What do you feed your pets???

[ragdoll]

I recently adoopted a dog from our local shelter and i was wondering what i should feed him.... should i continue to feed him his normal dog food which contains animal products and such?... or should i try something else?... Does it make me a hypocrite to feed him these foods with animal products? ... NEED SOME ADVICE ASAP!!!

[mum2sarah]

I know some people on this forum feel that since dogs and cats are carnivirous they should be given regular food. However, when you learn about what goes into regular pet food it is no more natural for them to eat than vegan food would be. I suggest reading the book "Obligate Carnivore," which explains all this. You can find it and vegan petfood on http://www.vegancats.com/

We switched our two cats to vegan catfood about six months ago and both seem quite healthy and active. One cat adapted perfectly, the other one seems to have recently developed some issues with her stool (pooping on the carpet rather than the litterbox) that we are attempting to resolve with added enzymes to the food (which you can also purchase from the above website). We are not totally sure it's even related to the vegan food, because she's otherwise very healthy. It may be a behavioral thing we haven't figured out yet...

Anyway, what I'm saying is that it is possible to have a vegan pet, and dogs seem even easier to switch to vegan food than cats. You have to decide what's right for you...

[Casey]

Hi ragdoll!

I can totally identify with your dilemma - I went through exactly the same thing. I couldn't stand the thought of feeding meat to our dog, so before we made the final decision to get a dog I thoroughly researched whether dogs could be vegetarian (I wasn't vegan then) and read LOTS of information that said dogs can do very well on a vegetarian diet. So we adopted a very sad, VERY skinny dog from a local rescue and I transitioned her from her meat-based food to a vegetarian diet (store bought dry and canned food). At first she seemed to do OK, but although I was feeding her a lot of food she wasn't putting on any weight and she didn't seem all that enthusiastic about her food. Then she started losing weight. I thought maybe I'd better try to make my own dog food, so I ordered the book "Vegetarian Dogs - Toward a World Without Exploitation" from PETA and started feeding her home-cooked vegetarian meals. But she didn't do well on that either. Finally I couldn't take the guilt of seeing her ribs and hip bones sticking out and I started buying her the best meat-based dog food I could find (every year The Whole Dog Journal, www.whole-dog-journal.com , publishes a list of the best dry dog foods). And she loved it! She became interested in her food again, she started gaining weight and the condition of her coat improved tremendously. Now everyone comments on how wonderfully healthy she looks. It’s been almost 2 years now and she’ll be on a meat-based diet for the rest of her life.

That’s not to say that some dogs can’t be veg, because some dogs do very well without meat in their diets. But although dogs are technically omnivores, not all dogs will thrive on a vegetarian diet. Some dogs are very active and require much higher protein levels than can be obtained from plant sources, and some dogs just like meat. My neighbor’s dog loves vegetables (carrots, broccoli, red peppers, you name it), she’s not very active, she’s a bit overweight and she has a lot of allergies – she’s probably a good candidate for a veg diet. But my dog isn’t. You could try your dog on a veg diet and see how he does. I would probably keep him on the regular dog food until you’re all over the initial adjustment period. Once he’s settled in, you could start transitioning to a veg diet and see how it goes. You may find that your dog is one of those dogs that can be veg and be very healthy.

But if your dog doesn’t do well, don’t feel bad about going back to meat-based dog food. You’ve done a wonderful thing by adopting a homeless dog who’s probably had a pretty miserable life up until now. If your dog turns out to be a total carnivore, it doesn’t make you a hypocrite to feed him meat. If you’ve tried a veg diet, but your dog only thrives on animal products, then it would be cruel not to feed him whatever will keep him healthy. Think about wolves – they eat some grains and berries, but most of their diet is meat, you don’t see too many wolves grazing on corn. And if your dog was roaming around in the wild, he’d be getting most of his nutrition from meat too. So I don’t think it compromises your values at all to feed your dog meat.

While dogs are naturally meat-eaters, I agree with mum2sarah, that what goes into most regular dog food is not exactly natural (and definitely don’t buy Iams or any dog food that involves the torture of dogs in cruel testing labs - www.iamscruelty.com ). That’s why I tried to find a food that was as close to what (I think) wolves/dogs would naturally eat – without going as far as feeding a raw diet, that I just couldn’t stomach!. It’s more expensive to buy a really top quality organic dog food, but (if you can afford it) I think it’s worth it.

Good luck!

[duckie1978]

We have had this thread on here before (I think I asked the question initially) :0)

I have three cats and I feed them a meat based diet for a variety of reasons. One being cost because there are no stores that sell vegan cat food anywhere near here and I can't afford to mail order that much cat food I don't buy them any old food though. I researched a company called Spring Eagle which is a holistic pet food company. It seemed to be a better choice because the animals are raised by an Amish group, supposedly free range, no hormones or anything.

I also batted around the fact that my cats are hunters; they keep killing the mice in our apartment and anything else that they can find. I don't like that they kill other creatures but they do not have that higher level thinking that humans do. They are not self-aware of their own existence and cannot debate the idea of living a non-violent lifestyle.

I don't like to feed them meat (I am able to get around that a bit because I don't feed them canned food) but I also don't like that I have to buy products at Wal-mart or by Con-Agra.

[alexis]

I never like to feed any animal commercial pet food such as science diet, pedigree, whiskas because I read that they contain non-human grade food, like moldy corn, rancid blended fats and animal by-products that no human would touch. The only dog food i know which has human grade ingredients is 'Nature's Gift' and i know there are books available to teach you how to mix your own dog food even if you don't want to feed your dog meat. And don't be fooled by pet food companies that tell you that you aren't providing your dog with a perfectly balanced diet by feeding fresh food, there's no such thing as a 'perfectly balanced' diet, it has to be balanced out by the foods you feed over a week or so...my own two cents...

[Jenica]

We have two cats, one is just over a year old and other other is two. Both have been vegan since we got them (heaven knows what they were eating before that since one was a stray and one was from a shelter). We feed them the Evolution kibble from vegancats.com, and they have never had any problem eating it, though we're glad they make the chunks smaller now. I would never in a million years feed them the crap sold as cat "food" in stores. The things that can go into that just START with rotten and below food-grade meat. I've heard stories of plastic packaging and other hideous things going into it as well...definitely not anything I'd feed to someone I love.

To my understanding dogs do just fine on balanced vegan diets and though cats' nutritional needs are very specific and not easily met by vegan diets it is possible to feed them one with some careful consideration. We've been very happy with the Evolution formula; in all my research I have yet to come across any nutrients cats need that it doesn't provide in adequate amounts. I would imagine if they make dog food that the food would be the same way.

Our cats are in excellent health, as verified by our veterinarians during checkups. They're always a little amazed that the kitties are thriving on a vegan diet and I'm always glad to show them that there's an alternative to traditional commercial pet food. :D

[mum2sarah]

Jenica,
O.k., I'm kind of taking this thread off on a bit of a tangent, but how do you manage to plan your ordering of Evolution so you don't run out before it's delivered. Maybe it's just me, but we always seem like we order in time (or try to), but then the Evolution always runs out before our order comes in and then we have to make an emergency purchase of commercial catfood to tide us over. :( Or like, what happened to me this time, I went to vegancats.com, and I could order the dry food but it kept showing me an error for the wet food (and it was not listed as out of stock). One of my cats seems to really need the combination of wet and dry food for optimal nutrition, and so after two days of trying to order, I had to find another place to order from. They were out of stock with the wet food on most of the other sites I found, and it took me another day to find one that had both the wet and dry (I didn't want to pay shipping for two different orders). So by that time, it was Friday, and then Monday was a holiday, and we just ran out of catfood (again) today, and we'll probably not get the order until at least this Friday. So once again, I'm forced to buy commercial catfood to get us through until then. It just seems so hard to time the order right and know you can count on the internet to work for you when you need it to and for things not to be out of stock. Any tips? How do you do it?

[Jenica]

To be honest, I'm kinda spoiled. Vegancats works with Veganmercantile.com and the Veganmercantile warehouse is about a half hour drive from my house. We just pick up our cat food in person.

However...for many months we did order it online, before I discovered that the warehouse had pickup hours. I did two things to make sure it worked for us; first of all I always ordered the really frickin huge bags, the $60ish ones. They last our two cats a couple months. Secondly, I always ordered way early. When we were getting down to what looked like a few week's left of food, I'd place an order.

As far as the wet food is concerned, I'd contact them in email or by phone if you have to. If parts of their site aren't working correctly it's in their best financial interest to fix them ASAP. And a lot of smaller companies like Vegancats/Veganmercantile are very prompt to reply through email and may even let you order that way if you're comfortable emailing credit card info. (Which I wouldn't do through freemail like Yahoo or Hotmail, but would almost certainly do through a more secure server.)

One other thing you could do if you do run out, depending on how finicky your cats are and how their bodies respond to this, is to whip up a few batches of some "people food" that they like to eat. One time we did run out of cat food for a few days and I, like you, loathed the idea of feeding them commercial cat food. Although cleaning their litterbox wasn't thrilling for a couple of days, they seemed very happy to chow down on lightly seasoned lentils and other "human" goodies. I'm sure it's not the most well-balanced food for kitties but for a few days it seemed better than buying them commercial pet food. On the bright side, if you do have to buy them commercial food once in a while, don't stress about it too much. All said and done you are doing wonderful things for your cats and many other living beings just by buying vegan cat food most of the time. :)

[xmysticprincessx]

I tried the food that duckie feeds her cats. (I forgot the name of it, but i think its organically fed cattle and chickens raised by the Amish.) I found a small bag at the local pet food specialty store. I even mixed it into my 2 cats' other food (which they say to do when trying something new). It didnt really seem like they liked the new healthy cat food. I'd like to try them on something that is better for them, but I don't want to spend the extra money if it will just go to waste. They seem happy with that crap from the grocery store. (Plus, with me buying my own special vegan food, plus the fact that I just bought my first house, I want to be really really careful with how I spend my money now. Not that I don't want my cats to be healthy, but you know what I mean...)

[mabelkitty]

Our cats also get Evolution kibble & canned. They like the kibble more than the canned, but I am worried about the water content they're getting, so I always mix some dry with the canned. I also ran out of food and had to buy some Science Diet at the store last month... a couple of my cats (I have 6) had some major digestive upset!

It can get quite expensive, mainly because I have so many mouths to feed! :D But we just get the 40-lb. bags of kibble and the 12-pack of canned. I am trying to keep a better eye on how much food we have so I don't make the same mistake again and run out. I also supplement the food with powdered enzymes. They also have Vegecat at Vegancats.com, which is a mix that you add stuff like beans or TVP to, so you can make your own cat food. This mix has seaweed in it, which may appeal to cats more because of the "fishy" taste. Someday I'm going to try that and see how my cats like it. It is much cheaper than the Evolution -- it just involves labor. ;)

I've had some problems with the stray cats I feed. I try to trap them (with the loan of a trap cage from a local cat rescue group). Lately, I haven't even seen them around. I feed them occasionally, and sometimes I'll use the vegan food. The woman with the cat rescue has given me bags of cat food before... so I definitely feel conflicted about accepting it. I didn't pay for the food, but it just smells so nasty and I know what it's made of... while I'm trying to do good for these feral cats (getting them spayed/neutered), I am not doing good for the animals in the food bags. Am I worrying about this too much??:rolleyes: Of course, I have to use fish in the traps -- mackerel, which comes 3 fish to a can, with the heads missing. I think, here I am a vegan, opening a smelly can of fish! It is so gross...