Can a dog be a vegetarian?

It is the very rare dog who should be fed an actual vegetarian diet, and then only under extremely close supervision by the vet.

Agreed that a dog eating chicken is NOT a vegetarian.

Sounds like your vet gave the prescription for the chicken additive. 

I think we have to put aside our human ideas of things and think about what dogs came from and how they survive.  And further than that, how to make their lives full .  It is part of that responsibility we took on when we got our dog(s). 

If we love them, we get them what they need, not what we desire them to need.  The dog depends on us for these judgements. 

So, yeah you can have a dog and make him only eat vegie products, but what and how that effects his life, longevity may be altered by this type of diet. You wouldn't necessarily know how it effects the creature.

Personally I would never feed a dog a vegetarian diet. Perhaps that with just egg or something if that's all the dog could eat (allergies, etc) but not your average normal dog.

People who can't manage to feed a species appropriate diet to a dog, whose mouth clearly tells us that it's made for eating meat, among other things (dogs, the ultimate scavengers), should probably stick with rabbits, guinea pigs, and the like.  Rabbits actually make great pets, most are very cuddly and I had one years ago, sweet Odie the mini-rex who was litter box trained and had the run of the house like a cat! He was great.  About 6lbs, and very soft.

well, back to the original poster: did your vet actually tell you to feed this bland diet for months on end?  if so, are you sure the diet is balanced? your description of your diet sounds like your dog is going to get very sick within a year from malnutrition. Homecooked diets are great for dogs, but only if you do them right. And a diet of chicken breast, veg, and beans doesn't sound complete or even remotely balanced. You need calcium. You need organ meats.

This is a really good example of the backlash I feared against commercial diets, after the China fiasco.  I'm a big believer in the idea that feeding your dog isn't rocket science.  But you have to be sensible.  When we raise human babies, we have a guide in many sources - the experience of our mothers, pediatricians, literature, and gov't guidelines to good nutrition.  Our culture now encourages fresh foods for human children (God help us, it wasn't always so), and offers extensive support for families.  You'd never think of attempting to raise a human child on only chicken nuggets, or plain rice, or oatmeal, or "only" anything.  We know the key to good health is a variety of foods attuned to our systems.

The same is true for dogs, but we don't have the "official" support network in place to help those of us who set out in this direction.  Once we were a more rural society and feeding dogs was no more mysterious than feeding chickens - but I suspect many of us would today be stumped by the latter, too!

I encourage anyone who transitions to home-prepared diets, to seek out trustworthy help:  literature, people like Monica Segal and Mordanna, web sites run by folks who have tons of experience like rawdogranch.com, wonderful people like Glenda on this site who offer well-researched recipes. 

I had a mentor to start out with, who not only gave me tons of reading, but also the names of two terrific holistic vets and herself offered her time and advice.  That's huge.  Then I met a trio of research biologists who were friends and became my friends, who were working out their own path to raw feeding, via their own research and documentation - all of which they were kind enough to share.  Finally, my own vet joined me on my journey to natural feeding watching the turnaround my dogs made, and coinciding with one of her own dogs coming down with cancer.

I was singularly blessed, but I don't think I was lucky - I think anyone can seek out and create a similar support network to  help them build their own knowlege.

Then down the road we can pass it on. 

I've homecooked for 4 or 5 years now.  Some of my dogs have been raised on homecooked for dinner from the beginning.  But, my recipe is carefully researched and balanced and while I change up the protein sources and veggies and even the smidgen of fruit, there are some things that really have to remain constant, like the organ meat and the calcium supplement.  These are things that are crucial to a dogs continued good health.

I'm going to agree that the diet being used for this dog doesn't sound one bit healthy for the long term and will likely cause some serious problems down the road.

Glenda will you come cook for my Kayla?? :o) hehe 

Ah, do you think you could afford me?  

I do two 20 quart pots a week for my six shepherds.  Right now there are 8 with the 2 fosters and it does last the week.

If you did ONE 20 quart pot, it would last your little gal WEEKS.  It takes about an hour to prep a pot, and you're done, aside from the bagging and freezing. 

I'd have to say it doesn't sound like a good idea in the long run to have a vegetarian diet for a dog. I believe it's in their insticts to eat meat... I let my dog catch wild rabbits sometimes and he absolutely loves it ... I guess some people would say that is wrong and cruel... but I don't believe it is.

Eric 

http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=10668

At the bottom right hand side of this page is a link to a PDF overview of dog nutrition and cat nutrition. It's free and provides good introductory information. Interestingly, page 2 says that dogs can be fed a vegetarian diet provided certain supplements are provided.   But hey, they're just a bunch of scientists, what do they know? 

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.

Yes they can as you noted, and they can even survive without the 'little boiled chicken breast'.  The better question however is can your carnivore thrive on a vegetarian diet.  Thrive is a matter of opinion, so you will have to be the judge and jury on that issue.  Take my father-in-law for example.  His old dog died about 10 years ago.  You ask him he will tell you what a great dog that was; you ask anyone else who entered the house they will tell you that was the smelliest nastiest dog they had ever seen.  You must get immune to the smell eventually and don't notice it, but no joke, 10 years later you can still smell that stinky dog in the carpet.  Anyway, if you have any trouble in making that determination of whether or not the little guy is thriving or not, maybe another trip to the Vet can help sort that out if he gets sick again.  Good luck with the beans.

CC.

Good luck with the beans. 

  Charlie, hilarious!

Ben actually gets legumes in his veggie mix - but not for the protein.  They are simply another natural source of nutrients.  I rotate peas, various beans, lentils, and other exotic legumes I can find (the Hispanic market is a wonderful place for produce).  They are a tiny part of his diet though.

corgipower

Dogs arent even omnivores. They are in fact carnivores, they can survive on only meat. They cannot digest vegetables, which is why veggies need to be put through a blender or cooked in order for dogs to break them down and receive nutrition from them.

Read what I said CAREFULLY please:  "They can pretty satisfactorily be omnivores if the vegetable matter is adequately broken down"

I didn't say they were omnivores naturally, nor did I say they wanted to be nor were intended to be .. I said (and oh so carefully worded) they CAN satisfactorily be ... world of difference.

Yes, they can survive on meat -- but even in the 'wild' (looking down at Billy the Venturin english cocker spanYELL and thnking this dog would never bring down his own caribou!!) even THERE they would get vegetable matter not only in the stomach of their kill (where it would pretty well be broken down and pre-digested) but they can and will also eat veg matter if they get hungry enough.

But as someone said later on in this thread "thrive" is different than survive.  and IF the veg matter is broken down it can be a great addition to ***balance*** their diet

Dogs are *naturally carnivorous.  Not an obligate carnivore like a cat, but IF IF IF the veg matter is broken down so they can process it, THEN they can ... with that help ... be omnivores.  Not naturally, but functionally. But if you try to replace all that meat does with just veg, and supplementation, it's usually a road to disaster simply because their bodies don't process the supplements as well, nor as completely, as they would the protein from meat.

That's ok!!!   No harm no foul!  It's just in *this* thread I wanted to make sure we were both completely understood (and not *MIS* understood!! ~grin~)

Given that tripe is generally seen as a 'yummy' I'd imagine whomever got to it first probably snagged it.  (Again looking at Billy the Venturin Englis cocker spanYELL an thinkin that the most dangerous kill he'd probably ever have made would have been some cave-child's stuffy left out in the rain!!  He's definitely a dog-child of THIS   millentium! LOL)