Dogs and cats have teeth designed for tearing and if they were in the wild, they would hunt. Do you feed your animals other animals? I actually tried to feed one of my special needs dogs a vegetarian dog food due to allergies but it wasnt healthy enough for her.

If it was established without a doubt that cats do okay on a vegetarian diet, I wouldn't hesitate to make my cats vegetarian.

But, alas, until that day arrives, I will feed them other animals, as much as it hurts me inside, because as far as I know, cats are carnivores. :-/

Nope.

Feedings at my house are as follows-
The iguana is a herbivore and eats a herbivorous diet
the rat and dogs are omnivores and eat omnivorous diets
the cats are carnivores and we try to keep them on a mostly carnivorous diet (those pesky additives in cat food :( )

My dog isn't a vegetarian. I thought about it for a while, but decided to just keep him on the non-veg food.

No, my three cats are meaters; they eat regular cat food. I've thought about switching them to a vegetarian diet, but I have two major obstacles - (1) I'm not convinced it can be done without jeopardizing their long-term health, and (2) the cats' other custodian is against it. So I live with four meaters.

In lieu of switching them to veg, I would like to get them on a more humane (or less inhumane, if you want to put it that way) meat diet, which would also be healthier for them. But I'm not sure where to start. I did see some refrigerated cat food at Whole Foods that claims to be free range, but we all know how meaningful that term is, AND it's shipped from New Zealand. I'm really not sure shipping dubious "free range" meat halfway around the world is the answer.

You can always feed them wild caught fish. Thats pretty free range = )

You can always feed them wild caught fish. Thats pretty free range = )

But then I'd have go fishing all the time! Umm, I don't think so!

But then I'd have go fishing all the time! Umm, I don't think so!


No silly! get the scraps from the fish monger!

No silly! get the scraps from the fish monger!

Of course, commercial fishing practice carries its own set of serious problems. I'll have to pick my evil.

My dogs are omnis.
They get no canned food.
I make a mix up of a little good kibble, a litte rice or pasta & veggies.
They get the mix with family leftovers & often raw meat.
They enjoy a good chew on a raw bone.
Much as I don't like to buy meat my dogs do enjoy it & I am not convinced they could do without it.
I often get kangaroo meat as at least it's wild not factory intensively farmed.
One dog catches rabbits so they eat wild rabbit too.

I've been contemplating putting the dog on a vegetarian diet, but until I find an easy way to make his food, it's going to have to wait. The cat on the other hand is going to stay on her carnivorous diet.

I wish I knew which veggie brands of dogfood are good *hint, hint*

My cats do not eat a vegetarian diet and I have no intention of switching them over, despite being 95% vegan myself. Based on what I've read, I just don't think it would be in their best interest. So yes, it bothers me a bit, but my furbabies health is the most important thing to me.

Our dogs are for the most part vegetarians (except for non-vegetarian treats that my parents and other people give them). We feed them "Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Vegetarian Formula". It's actually vegan, and a pretty high quality food. Not all pet stores have it, but the Bosley's near us carries it. It's a little more expensive, but not unreasonable. Anyways, they do really well on it, and it's very important to me that I not feed them tortured animals. You may not agree and this may sound silly or stupid, but I believe that if they knew and understood where meat diets came from, they would not feel right eating it. My one dog in particular is a very caring and compassionate dog. She loves every living thing. She loves giving the cat kisses, laying with my guinea pig, hanging out with her doggy friends, and giving/receiving endless amounts of affection. If she knew the kinds of torture that humans make meat animals endure, I know she would not approve.

Unfortunately, our cat is not a vegetarian. This is mostly because the veggie cat foods all seem to be very pricey. Also, I'm not entirely convinced that he would be completely healthy (or that he would eat it because he is very picky and only eats a couple of types of food).

You may not agree and this may sound silly or stupid, but I believe that if they knew and understood where meat diets came from, they would not feel right eating it. My one dog in particular is a very caring and compassionate dog. She loves every living thing. She loves giving the cat kisses, laying with my guinea pig, hanging out with her doggy friends, and giving/receiving endless amounts of affection. If she knew the kinds of torture that humans make meat animals endure, I know she would not approve.


Aaah, she sounds nice.
One of my dogs is a very friendly fellow to people & other dogs but he still likes to chase, catch & eat rabbits. It's in his 6000 years of breeding for the purpose I suppose...
My other dog is a sook & wouldn't harm a rabbit even if he could catch one...

I've waffled a lot in my mind about attempting to change my cat to a veggie diet. Ethically, I would love to not support the meat industries by buying their by products as cat food. But as a cat mom, I do worry about her and the whole issue of trying to force something on her that isn't natural for her. So I haven't tried any yet. But I am thinking again of getting some to try, and see if she likes it. If she does, then I might do a mix, then at least I would be buying less animals. I don't think I would ever go over a 50/50 mix, and I would start out much smaller of course.

On another forum I read, several people there feed their cats vegan diets, one of them for over 10 years, and she says the cats are very healthy. So I think it can be done. It's just kind of scary at first. I'm not exactly sure what sort of proof some of you are looking for. I doubt there will be any long terms studies on it, because the people who support the idea (vegans!) are against animal testing. So it seems like quite a dilemma to figure out how to convince people.

I'm not exactly sure what sort of proof some of you are looking for.

What would convince me is objective information, backed by credible studies, that doesn't appear to be patently biased, that actually focuses on the health of the cats (both short-term and long-term) rather than the evil of supporting the meat industry. So far, I haven't found it. But even if I did, I doubt I could get around the BF's objection.

Oh, the other thing I haven't found-- at least locally-- is a vegetarian cat food that's formulated specifically for cats. All I've found is "cat/dog" food, and I'm not buying that. Cats have different nutritional needs than dogs, and I don't believe a "cat/dog" food is a good idea.

Oh, the other thing I haven't found-- at least locally-- is a vegetarian cat food that's formulated specifically for cats. All I've found is "cat/dog" food, and I'm not buying that. Cats have different nutritional needs than dogs, and I don't believe a "cat/dog" food is a good idea.

That is odd. I've never seen a pet food geared towards cats and dogs both. That's pretty scary.

Oh, no my pets are not vegetarians. My dog even coaxed me into buying a package of pork hot dogs recently. ugh.

No.

If I was responsible for the dog, I wouldn't make him vegetarian. Though, I'd probably try to get as much of his food as possible from hunting instead of farmed animals.

You can always feed them wild caught fish. Thats pretty free range = )
But then I'd have go fishing all the time! Umm, I don't think so! And of course, it could only be a small part of the diet since feeding too much fish is very unhealthy.

I have a cat who goes bananas over bread. Weird...

The brand of food that I buy for my cats makes a vegetarian DOG formula. It's called Techni-cal.

Here it is at a UK site: http://petfoodwarehouse.co.uk/browse_21

Check this out yo.
http://www.vegepet.com/fordogs.html
This stuff takes the guesswork out of how much nutrients to put in homemade dog food. There are recipes included on how to make your own kibble.. you just add a little vegedog to the mix, bake, then freeze it until you're ready to use it. I've heard that it can save you money in the long run, and you know EXACTLY what's going into your dog's food. I'm definitely considering doing this for my dog. They make a "vegecat" product, but I'm still leery about switching the cat's diet.

Check this out yo.
http://www.vegepet.com/fordogs.html
This stuff takes the guesswork out of how much nutrients to put in homemade dog food. There are recipes included on how to make your own kibble.. you just add a little vegedog to the mix, bake, then freeze it until you're ready to use it. I've heard that it can save you money in the long run, and you know EXACTLY what's going into your dog's food. I'm definitely considering doing this for my dog. They make a "vegecat" product, but I'm still leery about switching the cat's diet.
I'd be leery about switch a dog's diet to vegedog. I just do not trust that company one bit. They don't even put l-carnitine in their dog food. And up until recently they didn't even include Taurine. How irresponsible can you get as the manufacturer of dog food to fail to include two of the most important nutrients for a dog's health?! I wouldn't feed that stuff to my dog if you paid me. I'm surprised they haven't been sued, but I supposed their waiting for a dog to die before they admit that they are a horribly deficient brand.