Millions of people choose a vegetarian diet for themselves but today, vegetarian dog food has also become a popular choice. Many people believe this type of food is far better for dogs opposed to food containing meat, fish, or poultry.
The interesting thing is that by nature, dogs are carnivores or meat eaters but even so, some animal experts and veterinarians still feel an alternative diet would be best. In this article, we wanted to offer some information specific to vegetarian dog food.
Adaptability
Although dogs are meat eaters, if you were to look at pack animals in the wild you would see that when no meat is available, they live off the land whether that means consuming plants, fruits, or vegetables.
Therefore, in reality, dogs are extremely adaptable so if you wanted to start your pet on vegetarian dog food, unless your veterinarian advises otherwise, chances are the change would actually be warranted.
The most important thing to consider is the quality of ingredients but also the type of ingredients. In other words, providing your dog with a diet void of meat protein does not mean losing nutrients.
However, if you decide to switch your pet to vegetarian dog food, you definitely want to choose a product that has been specially formulated by a highly skilled canine nutritionist. The good news is that currently, there are several companies that offer quality food such as this.
Finding the Best Product
As mentioned, there are many excellent brands of pet food in today’s market that have vegetarian formulas but most commercial dog foods contain meat, fish, or poultry. Even worse, more than 50% of all commercial products now being sold are made with meat meal or byproducts.
This means a dog is being fed body parts of cattle, chicken, turkey, and fish. Instead of providing your pet with natural, quality ingredients that would enhance overall health and wellness, your pet would be dining on pieces of spinal cord, brains, feet, intestines, lungs, beaks, and more. The very thought of this is enough to get many pet owners to switch their pet to vegetarian dog food.
While that sounds bad, ingredients in a large number of commercial dog food products contain waste material from slaughterhouses, which includes dying, diseased, disabled, or even dead animals.
Things get far worse because some commercial pet food products contain antibiotics and/or hormones given to cattle, toxic preservatives, old restaurant grease, trans fatty acids, heavy metals, and other dangerous contaminants. Obviously, the easiest and best way to avoid this would be choosing a vegetarian diet.
Another important factor when choosing vegetarian dog food would be finding food that your dog could digest without any problem but also food that tastes good. While not impossible, finding the exact product could be a little challenging so we recommend you spend time looking at different brands, as well as different formulas for those brands to identify ingredients being used.
Once you locate a particular brand that appears to have everything wanted, always transition your pet over the course of two weeks. That way, his tummy would handle the change rather than him getting sick.
Risks of Commercial Dog Food
In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of dogs developing a variety of illnesses to include cancer being fed on conventional pet food. However, when compared to animals placed on vegetarian dog food, the number of incidences is extremely low.
Because most experts believe there is a direct correlation between bad dog food and disease, studies are continuing so experts can get to the absolute truth. Rather than wait to see the results of these studies, prevention would come in the form of vegetarian dog food.
Top Benefits
Switching your family pet to vegetarian pet food instead of more conventional commercial food could easily reduce problems associated with allergies and/or digestive problems.
You would also find that many of the better brands sold are reasonably priced so when buying vegetarian dog food, the cost would be around the same you had been paying or just slightly more. Dogs switched to a vegetarian diet typically have better gums, teeth, skin, coat, and digestion, as well as lost excess pounds and enjoy a higher level of energy, making this a good, all-around solution.
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