Is there such a thing as a vegan dog? Why of course there is, it is simply a dog that adheres to a vegan diet! More and more today vegan dog owners are turning to a vegan lifestyle for their pooch as well, and why not? Ethical values can spread to our pets too, so long as it doesn’t do them any harm. They are members of our family as well. Dogs can live long, healthy and happy lives without animal products or by-products.
The truth is that a vegan diet can provide dogs with fresh, healthy ingredients that are better for them than conventional dry or canned food. So yes your dog can be a vegan with proper planning and implementation, and some effort maintaining a healthy and balanced diet for your canine friend.
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But this applies to dogs, not all pets. Sorry vegan cat owners, this means you. You can’t put your loveable cat on a vegan diet because cats are true carnivores. Cats actually need animal protein to maintain their health and survive. Don’t take that the wrong way, cats can eat some fruits and vegetables. If you are a cat owner you have likely seen your cat gnaw on attractive fronds or long blades of grass. They just can’t live on vegetation alone. They have to have meat or meat byproducts as a staple of their diet.
Dogs are omnivores, however, and so they can extract most essential nutrients they need to survive through plant based ingredients, with a properly balanced diet and a variation of ingredients and plant based nutrients. Whatever dogs can’t get from plants or produce naturally, they can get through store bought supplements that can be added to their daily meals. It’s a reality that dogs will always be meat lovers, it’s just in their nature, and they don’t face the ethical challenge of whether or not it is humane to eat other animals like we do. They are even designed by nature with sharp teeth and shorter digestive tracts to eat meat, they just don’t need it.
Usually once you get a dog settled on a vegan diet, most dogs never look back. They enjoy the flavorful meals they get every day and they don’t miss their old diet. If you make your dog homemade meals and treats the whole process can even be a bonding experience for you and your pooch.
Switching your dog to a vegan diet can be as simple as buying vegan dog food from the store or from an online website that sells vegan dog food. More and more companies are popping up with vegan dog foods specially formulated for puppies and adult dogs, as well as specialty vegan food for senior dogs. Vegan dog food is available in kibble form as well as in wet canned food, so there’s an option out there for most any dog and for most any appetite.
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The vegan and vegetarian dog food market is also filled with vegan dog treats, although tossing your pooch a partially processed piece of cauliflower or a few raw blueberries works just as well. It’s quite healthy for your dog as well. The other way to switch dogs to a vegan diet is to make their food at home. Yes, this includes making baked vegan treats and even smoothies for your pet! But beware: vegan or not, there are a handful of foods that we humans eat on a daily basis that are highly toxic to dogs and can cause serious illness and even death.
These are the foods you should never feed to your dog:
- Onions, garlic, chives, leeks, or any member of the Allium family. Even when cooked, these ingredients are highly toxic to dogs. They’re easy to overlook when you feed your dog leftovers from your meal, so always triple check that they are not present before giving your pet your leftovers.
- Grapes and raisins. Feed your dog cranberries or dried cranberries instead; they are full of vitamins, fiber and antioxidants and they are not dangerous to your dogs like grapes and raisins. Avoid sweetened dry cranberries as they contain too much sugar for your dog’s health, however
- Avocados. The flesh, pit and peel all contain toxins that are bad for your dog’s health. The leaves of the plant contain Persin as well, which is the toxic substance in parts of avocados that is dangerous to dogs.
- Chocolate. Use carob powder or chips instead for a sweet treat that won’t harm your dog. Never feed a dog chocolate in any form, it can cause serious, even fatal issues.
- Caffeine. This includes coffee, tea and soda. To be honest caffeine isn’t really good for humans either we just like it, but it is downright bad for dogs.
- Mushrooms. Although dogs are only allergic to some 50 species of mushrooms, it is better not take a chance and feed your dog the wrong variety by mistake.
- Alcohol. We know what it does to us but it does it 10 times more damage to dogs. Alcohol can seriously shorten the lifespan of a dog, causing long term liver and kidney damage in a relatively short period of time.
- Pecans, walnuts and macadamia nuts. Other nuts are fine, as long as they are small enough not to be a choking hazard.
Transitioning your dog to a vegan lifestyle
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While your dog doesn’t have to worry about the latest fashion trends, there is still more to living a vegan lifestyle, as any vegan knows, than simply not eating meat. Dogs do where sweaters and other forms of clothing. Dogs do wear harnesses collars and leashes. Vegans love animals and quite commonly spoil their dogs with toys, comfortable bedding and even nice strollers. Anyone who has made the choice of living a vegan lifestyle knows that they must constantly be wary of purchasing or using any product that had anything to do with harming any life form anywhere, in testing, production or materials. This means that you will have to start vigilantly examining everything that you buy for your dog, not just his or her food.
You will have to make sure that no leather, down or fur of any type is used in any bedding, collars, leashes or other products you buy for your dog. You will have to make sure that the toys you buy for your pet are not derived from any animal by products, from bones to beef stock that a toy might have been soaked in. Your vegan dog will need to live a completely vegan lifestyle, just like you.
There are more animal byproducts used in the making of dog products than you may imagine, so be wary and be vigilant. It is sick to think that animals are harmed or tortured to make a product for other animals but it certainly happens. Then again it is sick to think that animals are harmed or tortured for any reason. But we can help change that and protest such treatment by paying attention to what we buy, not just for ourselves but for our pets as well.
The hardest part of transitioning your dog to a vegan lifestyle will be the diet change. This won’t be hard on you but it will be hard on your dog. By nature he or she will crave meat. The best way to do this is slowly, patiently, and over time. Cutting your dog off meat completely is not healthy for your dog and frankly will make the process harder than it has to be. The dog is going to need to adjust to such a drastic change, even pups, from what it instinctively desires to do, which is eat meat. So take a little extra effort and all the time that your dog needs to make a lasting transition in a healthy, safe way. You want your dog to be happy too, not just vegan. The dog’s health and wellbeing are extremely important.
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This can be done with love, patience and effort. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Take your time, this is not a race! Slowly phase meat out of your dog’s diet and phase in the vegan diet one ingredient, one meal and one day at a time. Meaning that you start with 1 vegan ingredient a few days a week. When you see that your dog likes the ingredient and doesn’t have issues digesting it, then you add another ingredient, removing more meat from the diet a few more times a week. This accomplished two things. It gives your pup a chance to slowly get used to eating less meat and more vegetation, and it allows you to not only find what he or she likes, because the dog likely will not enjoy every fruit and vegetable, but what ingredients are good for your dog.
Some plant based ingredients are irritants to dogs, or cause discomfort or gas or bloating. It is easier to identify ingredients one at a time rather than by process of elimination, which can be bad for your dog. As you get further along in the process (which can take months) and it gets more complex keep a simple table to keep track of what you are feeding your dog and when and note how it goes, like this:
- Get creative! Wouldn’t you get bored if you were served the same foods the same way day after day after day? Well believe it or not your dog does too, so get creative with meals and how you prepare or serve them. If you are introducing carrots cook them a few different ways, mashed, raw sliced in a cold salad, or with other ingredients, for example. Have fun with it; make it a challenge to develop new recipes that your dog likes. Even if you are buying premade vegan foods, you can add things like fruits and diced veggies to them, mix in healthy vegan treats and even male your pup sugarless fruit smoothies for desert. There are plenty of ways to get your dog to enjoy foods that he or she may not like served in a boring way.
- Remember that dogs love attention, affection and positive reinforcement, so use that to help convert your dog to a vegan diet. Besides love and affection is good for your pet’s mental capacities and their emotional wellbeing. Converting your dog to a vegan diet can be a complete bonding process for you and the dog if you treat it as an entirely positive experience. Don’t chastise them if they turn their nose up at cabbage, entice them to try more. When they eat some form of the veggie praise them and take them for a walk. Train your dog to enjoy a vegan diet with positive reinforcement and your dog will stick to veganism forever, plus it will make him or her quite happy.
- Don’t get upset if your dog lapses. This is liable to happen. Again it is not unhealthy for a dog to subsist off of and even thrive on a vegan diet but it is not natural to them. If your dog gets out of the yard and gets into a neighbor’s trash cans looking for meat this is instinctive, so don’t get mad at them or frustrated that they broke the vegan diet. Your dog doesn’t understand the ethical and environmental impact of eating meat, they just know that they like it and that, given a choice, they would eat it. They don’t know how that animal was treated before it was slaughtered to make that food, they simply crave it. So keep at it, be persistent and take them right back to the vegan dishes that are their favorite, so they know that there is great tasting food in their own food bowl.
