Vegan dog and cat food?

Does any one make vegan dog and cat food as sole source for their pets?

From everything I've read, there's no good vegan diets for carnivorous animals. Cats and dogs are meant to eat meat, and really, almost all of their diet in the wild would be from meat. In my opinion, if you desire to have a pet that is naturally a carnivore, you should be prepared to feed it meat, regardless of your own morality on diet.

I have heard that you can feed iguanas a vegetarian diet - maybe such a pet would be more appropriate for a vegan?

Looks like I need to clarify. I am not asking for reports on what people have read, only what they have actually successfully done. Alan

Caveat - I haven't done it (and I, personally, wouldn't do it) - but here is what's up on PETA's site and they usually have a bit of experience behind them. http://www.peta.org/living/companion-animals/vegetarian-cats-and-dogs.aspx

Cats cannot survive on a true vegan diet. Period. In my 30+ years in veterinary medicine I've seen plenty of cats suffering all sorts of health issues when fed strict vegan diets. Many died directly due to the diet. In fact I just saw a cat two months ago that needed to be euthanized directly as a result of a strict homemade vegan diet being forced upon it. They can do ok on some commercial "vegan" foods, but the cats I saw on those diets had various health issues. Plus I wonder just how truly vegan they really were because of the types of proteins that cats require.

Dogs can survive on a vegan diet. Not every individual can do well, but I have seen at least three dogs survive to 15 years of age on close to vegan diets although all three were known to eat insects, worms, and any mice or birds they could catch. The dogs apparently knew in some fashion that their diet was cockeyed, because all three hunted insects and spiders (an odd craving for pet owners to report). All three also licked bricks, chewed on rocks, licked and consumed their own fur, ate their own feces. By the way, these are abnormal dietary habits.

In my veterinary opinion, pets should be fed the diet they are biologically designed to eat. They are individual life forms in their own right, not extensions of their keepers philosophies. Vegan owners wishing to extend their lifestyles to their pets should get pets biologically designed to eat vegan diets. To do otherwise is, in my veterinary opinion, a form of intentional abuse.

Animal abuse laws are gradually being changed to state that wholesome food must be provided, not just "food", thus pet owners can be prosecuted for animal abuse for feeding cats and dogs vegan diets where the pet is obviously not thriving. Something to think about.

Alan Mikoleit wrote:Looks like I need to clarify. I am not asking for reports on what people have read, only what they have actually successfully done. Alan

Let's try this again. Thank you Jessica but ....
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I've seen this done by rail thin zealots. Their animals fart constantly.

I fed my dog vegetables by fooling her. I roasted potatoes and carrots in the same pan as roast beef. They smelled good, so she ate them. She got the runs. A dog will eat sand if it's covered in gravy. A dog's gut is designed for it to be an omnivore. Cats are naturally almost total carnivores. I've tried but failed to get a cat to eat vegetables. Dogs are gulpers. Cats are sniffers, testers and turnerdowners. None of these animals ever choose a diet far outside of what is natural and healthy for them.

Edit --- I see that Jennifer and Su posted while I typed. I have to agree with everything that someone with Su's vast experience has to say on the matter. I would be very surprised to find that this has worked out for any of the animals involved, despite glowing testimonials from owners. A dog has an amazing sense of smell. Their number one instinct is to root around in search of high protein food. By turning them vegan, we take that away from them. This turns them from being natural creatures into living, farting artifacts meant to promote the lifestyle/political issues of their owner. I can see no other reason to play roulette with the health and happiness of these pets.

I'm really glad Su Ba posted with her expertise here as well. (wish I could give him an apple!)

Although I've been a lacto-ovo vegetarian for 30 yrs and had dogs and cats all during that time, I've never tried to bend the animal's diet to my own because that is not their nature. I say this as one of my cats eats a moth at my feet. (moths = cat potato chips, right??)

Sometimes I think there are THREE touchy subjects of conversation: Religion, politics and DIET. I'm going to shut up on this subject now.

Edited to correct Su Ba's gender to "her" (sorry Su Ba!)

Jennifer Wadsworth wrote:I'm really glad Su Ba posted with his expertise here as well. (wish I could give him an apple!)


Sometimes I think there are THREE touchy subjects of conversation: Religion, politics and DIET. I'm going to shut up on this subject now.

Diet often substitutes as religion. As a life long atheist, I see little difference in zealotry or adherence to logic. I've never had the same person work me on both topics. All are very logical of coarse, and perfect. I almost violated the # 1 rule, but caught it and corrected myself.

Su Ba wrote:
In my veterinary opinion, pets should be fed the diet they are biologically designed to eat. They are individual life forms in their own right, not extensions of their keepers philosophies. Vegan owners wishing to extend their lifestyles to their pets should get pets biologically designed to eat vegan diets.

Very well said Su.

I hope all vegans give serious consideration to this wise and educated perspective on animal rights.

Jennifer, Thanks much for the Peta link as it pointed me in the right direction to have fellow vegan cat and dog pets ! and a great link to that success http://www.vegepet.com/

Alan Mikoleit wrote:Jennifer, Thanks much for the Peta link as it pointed me in the right direction to have fellow vegan cat and dog pets ! and a great link to that success http://www.vegepet.com/

Alan - I would approach with caution and observe your pets for signs of lack of thriving (as per Su Ba's great post). I know most folks who are vegans are passionate animal lovers and that translates into not wanting to harm or kill animals for our benefit. Animals dependent upon us for care cannot make decisions about food and can be harmed by the well-meaning application of our choices.

Like I said before - although I call myself a 30 yr lacto-ovo vegetarian, I don't delude myself that I am not an omnivore and ingest a myriad of "animals" a day in the form of microbes and insects, etc. In the end, we are all omnivores.

Su: You said in a very sweet way something that I would have struggled to get through without my eyes bleeding. Thank You.
I was interested to see that those with experience noticed odd behavior in the "vegan" cats and dogs. Specifically that they had odd eating behaviors. It seems to me that they are trying to make up for a lack of something in their diet. Can you tell me if the animals that you've treated were confined to a house or sterile yard or were they allowed to free range like many "outdoor" cats. I wonder how many people feed a cat a vegan diet then let it outside to "play". The cat goes out, pukes up the vegan food and sits by the pile waiting for mice to come by. If I were a cat that's what I'd do.
I can imagine a cat would just go out and eat mice or whatever if it had the choice. Animals have pretty strong instincts for survival and so will do what they can to stay fit. Cats eat mice despite our desire not to see half eaten ones on the porch. A person would have to deprive the animal of that ability to feed itself, then starve it to a point where would be forced to eat anything it was offered in order for it to end up in poor health right? I'm sorry, I just don't understand the motivation to go against the nature of our animals.