my dog, who lived to the ripe old age of 15, was vegan for the last half of her life. we fed her Natural Balance which we easily found in our local independant pet supply shop, and at a couple of chain stores, too.
switching her over wasn't difficult - we just followed the general rule of mixing the new food into the old one, overtime gradually increasing the amount of the new food and decreasing the old until the switch was complete.
the vet thinks we probably added five years to her life by switching her because she had some kidney troubles which would have been exacerbated by difficult-to-digest meat-based food.
Glad to hear natural balance is good, as it's the only one I've seen locally. The clerk at petsmart who I spoke with recommended against it, but if you've had success then that's excellent. I see on their website that they also make a canned food, which is exciting.
A 7.5 year old dog is pretty old to begin tampering with it's diet, too.
Good news on all fronts, and I'm glad to hear from another Vancouverite.
I am just adopting a dog and I'm switching her over slowly. I got her the one bag of organic, meat-based and now I'm on to her vegetarian bag (Nature's Recipe). Next, I plan on starting the vegan bag (Natural Balance). She is four years, but I have heard of older dogs doing very well on this diet. However, if I noticed my dog needed the meat, I would let her switch bag.
You raise a good point here, what if the dog doesn't do well on the vegan or vegetarian food? Do you keep alternating vegetarian foods until you find one that fits or give up and feed it meat
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If I absolutely had to feed meat to my dog, I would go find a local farmer and try to bypass the whole factory farming industry. I have a friend who simply gets sick if he doesn't eat meat and he wants to be veg, but just can't - it happens and you can't blame the dog.
I'll let you know how it goes. As for a wiki, I'd say no, it wouldn't. As a rehabber and vet tech student, among other things, I've met so many people with such strong opinions on it. You'd get people with no knowledge about this posting false information and companies just saying what we want to hear. There's lots of good books and other resources out there, I'd rather not open this up to people who have other motivations or no common sense regarding these matters - that just smells like danger to me.
I have a dog who absolutely cannot eat a veg diet, and I know many cats and dogs with major and minor health problems due to grain, soy and gluten allergies - it's actually one of the biggest problems I see in my job. Problems with diet can often be so minor that most people don't notice it.
Why not adopt a fully herbivorous animal? There are plenty of them in need of homes, and they're not high on the list of most people looking in shelters for an animal. They need homes and love, too, and there won't be any conflict with their diets at all.
I think its dependent on the dog, like one of the posters above said, some dogs might be allergic to ingredients that are normally found in vegan dog food. I think its a great idea though. Kudos for doing it.
Consider adopting a house rabbit. My little guy is liter trained and roams freely throughout my home! Bunnies can be found in shelters everywhere and need homes too. Its awesome because he can enjoy fresh veggies with me!
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my dog, who lived to the ripe old age of 15, was vegan for the last half of her life. we fed her Natural Balance which we easily found in our local independant pet supply shop, and at a couple of chain stores, too.
switching her over wasn't difficult - we just followed the general rule of mixing the new food into the old one, overtime gradually increasing the amount of the new food and decreasing the old until the switch was complete.
the vet thinks we probably added five years to her life by switching her because she had some kidney troubles which would have been exacerbated by difficult-to-digest meat-based food.
i'm in vancouver, too, by the way.
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A 7.5 year old dog is pretty old to begin tampering with it's diet, too.
Good news on all fronts, and I'm glad to hear from another Vancouverite.
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I'll let you know how it goes. As for a wiki, I'd say no, it wouldn't. As a rehabber and vet tech student, among other things, I've met so many people with such strong opinions on it. You'd get people with no knowledge about this posting false information and companies just saying what we want to hear. There's lots of good books and other resources out there, I'd rather not open this up to people who have other motivations or no common sense regarding these matters - that just smells like danger to me.
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