Can dogs thrive on a vegetarian diet?

I think so, as a matter of fact one of my client’s dog is on a vegetarian diet and has been since she was a pup.

When I first scheduled my meet and greet to meet the family, in came this cutie named Bella. At the meet and greet I always ask if the dog is on a special diet. They answered yes and that Bella was a vegetarian. I found this to be very interesting being that I didn’t know anyone that did not feed their dog meat.

So I asked the family what her diet included. In the morning she eats a boiled or scrambled eggs with some diced apples. For snacks they will give her sliced bananas, blueberries and/or strawberries throughout the day. For dinner she will have cooked carrots, potatoes, and yogurt. Other things she eats are pumpkin, cucumber, celery and sweet potato.

The day arrived for them to finally drop her off. They brought two boxes of produce and a list of the food combinations that she likes to eat. It was a lot of food so I just put things away with little stickies on them stating, “Do not touch, belongs to Bella.” It was really hard to stay away from her food, at times I found myself wanting to snack on some of her berries.

All of this intrigued me so I decided to google vegetarian diet and dogs. What I found was that in fact a dog could thrive on a vegetarian diet, especially if that’s all they have ever eaten.

One thing that was mentioned in many of the articles was that dogs that are on a vegan/vegetarian diet be given supplements. There are several supplements available but it seems that the most important ones are those that provide taurine, L-carnitine and vitamin B-12.

Interestingly when I served Bella her food, Ginger seemed to want some. Every now and then I do give Ginger some fruits and vegetables just to change things up a bit. She loves diced apples, pumpkin and sweet potato. She especially loves watermelon and we make sure to remove the seeds so that they don’t cause any type of blockage.

While doing the google search, I came across an article about a border collie that lived to the age of 27 while on a vegan diet.

The dog, Bramble, a blue merle Collie, lived in the UK and held the Guinness World Record for being the oldest living dog at the time.

What’s most amazing about this story is that the dog actually lived on a vegan diet of rice, lentils and organic vegetables.  She ate once a day and exercised a lot.

The owner of the dog, Anne Heritage, was a vegan herself. She just fed Bramble a big bowl of vegan dinner every evening. She explains that Bramble “is an inspiration and [he] just goes to show that if you eat the right things and keep on exercising you can extend your life”.  You can read more about it by clicking here .

Should you include meat in your dogs diet? What are your thoughts?