Good Veggie Diet for Canines?

There are a couple of companies that make vegetarian dog food that contains everything a dog needs to be healthy. You can often find it at your neighborhood co-op food store.
Now cats, on the other hand, are true carnivores, unlike dogs. They have to have a diet that contains meat products as they are unable to produce enough lysene by themselves.

Your friend is imposing her morals on an animal who was not designed to be vegetarian. Dogs are primarily carnivores, predators. What she is doing is not in her dog’s best interests. She needs to take that into consideration.

The dog is likely to have long-term health consequences.

@Marina- Dogs are considered to be carnivore, but the truth is that they are not true carnivores. However, just feeding your dog what you eat isn’t the best idea if you want a healthy pet, especially if all you eat are vegetables.

Caveat on vegetables:

“Dogs have shorter digestive tracts than humans and cannot digest most vegetables whole or in large chunks. It’s best to put them through a food processor before giving them to your dog- best veggies for your dog are:
Carrots (for healthy dogs) (not for cancer dogs though as high in sugar)
Green Beans
Lettuce
Yams

Grains:
Grains should not be given in large amounts or make up a large part of a dog’s diet, but these foods are generally safe in small amounts
Rice
Bread (not white breads or anything sugar or that converts to sugar) remember the simple rule feed no WHITE colored foods!

Dairy products
Use caution with dairy products as they are high in fat and can cause pancreatitis, gas and diarrhea. Usually, nonfat plain yogurt is safe in small amounts as is cottage cheese in small amounts.”

Ack! I did it again. Here is the source for that post. ^^^^

Marina and AstroChuck are both correct.

Cats are obligate carnivores, which means that they require a high protein, meat based diet (there are even some theories that the increase in the prevalence of feline diabetes may be related to the cereals used as binders in dry kibble).

Dogs, while classified in the order Carnivora, are opportunistic omnivores, which basically means that they will eat anything and everything.

While it is possible to have a healthy dog on a balanced vegetarian diet, I tend to agree with Marina. It’s a complete negation of the natural order to inflict her own idea of what is “right” on her dog.

@syz Useful animal expertise as always. My dog loves berries (which are a natural part of wolf diets) and veggies. Opportunistic puts it perfectly. My dog is always happy to add a little fiber with acorns.

The BARF diet works on the premise that about 70% of the natural diet is bone. If you just fed dogs meat that would not be good either. (Well, that is mostly what they feed racing greyhounds, but they are high performance athletes.)

I can understand her reasons though. While dogs certainly would eat animal products in the wild, they probably would not be eating a lot of the extremely weird and disgusting stuff that goes into mass-produced/mass-marketed dog food. For examples of what I’m talking about click here to this question timothykinney asked. I’m not going to go into details but it’s incredibly icky, and if I had a dog, for it’s own sake I wouldn’t want to feed it that stuff either.

@marina
@lachicagomela
I find it interesting that the first ingredient in most commercially available dry dog food products is corn meal followed closely by meat (chicken or beef) meal!

@Yetanotheruser – why do you find that interesting?

Yes, that is why I would never feed commercial dog food for the most part. There are a few exceptions (all high priced unfortunately).

@La_chica_gomela
Because corn meal and meat meal are very rarely found in the wild.

Dogs should not be forced to become vegetarian…. they are carnivorous by nature. If your friend doesn’t want to eat meat, great. But depriving her dog of food it needs is cruel. She shouldn’t buy an animal that she can’t feed correctly.

I forgot to add that I am also a vegetarian… but my dog’s food includes chicken.