Animal-Voice: Tread lightly on Mother Earth - A vegan diet for you dog

A vegan diet for you dog - a first in South Africa

Friday, 24 April 2009

Vegans and vegetarians are often faced with the dilemma of choosing the best diet to feed their companion canines, taking into consideration not only their own ethics, but also the best interests of the dog/s they are taking care of.

Fortunately, even though many people would assume that a dog couldn't possibly be fed a 100% vegan diet, nothing could be further from the truth!

Despite descending from wolves, the domestic dog is classified as an omnivore. The classification in the Order Carnivora does not necessarily mean that a dog's diet must be restricted to meat. Unlike an obligate carnivore, a dog is neither dependent on meat-specific protein nor a very high level of protein in order to fulfill its basic dietary requirements. Dogs are able to healthily digest a variety of foods including vegetables and grains, and in fact dogs can consume a large proportion of these in their diet. In the wild, canines often eat available plants and fruits.

Can your dog digest grains and vegetables? There have been a number of scientific studies on this issue and they invariably report that vegetable proteins, carbohydrates and fats are all very digestible by dogs. The digestive tracts of animals give clues as to what kind of diet they can eat. The shorter the length of small intestine, the less capable the animals are of digesting plant materials. Based on digestive system anatomy, and plant digestibility, it would seem that dogs are adapted to eat a diet that includes vegetable material.

Can your dog digest grains? Grains are mostly starch, so an animal would need to make amylase if it is going to digest starch. People have amylase in their saliva, so starch digestion begins when you chew your food. Dogs, like cats, don't have amylase in their saliva. But this ignores the fact that dogs secrete large amounts of amylase from their pancreas. Since meat doesn't contain starch, why would dogs need to make amylase in their pancreas? Obviously because they are equipped to eat and digest plant-derived starches. Foxes, which are closely related to dogs, eat just about anything in the wild, from bugs to birds, to fruits, grains and berries. They too are very adaptable "carnivores".

As a matter of interest, there is even one dog which could completely be a Vegetarian and that is the Chow Chow. The Chow Chow originated in China (Tibet) where it was raised as a meat source for human consumption. Since the Chow Chow was used as a meat source for human consumption, it was fed a diet of grains and vegetables - to produce a tender marbled meat. One indicator of the Chow Chow's development as a
vegetarian is the difference in the mouth, jaw, and tooth structure from those breeds that developed as "meat eaters." For example, the Chow has a set of teeth that are flatter than the sharp incisors found in the carnivorous breeds.

Some may still argue that a vegan diet for a dog is unnatural in some way, but its important to note that in nature dogs wouldn't eat anything like what is commonly found nowadays - in a can or in pellet form.. Most commercial pet food is made of very questionable meats, not fit for human consumption, that would otherwise be thrown away. These foods are filled with preservatives and other additives that, over time, can detriment the health of your pet. Indeed, studies conducted on pets fed commercial meat pet food reveal that diet-related complications can include "kidney, liver, heart, neurological, visual, neuromuscular and skin disease, bleeding disorders, birth defects, compromised immune system and infectious disease."

So, not only is it possible to feed dogs a non-meat diet, it can also be very nutritious and balanced. In Europe, there are plenty of commercially available, healthy vegan diets. There is no reason why vegan / vegetarian pet lovers in our country shouldn't have the same choice.

For this reason Vondis Holistic Pet Nutrition has developed a well researched balanced Vegan diet, where you can be assured that your companion will receive all the correct nutrition and thus enable them to lead happier, healthier lives. We are also proud to be considered as “Friends of The South African Vegan Society” – www.vegansociety.co.za

* Available from selected stockists in Cape Town and Gauteng

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