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The idea of feeding your dog a vegan diet is often met with scepticism, and even harsh criticism at times. There have even been reports that dog owners could face prison time and fines of up to £20,000 for putting their pets on a plant-based diet that doesn’t “meet all of your dog’s nutritional needs”. However, vets have assured dog owners that it is safe to put their pet on a vegan diet – as long all nutritional requirements are met.
Dr Guy Sandelowsky, a vet and founder of the vegan dog food company Omni, told Express.co.uk: “A plant-based diet for dogs can have lots of health benefits, especially if it means cutting back on relatively unhealthy alternatives.
“Plant-based diets for dogs are increasingly being recognised as providing a broad spectrum of health benefits because they avoid troublesome ingredients like processed meat, excess animal fat and various preservatives and additives.”
Dr Sandelowsky said that his vegan dog food, which typically included sweet potato, brown rice and pumpkin, contained 30 percent more protein than most meat-based diets and were carefully formulated to meet all of a dog’s nutritional needs.
He also shared some expert Dos and Don’ts on how to make safely feed your dog a vegan diet
Do:
- Get vet advice on the vegan diet you want to feed to make sure its balanced and nutritionally complete
Look for FEDIAF certified complete diets
Cook ingredients to make them more digestible and to kill bacteria
Use a supplement if you are home cooking to make sure your dog gets all the vitamins and minerals they need to thrive (the same is true for meat-based diets)
Feed enough protein – this is one of the most important nutrients and should make up at least 18 percent of the diet
Make any diet changes gradually to avoid tummy upsets
Monitor your dog’s weight and change the quantities of food to keep their body condition stable
Use a prescription diet if your dog suffers from health conditions
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Don’t
Feed grapes, macadamia nuts, avocados, onions or garlic, these can be toxic for dogs
Feed too much raw veg. this is harder for dogs to digest
Leave peas and beans whole, they are much more digestible if they are mushed up
Just feed one source of protein, dogs need a variety of plant-based proteins to get the 10 essential amino acids they need
Home cook if you are not sure how to do it properly, it requires expertise and knowledge to get right
Worry about introducing a good plant-based meal a day – it can be a nice way to add variety to mealtimes and to gain some of the health and environmental benefits of plant-power even if you still want to feed meat at other meals
Continue to feed a diet if it’s causing a reaction like persistent watery stools or vomiting, your dog may be allergic to one of the ingredients
Dr Sandelowsky added: “With any change in diet, meat or plant-based, it’s really important to introduce the new food gradually over the course of at least one to two weeks.
“Dogs’ tummies need time to get used to the new grub you are offering them and it’s perfectly normal to see some transient changes in their toileting patterns whilst they adapt.
“These should settle once they are fully transitioned onto their new diet.”
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