller fox species are predominantly insectivores. The medium sized dholes and coyotes also frequently eat bugs. Even dingos, domestic dog's closest relative, eat insects on the regular. So I don't understand the whole "not meant to eat" thing.

We aren't talking about dumping a pile of maggots in your dog's dish. We are talking about a refined product, in a processed and supplemented kibble. A product that according to nutritional science, is nutritionally equivalent to fish meal and poultry meal. Which isn't really surprising considering that insects are pretty closely related to things that are commonly consumed in the western world like shrimp and crabs.

I get it. There is an "ick factor" with the idea of eating bugs or feeding them to our dogs. No one is saying you have to feed it to your dog - but there is no sense in fear mongering a viable protein source. There is nothing inherent about insects that would cause chronic disease. The culprits there would more likely be genetics or periods of malnutrition in general.
 
#31 ·
So no strawberry yogurt, jelly beans, or sausage for you then? The common food additive carmine is nothing more than crushed up insects - gives a nice red color to food. Popular brands contain it too - big ones like yoplait. Then, you have shellac, while not the whole insect, it is the secretion of one. You find that in lots of ingredient lists too.

But yes. I would and have intentionally eaten bugs as well. I've traveled a bit and sampled local cuisine. I've gone to catered entomophagy lectures. I've eaten stir fried grasshoppers, ant larva, fried tarantulas, chocolate "chirp" cookies made with cricket flour, scorpion on a stick, various roasted crispy dry insect snacks, etc.

I also probably have a can of escargot somewhere in the pantry.
 
#33 ·
I ate termites (knowingly and deliberately) when I was backpacking on the cheap through Central America. Didn’t want to offend the people I was with, who fervently insisted I share in eating them.

Oddly, they were sweet, almost too sweet. Not offensive or unpleasant. Not entirely unlike sugary Rice Krispies.

I would never have selected termites off a grocery shelf, but keeping an open mind certainly leads down some interesting paths.
 
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