Can a dog be a vegetarian?

If he eats chicken, he is not a vegetarian nor should he be.  Dogs are omnivores--meat in the diet is important in most cases.  Don't just put your dog on a veggie diet unless your vet indicates it is the right route to go. 

petguy

Yes they can! Mugsey my chihuahua was sick last year and was put onto a bland diet by vet. Now he eats rice and beans with a little boiled chicken breast! He loves it! Turns his nose up at burger even! always check with your vet first. The important thing is to make sure they have a balanced diet of minerals and protein. They can eat: spouted grains and beans for protein, grasses, carrots, peas, potatos, corn, and beets.

I'm sorry but this totally made me chuckle... lets first review what a Vegetarian is... 

Vegetarian - a person who does not eat or does not believe in eating meat, fish, fowl, or, in some cases, any food derived from animals, as eggs or cheese, but subsists on vegetables, fruits, nuts, grain, etc.

Being a Vegetarian is by CHOICE due to beliefs... a dog does not have complex believes or understands "it is cruel to eat animals"

Your dog may not like the taste of certain meat. For example, my Pomeranian doesn't like the taste of Bacon and "Beaf". She's more of a liver & chicken person.

First off a bland diet isn't a Vegetarian diet either...

Do some vegetarians choose to have their animals BECOME vegetarians along with them? Yes I have heard of this, but your dog has no idea WHY he is eat what you are making him eat... 

*edited b/c post was moved and now makes sense*

petguy... hows this for communication. 1) chicken is MEAT 2) bland diet isn't a vegetarian diet

Thank you mods for taking care of that!!

I agree!
Vegetarian = no meat!
Vegan = no animal products of any kind

your dog is NOT a vegetrain nor should he be. And if your vet said that THAT was a vegetrain diet...I'd find a new vet!

Sorry dude, three months is not enough time to assuming the current diet is healthy.  My dog could starve and eat almost nothing for three months and still be alive and kicking, doesn't make it healthy or natural.  And like Pom said, a bland diet is not vegetarian.  Dogs are not herbivores. 

Moderator speaking,

ALL posting to this thread should do so in a civil manner. This post will be moved to the proper area of the forum...that being NUTRITION.

*content removed, personally directed and off topic*

Not sure if it's worth posting here but I'll try.  I've moderated a dogboard hosted by a veg*n organization for almost 10 years.  Whether or not a dog can thrive long-term as a veg*n is a subject I've put a lot of time and study into.

No, honestly they can't.  Simply because altho you can supplement taurine and l-carnitine it is NOT nearly as well absorbed by the body as it is from a meat source.

A dog can seem to thrive -- for several years even. But after somewhere between 4 - 7 years suddenly you will have a dog  in heart failure.  Depends on the dog as to how quick it onsets -- but even to make a satisfactory veg*n diet for a dog is extremely difficult because altho legumes are classed as 'protein' they aren't complete enough of a protein by themselves -- so you have to mix and match foods very carefully to approach a satisfactory veg*n diet even over the relatively short haul of a year or two.

I actually have a lot of vet friends who are veg*n (think about it -- you go to school for a bazillion years to SAVE animal life -- a lot of them wind up becoming veg*n along the way), but they've all come to the same conclusion -- LONG term (over many years - particularly if you are striving for longevity in your dog) it just doesn't work.

I've seen some claims by individuals saying they have a dog that's lived to some extreme old age -- but frankly they've all be non-Americans and have lived in an area where the dog is allowed complete freedom and my guess is that the dog likely "supplements" his own diet.  But I've not seen any successful long-term studies of any kind that have demonstrated *longevity* with a dog on any sort of a veg*n diet.  They can pretty satisfactorily be omnivores if the vegetable matter is adequately broken down, but the heart just doesn't get enough taurine/l-carnitine in useable form with a veg diet. 

petguy

Now he eats rice and beans with a little boiled chicken breast! He loves it!

My 2ed Irish Setter would  have been perfectly happy on a fruit and veggie diet!  I stopped having a garden because he would et all the tomatoes, the squash and even green peppers.  One night we had a house full of teenagers to eat supper 9heck, one night, it was almost every night) and i had made spaghetti, meat sauce, green beans, tossed salad, garlic bread.  e all dashed out to see a "monster rat that was at trash can when youngers son took out some garbage (suspet it was really a possem) and when we came back in Boots was up on the table eating..........the tossed salad.  Didnt touch the spaghetti or the bowl of mneat sauce nor the bread.  he wanted that lettuce and tomatoes!

 However, unless there is some medical reason for not giving a dog meat, I would never, ever do it.