How do you feel about vegan diets for dogs?
I’ve heard of people putting their dogs on vegan diets, homemade or store bought food, and the dogs do well and live healthy lives.
I’m vegan, but my dogs always got meat – first with dog food, and later on I switched them to a homemade diet using organic, local free range meats. I wouldn’t consider using a vegan diet until it’s been somehow proven that it’s healthy and safe for them, although of course there are ethical issues that come up with using meat, which is why I settled for free range ones.
So – what are your opinions on it? Would you ever feed your dog a vegan diet?
i had my jack russell terrier on a vegetarian diet for many years … she developed severe allergies when she was just over a year old and nothing the vet did or prescribed helped including multiple changes in food … she was even put on kangaroo kibble as a unique protein source … her allergies were so bad she was on prednisone every other day just to keep her mildly comfortable … i brought her to a doggie allergist where she was tested (cost close to a thousand dollars for consultation and testing, plus almost a full year of immunotherapy) and she was found to be allergic to most animal proteins … and while i would not normally take nutrition advice from a vet, i saw the report saying what she was sensitive to and the specialist suggested a vegetarian diet … which worked like a charm … off all medication, no more traumatizing her skin from excessive itching, no more recurrent ear infections, paw problems, etc., she became a normal dog … and she thrived on that diet for many years, very active in agility, flyball, fetch, frisbee, and could run beside my bike for miles, all eating nothing but a vegetarian diet … dogs are omnivores regardless of how many people scream carnivore and protein is protein … the average adult pet dog requires approximately 18% protein to be healthy and every well known vegetarian dog food out there meets or exceeds that protein percentage … i probably would not have put my dog on a vegetarian diet just because, but there are dogs who do truly suffer major animal protein allergies and if a vegetarian diet helps with that, i see nothing wrong with it … vegan might be too limiting … the only vegan kibble i used was made by wysong and it was just a bonus topper to her other kibble and even the bag said that … and btw, a raw diet is only around 21% in protein, hardly different from a vegetarian diet …
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