Dogs who don’t shed? We’ve heard of that. Dogs who don’t bark? Yup, that one, too. Dogs who don’t eat meat? Probably not — and my Dog is one.
Raya is a two-year-old Aspin, fierce and feisty but also clingy and sweet. Her previous human left her when she was a puppy and has since then lived in foster care where her primary diet consisted of kibbles.
Two years later while still in foster care, we met, and she has now found her forever home with me. That means I provide all her needs: I make sure to give her plenty of love, care, security, shelter, water, and food.
Speaking of food…
CHOOSING PLANT-BASED
I eat plant-based food for ethical reasons. These same reasons pushed me toward the idea that if there
is an option to feed my animal companions a nutritionally-rich food purely made of plants wherein they can thrive, then I would do so.
Before I transitioned my Dog to a plant-based diet, I looked up recent studies about whether a plant-based diet can be healthy for Dogs and searched for brands that offered plant-based food to be sure that she would stay healthy.
BETTER THAN MEAT-BASED?
In their study published in the journal Research in Veterinary Science titled “Owner perception of health of North American Dogs fed meat- or plant-based diets,” Sarah Dodd and her colleagues from the University of Guelph highlighted the following findings.
NO HEALTH PROBLEMS
Dog owners report no adverse health outcomes attributable to being fed a plant-based diet.
FEWER ISSUES
There were fewer ocular or gastrointestinal and hepatic disorders reported in Dogs fed plant-based diets.
LONGER LIFE
The longevity of Dogs was reported to be longer if fed plant-based.
In other words, a plant- based diet is not only good for Dogs but also optimal for them when carefully created for their needs.
In a review published on open access journal MDPI titled “The Impact of Vegan Diets on Indicators of Health in Dogs and Cats: A Systematic Review” authored by Adriana Dominguez-Oliva and team, it was concluded that, “There is no convincing evidence of major impacts of vegan diets on dog or cat health,” and that, “There was also evidence of benefits for animals arising as a result of feeding them vegan diets.”
Lastly, “These beneficial findings were relatively consistent across several studies and should, therefore, not be disregarded.”
BUT AREN’T DOGS CARNIVORES?
Dogs indeed belong to the order Carnivora (just like pandas, believe it or not, whose main diet is made up of 99% bamboo shoots and leaves). But unlike true carnivores like Cats, Dogs are what we call opportunistic carnivores. This means that they will eat prey when available, but they will also eat plants in the absence of prey for sustenance.
So, yes, Dogs can survive without eating other animals.
In an article by Dr. Cailin R. Heinze, VMD, MS, DACVIM for Tufts University’s Clinical Nutrition Service website, she explains, “From a biological perspective, [D]ogs lack most of the metabolic adaptations to a strict diet of animal flesh that are seen in true carnivores such as cats or ferrets.
Compared to true carnivores, [D]ogs produce more of the enzymes needed for starch digestion, have much lower protein and amino acid requirements, and can easily utilize vitamin A and D from plant sources, just as people do. We also have evidence that they also evolved from wolves by eating more plant material. All of these factors make them more accurately classified as omnivores than carnivores.”
There are also plenty of studies that will say the opposite, that Dogs are true carnivores, but it’s always wise to take everything with a grain of salt. This doesn’t mean we experiment and make test subjects of our beloved Dog companions, but we have to do extensive research, give them what we know and feel is best for them, and take them to the vet regularly for checkups (as you would any other Dog).
