Can dogs be vegetarian?

Question

I mean; they're omnivores,, meaning they can eat either/or but,,

I was wondering if they HAVE to eat meat.

Answer 1

Survive and live are diferent things.

Answer 2

there is vegetarian dog food they can eat

Answer 3

they can be vegetarian

Answer 4

They don't have to eat meat.  There are specially designed vegetarian dog foods.  I know my Mom's dog loves produce more than meat.  She will take a cob of corn over a ham bone:)

Answer 5

Anyone who thinks a dog can live without meat is delusional.

Dogs are CARNIVORES.  They belong to the family Carnivora.  Humans belong to the family Hominidae.  We have NOTHING in common regarding our diets.  Just because people think of pets as family members does NOT make them human!  Every wild dog species in the world hunts and eats MEAT as a primary food source- just because they might nibble on some grass or berries when they're bored or starving doesn't mean they can survive entirely on that.

So to answer your questions, NO they can not be vegetarian and YES they HAVE to eat meat!

Answer 6

Dogs are actually carnivores, not omnivores.  I used to think the same thing though.

I don't know if they HAVE to eat meat... but it's probably better for them.  If you think about it, a lot of the crappy dog foods out there contain very little meat.  Not ideal for the dogs' health though.

Answer 7

Like humans, they don't HAVE to eat meat, but they have to get their protein somehow, through soy or beans, and dogs typically don't like those flavors much. They do make specialized dog foods for that though: http://www.vegetariandogs.com/

Dogs like meat though; it's what they've been eating for centuries and it's natural for them.

Answer 8

Well, they really aren't omnivores in the sense of the word that we usually use. Yes, they will eat almost anything you put in front of them. Mine does anyway... But really, they are carnivores by design. Quality dog food will have meat listed as the first few ingredients. Bad dog food will have corn or other fillers listed. While choosing to be a vegetarian/vegan is great for me, I would never put my dog on a vegetarian diet. His body is not designed to thrive on that type of diet, whereas ours does quite well.

Really, just look at your dog's teeth. They don't have the flat grinder teeth like humans and other herbivores/omnivores have. The healthiest diet for a dog is a meat based diet. Most dogs will fare poorly on a vegetarian diet for understandable reasons. It is not how nature designed them to eat.

Answer 9

their is veggie feed for dogs but I have yet to read any studies on whether this type of diet is permissable for dogs.  Because they are an omnivore supplementing their diet with lean meat is very good for them.  they require the same nutrients and amino acids as people and being a vegan is very contreversial and it is difficult to maintain a healthy state.  

Answer 10

Dogs are carnivores. They scavenge, which is why they'll also eat plant matter to fill their stomach, but physiologically they are carnivores.

Can a dog survive on a vegetarian diet? Yes.

Will it *thrive*? No.

Dogs should have a meat-based diet.

The only reason a dog should be on a vegetarian diet is if it has several allergies to meat proteins and all common (chicken, turkey, beef, etc.) and exotic (venison, bison, kangaroo, pheasant, etc.) protein sources have been exhausted. These are extreme cases, and few and far between.

If you're a pet-owner, you should do what's best for your pet. What's best for a dog is eating a meat-based diet.

ADD:

The "one of the oldest dogs was vegetarian" always tends to come up with this subject. However, it's seldom mentions that another one of the oldest dogs was fed raw meat and table scraps!

http://www.australianfauna.com/news/outb...

When it comes to exceptionally long-lived specimens, both in humans and in dogs, it's the individual, not the diet. (Though it's still no reason to feed a dog a vegetarian diet. These are fluke dogs that live this long. They are in the same realm as the people that live to be 100+.)

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Answer 11

I'm pretty sure dogs can but cats can't. Rest assured the dog does not WANT to be vegetarian though. Maybe the dog's happiness should be a consideration?

Answer 12

One dog was listed in the book of records as the world's oldest.

Bramble was a border collie in England, that was vegan! Lived to be 29 years old..diet of rice and lentils, and FRESH garden veggies in season.

Her story>

http://dogsinthenews.com/issues/0209/art...

The next 'oldest dog' to follow, was a cattle dog from AU. Jerry's diet was emu and kangaroo, plus table scraps.

He was  27, last I heard..

Jerry's story>

http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/200...

FRESH and natural seems to be the key. We really don't know as much as we would like to about canine nutrition.

Now, most of the quality dog food makers also produce a vegetarian line.

I have no idea how well dogs do with the packaged product.

Answer 13

They are meat eaters. They need the protein of meat to stay healthy.

Answer 14

Dogs can thrive on (carefully planned) vegetarian or even vegan diets.  There are a variety of vegetarian formulations on the market.  One of the world's longest living dogs, a border collie who lived into her 20s, was vegetarian.

(Cats, on the other hand, are obligate carnivores.)

Answer 15

i learned something new today

Answer 16

there is vegetarian dog food available... it is really sub standard but meets the government's requirements... not necessarily your dogs requirements. there are many highy quality pet foods available, the vegetarian items are not high quality.

Answer 17

I'm sure they CAN if and when necessary, but a pure vegetarian diet is probably not the best kind of diet for them.

Answer 18

Yes they can but realistically they are meat eaters and they should eat meat. We should never force our pets to eat they way we eat. It is really a risky thing to do a veg/vegan diet for any pets though it is possible you just have to be an expert at pet nutrition or be in contact with one who is and make sure that the pet is eating a proper diet and is healthy. Before humans domesticated animals they roamed free and usually ate animals and whatever vegetable matter they might have found and humans ate meat but probably mostly a diet of fruits and nuts and other things they found and ate meat only occasionally and usually used the entire animal for whatever they could use it for and didn't waste it like the horribly nasty meat industry does now!

Answer 19

They are actually carnivores.  In the wild, canines rarely eat food other than meat.

If you object to meat eating, you should not have a pet.