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Vegetarian Dog Food

Is it possible for me to rear my dog solely on vegetarian dog food?

Dogs are carnivores. Is it possible to have a Vegetarian dog food? Carnivores are the animals that feed on meat. As per many scientific studies, the dogs or any other animal that feeds only on meat develop many complications like weak bones, poor resistance to diseases etc. This could be attributed to deficiency of minerals [calcium, iodine] and vitamins [vitamin B1 AND A].

Many may wonder why dogs should be given vegetarian food. The simple reason is the meat is costly and also dangerous if contaminated with pathogenic organisms. Above all in some countries, the animals are slaughtered un-hygienically and cruelly. The required nutrients for the well being of the dog can be provided by the vegetarian food, then where is the need for non-vegetarian diet. We don’t need any special vegetables for the dogs, as they can very well feed on vegetables that we, humans consume.

There are certain basic principles that need to be followed if we want to stick with only vegetarian diet. We can make the dogs to adapt it to our own fed with little change if required. The food should have good smell and taste, because dogs need attractive smell more than the taste. We need to mix two to three varieties of vegetables. This will take care of deficiency problems if there is any. We must give what the dog likes most than what we like to cook and eat. To make the food more attractive, we can add yeast preparations and honey. The B- complex vitamins can also be added to enhance the flavor, besides vitamin supplementation

Vegetarian diet for dog is possible .For adult dogs two meals a day can be sufficient. The first meal can be light but the second meal of the day must be full. The first meal can be milk with honey or yeast preparations. The second meal can contain Soya protein, cheese, egg, and beans with vegetables like carrot, potato, tomato etc.

Fruits and dried fruits can also be added in the meal to have a nice vegetarian dog food recipe. As the dogs need to chew to strengthen their gum and teeth, a vegetarian dog food includes full carrots, and piece of cabbage. Vegetable oils if added, the essential fatty acids requirement will be taken care. For puppies, we don’t need to give anything up to 3 weeks as they feed on mother's milk. After third week of age small quantity of egg and powdered cereals can be provided to the pup.

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