Vegetarian Diet

[Jed]

Hi, GeorgeMyDoggie, you may of course, feed your dog what you wish, but do your research very carefully, with scientific studies to back the information given.

You mention "natural": Consider that mammals fit into three categories - carnivores, omnivores and herbivores.

They fit into these categories because of their dental systems, and their digestive systems. From birth, they are aware of the class of food they should eat.

The cow, for instance, has the teeth of a herbivore, for biting and pulling grasses.It also has 4 stomachs, which is where digestion takes place. It can also regurgitate food, and rechew it. Food takes a long time to be processed by a cow, because being largely grass and herbs, a lot of digestion is necessary to extract the nutrients the cow's system requires. Grasses largely have an outside covering called cellulose, which the long digestion period can dissolve,.

The horse has a small stomach. He also is a herbivore, an eater of grasses, grains and herbs. His stomach is small, but he has an enormous length of intestine and bowel, and the food passes quickly through his stomach, and the nutrients from his food are extracted as it passes more slowly through the intestine and bowel. He cannot digest cellulose very well, because of his physiology and the relative speed at which the food passes through him.

The horse cannot survive on the rough asnd lower nutrient pastures cows thrive on - because of the difference in their systems

The teeth of both these animals have large, fllat surfaces for efficient grinding of rough grasses and grains.

The dog is a carnivore - he has sharp pointed teeth at the front, for ripping meat, and back teeth with smaller bearing surfaces. His diigestion occurs mainly in the stomach, and the food passes through fairly quickly - he is designed do this. Unike herbivores, his droppings should be moderately hard and dry, as he "uses" nearly all of the available food (If fed correctly), having extracted the necessary protein. As you know, herbivores have large wettish droppings, mostly composed of the undigested vegetable matter and cellulose in their diet. A dog's excretory system is not designed to pass a large quantity of undigested vegetable matter - fibre and cellulose.

The above is why vegetables/fruit fed to dogs are better put through a food processor to break up the fibre and cellulose into smaller portions which his system can deal with. Wild dogs would eat the stomach contents of their kills, which was already partially digested.

Nature designed these animals very efficiently, to eat and process the foods they are meant to eat. These are the foods that each category of animal needs for optimum health.

And it is natural for him to eat a diet consisting largely of meat. Providing this is balanced and complete, failing accidents, he should remaiin in good health into old age.

Steve has explained more of what a dog needs in his diet, and how difficult it is to provide that if he is not fed the class of food his system needs for effient processing.

Feeding a vegetarian diet would go against his nature - and he would have difficulty extracting the nutrients he needs ..... plus, his system, via the liver and kineys would be processing larger volume than optimum - as well as his excretory system dealing with larger and wetter volumes of cellulose and fibre than it was designed for

If you do feed the dog a vegetarian diet, I would suggest you do some intensive research - and if you read articles on this, make sure there are valid studies done under the auspicies of a reputable body to back up any information given. Anecdotal evidence is not sufficient, as if a vegetarian diet is going to cause any problems, it may take years for them to be obvious.

We should always try to go with nature, not against her.

Good luck with whatever you decide. ;) I would be interested to see the results in as few years if you decide to go vegetarian.

[t-time]

What about kangaroo meat for an organic, free-range, non-intensively farmed animal?

Very pc. ;)

[Steve]

Jed,

thank you ;)

:D :p :p

[SkyesongTollrz]

Jed, Excellent post! ;)

[Nadia]

Beautiful post Jed!! ;)

You always manage to say what the rest of us try to, and cannot word the way we want.

[Ripley]

Dogs are not human, and we shouldn't be forcing our principles onto them. Dogs are meat eaters and should be fed that way. Doing otherwise is unfair to an animal that is born to tear and chew at meat. Yes I know they can survive on a vegetarian diet, but is it really fair to them to expect them to do so?

Got to agree on the above post. I too was vegetarian for about 5 years. I eat free range chicken and the occasional piece of sustainable fish species these days (I wasn't an inventive enough vego cook and husband is a meat eater). Dogs are carnivores and if you opt to keep a carnivore as a pet, he should be allowed to eat meat.

If I had an ethical problem feeding my dog meat, I'd just stick with my vegetarian parrots.

Reminds me of that scene in 'Shirley Valentine' where she's minding the neighbours' vegetarian Bloodhound and feels sorry for him so she feeds it her husband's prime rump steak for dinner.

[doggo]

I would just like to add, if you are thinking of using soya beans - be aware that some dogs with allergies may get a reaction. One of my dogs is allergic to a lot of things, grass pollen etc, but his reaction to soya is very severe. ;)

[Prydenjoy]

Why I want to feed a vegetarian diet:

1. Health- lower risk of obesity, cancer and other health problems caused by low-grade meat, grains, preservatives etc found in many commercial pet foods.

2. Ethics- This paragraph sums it up nicely "For many people who are vegetarian for ethical reasons or because they are concerned about animal suffering, every time they feed meat to their pet they go through a dilemma. On one hand they care about their pet and want to do the right thing by it, but on the other hand they do not like having other animals slaughtered for it’s food, and they also don’t like supporting the meat industry." (from http://www.vnv.org.au/Articles/Dogs&Cats.htm)

EDIT: To spell vegetarian right.

There is one way around that - feed a BARF diet and shoot you own bunnies and roos (if you have a licence) for them! That way you are not supporting the meat industry, or the pet food industry. As for health, well if you REALLY want what is healthy for your dog, you will feed it meat anyway.

However, there have been quite a few dogs fed on a 100% vegetarian diet thier whole lives that lived to a ripe old age (probably more so because they weren't eating commercial food than the vegetarian diet itself). What you feed your own dog comes down to your own personal preference, but, for the dogs sake, I would recomend at least SOME meat (have you ever thought that the small amount of meat the you feed one dog probably doesn't even impact on the industry? And don't say "but if everyone did it..." because everyone is NOT going to do it).

[Ripley]

Stick a plate of any type of meat in front of a dog and a bowl of vegies and see which one he goes for first. That should tell you.

[Staranais]

Aaah, but stick a bowl of french fries and a salad sandwich in front of my young niece, and see which one she goes for. Does that tell you that fries are better for her than a sandwich?

Don't get me wrong - I agree that meat is healthy for dogs. I just don't think that the things we prefer to eat are always the healthiest for us.

If I fed my Staffy his preferred diet, I think it he would probably be eating mainly chocolate, pizza, hamburgers and roast chicken - maybe with a smattering of raw bones.

[Prydenjoy]

Yes but I think if a dog ate that much unhealthy food it would get sick and not eat it again. People have lost most of their instincts I believe. It is interesting with rats, they will always have a nibble at everything and balance their own diets, so you can give them a plate full of healthy treats and a plate full of unhealthy, yummy foods and they will base their diet on the healthy stuff and have a nibble at the unhealthy stuff as a treat only, like we should do. Dogs are gutses though and will eat practically everything you put in front of them!

[Staranais]

I doubt my dog would learn to avoid unhealthy food just because it made him feel less healthy. I mean, I've seen him vomit half-digested food up, then immediately attempt to re-eat the vomit. "Look mum, it's still got yummy bits in it!".

Mind you my dog is not the smartest tool in the shed! And perhaps you are right, perhaps wild animals are better at regulating their own food intake.