Vegan Dog Food

If your Sheltie has serious ethical/religious issues about eating meat, and is willing to do the research and work necessary to get all the nutrients necessary from a plant-only diet, then a vegan/vegetarian diet is definitely doable!

Otherwise, unless there is a medical reason, I would feed your dog what s/he was meant to eat - a diet that relies heavily on meat. It is wrong for us to impose our ethics on another species (again, barring medical issues)

 

While I AGREE with the overall point you are making here, the highlighted section (emphasis obviously mine) of your comment has far reaching implications beyond diets. (Unless of course the smiley face emoticon applies to the last sentence as well.)

 

In my remarks regarding ethics, I was referring solely to the issue of what we feed our domesticated animals, specifically dogs. Of course we, as the planet's dominant species, impose our ethics on other species - and we hope we do so with their best interests in mind.

Slightly off topic, but I believe relevant, I keep kosher as I truly believe it is Hashem's command that I do so. In addition to the eat this, not that part of keeping kosher, there is a whole section on how to kill animals. Although these rules were wrtten over 3,000 years ago (and probably in practice even before that) they are still the most humane way of killing an animal. Additionally, even though I keep a fairly rigid form of kashruth, my pets do not. I do not believe that Hashem's commandment extends to them as they are incapable (as far as we know) of forming the necessary thought and intent that is required to carry out this commandment.

 

If I can find another species that actually has ethics, I'll by no means impose upon them!

 

From what I learned in college, felines are the only obligate carnivores (meaning they cannot survive without meat in their diet). So technically, dogs can live on a vegetarian diet (although I'm not sure about vegan; I guess they can if people are doing it?), but I wouldn't put my dog on one. They are carnivores by nature, so I would think that protein from meat would be best for them.

 

The key here is there is a difference between just being able to survive and actually THRIVING on a diet. Technically I could throw my dogs a Chicken leg daily and they could survive. It doesn't mean they are getting everything they need from that one chicken part.

 

My dogs love vegetables, but I would never feed them an exclusively vegetarian diet. I feed raw and I source my meat from humane sources (ie. chickens which have been reared free range). While not a vegetarian personally, I do understand why a person would be, and there are days when I wonder if I can really justify killing animals for myself - but my brother is an aspiring sheep farmer so really the veggie-only option is never going to be for me.

My friend is a committed vegetarian, but her dog eats raw and she has never considered putting him on a vegetarian diet.

I don't personally think it is fair on the dog as their digestive systems are designed to exist on a mainly meat diet (wolves don't exactly get a lot of access to vegetables), which is why they can process raw, rotten meat and bone without problems. In comparison humans evolved from apes and had a primarily vegetable based diet, but with the addition of meat-based protein when they could get it. Which is why humans can exist on a vegetarian diet.

I remember a gundog training explaining how she was trying to train a Weimerar(sp?) whose owner fed it an exclusively vegetarian diet. All the dog wanted to do when off lead was go scavenging. She suggested putting him on a normal meat-based diet and at once the dog's off lead behaviour improved. He was craving the protein from meat which he wasn't getting in his diet.

So in short, unless there is a medical reason for it, I would never feed a dog a vegetarian, and certainly not a vegan, diet. They are meat-eaters, pure and simple.