Vegetarian Feeding for Dogs and Cats

Dogs and especially cats are carnivores. They rely on their food containing all the essential nutrients they need. Meat and other animal products provide essential amino acids in a composition optimal for dogs and cats, as well as essential fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals.

Vegan or Vegetarian Nutrition for Dogs

Nevertheless, it is certainly possible to feed adult, healthy dogs a vegetarian diet. Metabolically, they are more omnivores than carnivores and are therefore quite adaptable to various feeding methods. There are even health reasons, such as Food allergies or urinary stones, that may necessitate a vegetarian diet for dogs. With appropriate supplements, a vegan diet for healthy dogs is also entirely feasible. A meat-free diet is less suitable for young animals during growth or a vegan diet for pregnant or lactating bitches, as their need for certain ingredients is greatly increased, and an incorrect food composition or a deficiency of essential nutrients can have serious consequences.

Vegan or Vegetarian Nutrition for Cats

The situation is somewhat different for cats. They are pure carnivores and therefore depend on certain substances that are found exclusively in animal raw materials (e.g., taurine, vitamin A, or arachidonic acid). They are also much pickier about their food than dogs and therefore often reject meat-free food.

Vegetarian and Vegan Complete Foods

Commercially produced vegetarian and vegan Complete food must be formulated so that all necessary nutrients are contained in balanced amounts. If certain essential nutrients are missing from the raw materials, they must be added as supplements. Therefore, if you feed animals a vegetarian or vegan ready-made food, a potential deficiency is rather unlikely, as these feeds should be balanced in terms of ingredients. Self-prepared, meat-free rations, however, are not easy to make and require appropriate knowledge.

Our Personal Opinion on Meat-Free Nutrition for Dogs and Cats

The topic of dog and cat nutrition is often highly emotional. Those who are bothered by people choosing to forgo meat or even all animal products in their own diet for various reasons will also have no understanding for dogs and cats being fed according to these dietary principles.

However, we advocate for tolerance. Adult, healthy dogs can certainly be fed a vegetarian or vegan diet. If you provide a ready-made food, you don't have to worry about deficiencies occurring. If you want to prepare the rations yourself, however, you need sound knowledge of canine nutrition and should definitely have the rations checked by a specialist (e.g., at the Institute of Animal Nutrition at the University of Zurich).

For cats, however, we do not advocate a vegetarian or even vegan diet – even if it is certainly possible to produce a balanced food for cats according to these principles with the appropriate supplements. In our experience, most cats do not like to eat such food, and it often leads to digestive problems such as constipation, diarrhea, or flatulence. Most cat owners who try such feeds therefore quickly switch back to a meat-containing diet for their Precious.