Vegan Pets? Dogs, Cats & Best Naturally Vegan Pets

Can Your Pets Thrive on a Vegan Diet?

For most vegans and plant-based eaters, the idea of feeding a plant-based diet to our pets is very appealing. It works for us, so why not our pets too? The good news is that most pets can thrive on a vegan or nearly vegan diet, as long as all the necessary nutrients are provided.

Now that we are face to face with the looming possibility of environmental collapse, many of us are looking for ways to dramatically lower our environmental food-print. (That was a typo. I meant footprint, but I’ll leave it in, because it actually makes sense.)

Dogs (and cats) have a tremendous impact on the environment, so much that one study found that they’re responsible for 25 to 30 percent of the environmental impact of meat-eating in this country [USA].

Wow!

Because animal agriculture is responsible for at least 14.5 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, it makes sense that switching our dogs to a plant-based diet could help quell the effect. (Quoted from https://www.rd.com/list/best-diet-for-dogs-according-to-vets/)

We can see that there are plenty of good environmental reasons to choose a plant-foods diet, but how will it affect our pets? Read on for more about the science and real-life experience of feeding vegan pets.

Our most popular pets by far are dogs and cats, so let’s start with them. We all know that they eat meat in the wild, but they (dogs in particular) have evolved quite a lot due to living with humans for millennia.

What happens if we feed dogs a vegetarian, or even vegan diet? Let’s take a look at what the scientific studies say.

Scroll down to the bottom of this page to find lots of suggestions for other naturally-vegan pets.

Is a Vegan Diet Good for Dogs?

Dogs are genetically omnivores, which means they can thrive on a vegetarian, or even a vegan diet if properly designed.

There is quite a bit of empirical and scientific evidence showing that most dogs can do just fine without meat or animal products.

In fact, vegan dogs often outlive their litter mates that eat meat or commercial dog foods. The longest lived dog on record thrived for 25 years on a plant-foods diet!

Given the destructive impact of the meat industry on our planet and the huge amount of meat consumed by dogs, combined with the fact that most dogs can do quite well on vegan diets, feeding a vegan or near-vegan diet seems like the only logical and ethical choice we can make.

Science Backs Vegan Diets for Dogs

Here’s a great website by canine nutritionist Diana Laverdure-Dunetz, MS that makes a strong argument for feeding dogs a vegan diet — Plant based dog feeding
This website, created by veterinarian Dr Arielle Griffiths, gives an excellent overview of vegan diets for dogs, including good science — and some great recipes
Here’s another one with a good scientific overview — https://www.plantbased.dog/
And another extolling the benefits of starches for domestic dogs — https://www.livescience.com/26513-starchy-human-diet-domesticated-dogs.html
Even the meat-centric Dog Food Advisor has come out in support of vegan diets for dogs — https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/canine-nutrition/vegan-vegetarian-dog-food/
A veterinarians perspective: https://opalpets.com/blogs/news/a-vet-s-personal-experience-with-vegan-diets

According to this nature.com article: Our results indicate that novel adaptations allowing the early ancestors of modern dogs to thrive on a diet rich in starch, relative to the carnivorous diet of wolves, constituted a crucial step in the early domestication of dogs.

A few more references from the V-dog website:

If you really want to get into the nitty gritty of the science, check out these sources:

https://www.lsmuni.lt/cris/bitstream/20.500.12512/105928/1/Master%20thesis%20%28Lukas%20Kiemer%29.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5035952/?fbclid=IwAR16TjwEr_S5uuDcfjQ5mH0jnzNE0WEFnnFfy9jhth1ilEAxDF62rsAZZlo
Here’s another scientific study of the positive effect of a vegan diet (V-dog) for dogs — https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.18.525405v1.full — If dogs did so well on a processed commercial food like V-dog, imagine how much better they would do on a well-balanced organic homemade diet as promoted by https://opalpets.com/

If you know of other good research supporting vegan diets for dogs, please email it to me so I can include it here.

Vegan Dogs in Real Life

Here’s a blog listing 100 healthy dogs that live or lived on a vegan diet, usually to a ripe old age — http://thevegantruth.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/dogs-that-eat-vegan-directory.html

My Vegan Dog Experience

Personally, I have gone back and forth on this subject over the years. However, as I reviewed the research and communicated with lots of people with vegan dogs, I’ve come to believe that a vegan or nearly vegan diet is the best choice for most dogs — particularly because of the lower environmental impact, and of course the welfare of animals living in horrible factory farm conditions that are slaughtered by the millions for use in meat-based dog foods.

I was delighted to find that my dogs loved their vegan non-GMO Gather Endless Valley kibble and they were healthier than ever since they started eating it a couple of years ago. But then one of my dogs started having a flea allergy and my holistic vet recommended that I switch to home cooked food. So I was really happy to discover https://opalpets.com/, because they have home-cooked recipes developed by a canine nutritionist and an organic supplement to supply all the needed vitamins and minerals to balance their recipes.

As rescued strays, my dogs had some health issues when I adopted them, but now they’ve reached a ripe old age in good health, though they both had dental problems that had to be resolved with tooth extractions.

A vegan diet (perhaps with the addition of a little salmon oil or occasional sardines, as recommended by Anthony William) with balanced omega fatty acids may be a better option for many dogs — and some veterinarians agree. Anthony William did not explain why the fish or fish oil was important, but I generally trust his recommendations due to my own positive experience with them. However, according to this dogsnaturallymagazine.com article, Hemp seed oil or Ahiflower oil each contain all the essential fatty acids dogs need, so maybe the fish isn’t really necessary:

Hempseed oil is a sustainable source of LA and ALA that’s also rich in minerals. Hempseed is a better source of EPA than flaxseed oil because it contains not just ALA, but SDA … which is the precursor to EPA. The conversion of SDA to EPA is much more efficient than ALA, so hemp is a better source of omega fats than flaxseed oil. Hemp also contains GLA, another important anti-inflammatory fat.

Ahiflower is one of the newer players in the omega fat field. Ahiflower is an extremely rich source of SDA, and contains 10 times more than hemp. SDA converts to anti-inflammatory ETA and EPA better than ALA since there are fewer steps. Ahiflower also contains 60% more GLA than hempseed oil, making it the best plant-based source of omega fats.

Other Concerns

feeding dogs Some dog breeds seem to do better on plant-based diets than others. Bottom line, it is up to you to observe and decide what’s best for your dogs — totally vegan, vegan plus a little fish, or some combination of a meat based and vegan diet.

Note: German Shepherds in particular, may not have adequate enzymes to break down starches over the long term. If you feed them starches, whether in a vegan diet or meat-based kibble, be sure to supplement with an enzyme that helps digests starch. It is called amylase and it is a great addition to the diets of all vegan dogs and any dogs eating kibble.

Important! Puppies and mothers need foods formulated for their extra growing needs. Be sure to feed commercial foods designed for puppies or use supplements designed for puppies if you are feeding a homemade diet — whether you are feeding a vegan or meat-based diet.

Pay attention to how well your own pets do on whatever diet you pick, and make changes if your pets are not thriving. Look for shiny coats, bright eyes, clean ears, high energy, firm stools with easy bowel movements, no strong doggy odor or foul breath, and good appetite.

I’ve found that my dogs no longer have that “doggy odor” and they shed a lot less since changing to a vegan diet. Their coats are shiny and they have more energy than they did before. They have even been more playful with each other since switching to a vegan diet. They love their food, including fruit and veggie snacks.

What I Feed My Dogs

After doing a lot of research on the subject, and taking into account the health of my pets, the impact of meat on the environment and the toll in animal suffering, I’ve decided to feed a homemade diet based on one of the diets created by a canine nutritionist at Opal Pets. (https://opalpets.com/).

Once a week, I give a very small amount of sardines, and I always feed animal proteins and starches in separate meals for better digestion. I am still ambivalent about the fish and may just leave it out eventually. It is based on Medical Medium advice, but he didn’t explain why we should include them.

Other homemade mixes I’ve used are based on Dr. Pitcairn’s Book Natural Health for Dogs & Cats. Over the decades that I’ve been following Dr. Pitcairn’s work, he has become increasingly supportive of vegan diets for dogs and now strongly recommends a vegan diet.

Another good source of vegan recipes for dogs is vegan-dogfood.co.uk

Because dogs are naturally omnivorous, most will eat just about anything. My dogs bring in red plums from the backyard and eat them in their beds (making quite a mess), and they LOVE bananas, carrots and peeled broccoli stems.

They also like meat — though they really weren’t interested in it when I accidentally got a package of grass-fed ground beef from Imperfect Foods. One dog didn’t even eat all of it, which was the first time I’ve ever seen her NOT clean her bowl!

They seem happier eating fresh vegan food, fruits, and occasional sardines. Maybe dogs will eventually evolve away from eating meat altogether. They certainly don’t seem to miss it at all.

Vegan Convenience Food

The only commercial vegan dog food I’ve found that is organic and made with top quality ingredients is Gather – Endless Valley. They also have organic line-caught fish and organic pastured chicken Gather formulas if you don’t want to go all vegan. Even so, all kibble is processed and not as good as a well-balanced homemade food.

Mixing two or more commercial foods offers better variety and possibly a better balance of nutrients. No dog food brand is perfect. One brand may offer something the other is missing, so I like to provide more variety by adding a variety of homemade recipes. If I find another organic vegan dog food without soy, corn, canola or gluten I will post it here, but so far Endless Valley is the only one I’ve found.

I also share fresh fruits and vegetables with my dogs. They love frozen wild blueberries, spirulina tablets, raw carrot sticks (try freezing them for a good tooth cleaner), celery sticks, banana, cucumber, dried sweet potato chews, and apple slices.

DO NOT FEED: chocolate, coffee, xylitol, onions, garlic (except in very small amounts), macadamia nuts, walnuts, avocado (unless it is Haas without peel or seed), grapes, or raisins. More foods toxic to pets and here’s another list.

Make Changes Gradually

Nature has designed the digestive systems of dogs, and especially cats, to include meat in their diets, but most dogs will thrive without it. My advice is to make any changes gradually. See how your dogs do on less and less meat, or no meat at all. If they don’t do so well, you can always add in a little meat or fish, or go back to their previous diet.

This is a fascinating subject. I am definitely open to reading more research, especially research that supports a plant based diet for dogs.

Isn’t Meat the Dog’s Natural Diet?

Wolves natural diet I’ve done a lot of reading about dog feeding over the years. As with Dr. Pitcairn, my outlook has evolved quite a bit toward a vegan or near vegan diet and so has the available scientific information.

These days there is a lot of controversy over the best diet for dogs, much like the controversies on human diet. One person even told me I should be put in jail for recommending a vegan diet for dogs. Sorry, I’m just reporting on the science!

Many canine nutritionists base their recommendations on the natural diets of wolves, since they are the distant ancestors of dogs. However, they rarely take into account the fact that wolves eat quite a lot of plant foods and often go without meat for weeks at a time — though unlike dogs, wolves have very little ability to digest starches. As with the human “Paleo” diet, these “natural” diets are far from what wolves or ancient humans actually ate.

Domestic dogs have evolved with enzymes to digest starches quite well. After all, most ancient humans weren’t about to share very much of their hard won or expensive meats with dogs! The dogs only got occasional bones, scraps and plant foods. Natural selection favored dogs that could thrive on plants and these became the ancestors of our modern pet dogs.

Dogs Are Not Wolves

What is natural for wolves is no longer the natural diet for our pet dogs. What is natural for dogs is the diet they have been eating since they were domesticated thousands of years ago — the same foods their human caretakers were eating, which for most people was predominantly plants.

Now that the meat industry is increasingly using antibiotics, hormones, and toxic chemicals that end up in the meat, it is all the more important to avoid feeding it to our pets. Even grass fed or pastured meats are riddled with chemical fallout from the atmosphere that lands on their feed and becomes concentrated in the meat. This may be one of the causes of the extremely high cancer rates in modern dogs.

Non-Vegan Options

If you feel you need to feed meat and you don’t have a problem handling raw meat (I do, because of bacterial contamination) you might want to check out the No More Vet Bills website and e-book which offers a variety of diet options, some predominantly but not entirely plant based. Their approach makes sense to me, though they are very much mistaken about the dog’s inability to digest starches. Studies show that most dogs can handle starches just fine.
If you prefer a frozen raw meat-based food, Steve’s Real Food for dogs or cats is good quality and pasture raised. Just remember you will be handling raw meat which can harm your own health, so follow strict food safety guidelines.
I recently discovered Open Farm dog and cat foods. They offer good quality sustainably raised kibble without legumes. They take great care that the animals are treated humanely (aside from being slaughtered, of course). They also have freeze-dried raw formulas.

Important Note: Beware of feeding only chicken-based foods, because the omega fatty acid balance is far too low in omega 3, especially in grain-fed chicken. Orijen does a good job of combining fish and fowl for a good omega fatty acid balance.

Medical Medium on Dog Feeding

According to Anthony William, The Medical Medium, if you DO choose to feed your dogs a vegan diet, they should at least receive wild salmon oil or occasional sardines, however, hemp seed oil may be just as good, since it contains all the essential fatty acids dogs need (NOT CBD oil which is made from the buds and leaves rather than the seeds of hemp plants).

I recommend listening to his radio show on pets (you may want to skip over the first part where he talks for quite awhile about his background). You will find lots of good information about diets and supplements for your pets.

Anthony William does recommend feeding raw meat and he has also recommended Orijen dog kibble and raw, human grade Honest Kitchen. Orijen Original formula is made from a partially raw blend of pastured chicken & turkey, eggs and fish with vegetables and fruits. At least the meat comes from pastured animals. They also have a wild fish formula.

Honest Kitchen and Orijen are both good quality, raw or partly raw dry foods. These companies have a variety of formulas available, but none of them are vegan (except for the Honest Kitchen base formula that requires adding meat or fish). Their fish and chicken based foods are on the lower end of the EWG carbon emissions chart.

I am not recommending any of these meat-based foods, but if you have a dog that doesn’t do well on a vegan diet you may want to look into this information.

*By the way, my holistic vet said to stay away from all chicken products and stick to either grass-fed beef, wild Atlantic fish or vegan dog foods.

Can Cats Thrive on a Vegan Diet?

Cats are called obligate carnivores, which means they NEED some meat to stay in the best health. If you are totally against feeding any meat or fish at all, it is better to have a dog, rabbit, goat, bird, tortoise, or other naturally vegan pet (see more at bottom of this page).

It is true that there are a couple of vegan cat foods on the market, and some cats seem to do okay on them. However, I would need to see a lot more long-term studies on cats before I could trust feeding them to my own cat (if I had one) without at least supplementing with a little fish or meat. Vegan cat foods rely on synthetic supplements to supply all of a cat’s nutritional needs, which is never as good as the vitamins, minerals and amino acids found in real whole foods.

Honest Kitchen and Orijen offer good quality dry foods for cats, BUT feeding dry foods can cause urinary tract blockages, especially in males. Cats naturally get their water from their food, so it is always better to feed wet, raw foods, or at least wet canned.

If you must feed a dry food, at least soak it so your cat doesn’t get dehydrated. Otherwise, most cats will not drink enough water, which can cause kidney and urinary tract problems, particularly in males. Those little filter fountains that keep the water dripping all the time can help to entice cats to drink more.

Many cats may not like the texture of Honest Kitchen, because it comes in a powdered form. Perhaps if they were started on it as kittens, they could learn to like it. Sometimes mixing in a little chicken broth, canned tuna or sardines will get them to try it.

Raw foods are best for the health of cats. If you don’t mind handling thawed raw meat, Steve’s Real Food is an excellent quality frozen food, raw and pasture raised.
Open Farm provides a humanely raised and excellent quality canned wet food called Rustic Blend. They also have dry food formulas.
Gather also makes good organic cat food formulas. Soak dry foods, or at least feed with a wet food.
I don’t advise feeding your cat a vegan diet all the time, but you may be able to cut way back on meats in their diet without any problem. If you do, make sure to keep a close eye out for any nutrition-related health issues.

Naturally Vegan Pets

Birds

Some naturally vegan animals make great pets. I have had a blue and gold macaw for over 30 years. He has been a delightful companion, beloved by family and friends alike. His name is Mr. Q.

Smaller birds, like hand-fed cockatiels and budgies, can also be wonderful pets, but be sure you like listening to them. Some birds can make a lot of loud repetitive noise and they can live for 30 years or more!

Beware! Cockatoos, (the big white parrots) though usually very affectionate, are particularly known for loud, repetitive screeching.

Male budgies can be easily tamed, even if they are not hand fed, as long as you start handling them soon after they leave the nest. The females can also be tamed, but they tend to bite more and be irritable as they get older — though not always.

Lovebirds can sometimes be very affectionate, but some love to bite, even if they were hand fed. Be sure you are ready to commit to decades of care, even if your bird becomes noisy or nippy. The males tend to be sweeter and less nippy.

If you can find a hand-fed male canary, you will have a wonderful little friend who fills your house with song. I once had one named Tweety and I miss his adorable personality and sweet singing. He was very tame, and was free to fly around the house whenever there weren’t too many people around who might accidentally sit on him.

Other Vegan or Near Vegan Pets

As a former pet shop owner, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know quite a few different types of pets. Here are some recommendations based on my many years of experience:

Rabbits make great vegan pets Rabbits — I had a house rabbit for awhile. Be warned, some rabbits love to chew up papers, carpets, and electric wires. You do have to “rabbit proof.”

Always keep an eye on rabbits when they are loose in the house. Fortunately, they can be easily potty trained if you provide them with a litter box.

Our house rabbit was eventually moved out to a big pen in the yard. Too many things got chewed up! Make sure to keep rabbits cool in the summer. They can quickly die from overheating.

Rats and mice can make very affectionate pets. They are actually omnivores, but they can do fine on a well designed vegan diet. The females are much less smelly than the males! Sadly, they usually only live a year or two. For children, rats make a much better pet than a delicate hamster — and hamsters are much more likely to bite!

Tortoises may not be very cuddly, but they can be a quiet and calm companion in the house and they will love to share your salad. They will need a source of heat to keep warm in the winter.

Guinea pigs can make good pets for older kids or adults, as long as they have a safe and cozy hiding place where they can get away from noise and commotion. They will love sharing your salad too, and they are one of the few animals that need to get their vitamin C from fresh fruits and vegetables, like we do.

I would NOT recommend chinchillas or hamsters unless you are a night person. They need to sleep during the day and love to jump around, or run on squeaky wheels all night. Both are delicate and can be easily injured. Hamsters, as I mentioned above, often tend to bite. They do eat occasional insects in the wild, but can thrive on a well designed vegan diet.

Chinchillas can quickly die from exposure to too much heat, like a hot summer day, so they need a cool habitat. They tend to be very active at night. However, for the right adult or teenage night owl, they can make sweet and cuddly pets.

Some people really love their iguanas. I prefer to admire them from a distance. They can make good pets as long as you have a safe, warm habitat set up for them. Be aware that they eventually get quite large (and so do their poops)!

The cute little iguana you see at a pet shop will not stay so little! They have also been known to carry Salmonella and pass it on to humans.

Outdoor Vegan Pets

For outdoor vegan pets, goats are at the top of my list. They are smart, personable, friendly, and full of fun. They come in several different sizes.

Kashmir goats even provide cashmere that you can brush off and spin to make your own cruelty-free scarves and sweaters. One cool thing about Kashmir goats is that the males are not nearly as smelly as male dairy goats. At one time we had several males and I never noticed any goat odor unless I was right up close.

Of course there are all sorts of vegan farm animals that can make good pets if you have enough land. Rescue organizations are always looking for homes for horses, donkeys, sheep, pigs, chickens, goats, rabbits and cattle. You might even want to adopt a couple of wild Mustangs like a friend of mine did!