Is a dog able to live on a vegan diet?

There are some vegetarian options, for example, hydrolyzed protein. Because a lot of times, it's the protein source that animals can be allergic to if they have food allergies. The bottom line is protein sources need to be there somehow. So in dealing with a strictly vegan diet, even vegans necessarily need their protein. We just have to be sure it's there.

I'm definitely going to say “no” to that question, and the simple reason why is dogs are carnivores. I'm not even talking about domestic though. Let's talk about dogs, canines. They are carnivorous animals. So to completely remove all animal protein from their diet is not how God created them. Can they live for a period of time? Heck yeah, they can. Would I recommend that you put a dog on a vegan diet long-term? My answer would be, "No."

Dogs can do so. I think there are one to two AAFCO-approved vegan dog diets on the market. However, my question is, why? Dogs are not vegans. I know that certainly some of us decide to adopt vegetarian and vegan lifestyles. I'm one of them. But I try not to impose those sorts of restrictions or views on my dog because that's just not the way their biology is set up. I'd encourage you to talk to your veterinarian if you're thinking about a vegan diet for your dog and really weigh the pros and cons in these situations.

Dogs can live on vegan diets. First, let me define a vegan diet. That’s a diet that does not have any animal products in it. The primary protein sources come from things like seeds, nuts, legumes.

Dogs can get their protein requirements from a vegan diet. However, studies have been done on the commercially available vegan and vegetarian diets that show that the amino acid profile, amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, are not in most of those diets described on the label. They're deficient in the amino acids that are required for normal growth and maintenance for dogs. Also, the other thing that's been found with those diets is that they are often contaminated with mammalian DNA, meaning there are animal products in those diets.

I would not recommend that a dog goes on a vegan or a vegetarian diet given the lack of an appropriate commercial diet available currently unless the dog had a medical condition that required a vegan diet. I have to admit, I would either use a prescription vegan diet, or I would work with a nutritionist and formulate my own cooked vegan diet for my pet because, quite honestly. Right now, I don't trust the over-the-counter commercially available diets.

Technically, yes. Dogs are omnivorous. They're not solely carnivores like cats that are obligate carnivores. They tend to be omnivorous and more on the scavenging side. They do hunt, but they're great opportunists. So they can live off a vegetarian or vegan diet. It is easy to cause imbalances in your dog while attempting this diet because it's hard to offer balanced nutrition, so a professional would have to do that. Palatability for those diets may, in my opinion, be the best for the dog. They prefer to have something with a bit of meat in it as an omnivorous preference. They like meat. You will seldom see them grab a stick of celery and run off with it.

That's a good question. This question is becoming more and more popular. The thing to understand about dogs is they are what's called omnivores, meaning that they can live on both a meat and a vegetarian diet, similar to people. An important distinction is that cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they have to eat meat. They must have a meat-based diet because their protein requirements are so high. And so the answer is yes, you could feed your dog a vegan diet, whereas the answer for cats would be a hard no.

To elaborate on vegan diets for dogs, even though I say yes, they can, I would add that it would be particularly challenging. I would suggest that anybody interested in doing that, and it can be done, work with a veterinary nutritionist who can help formulate homemade vegan diets that meet all nutritional requirements. That's the big thing. Anytime we do home-cooked feeding, particularly something as specific as a vegan diet, there are a lot of opportunities for malnutrition that can harm your pet in the long run. So if you want to do that, please make sure you work with a board-certified veterinary nutritionist.