Vegetarian/ Vegan Dog Food Recipes
Posted by aubreythirdwave on Jul 14, 2008 · Member since Dec 2007 · 2 posts
I know there are a lot of posts about veg dog food, but I was wondering if anyone who makes veg dog food for their pet wouldn't mind posting the recipes they use. Also I wouldn't mind exchanging e-mail addresses to get more information.
Hi,
My dad used to own a pet store that produced pet healthfood. The diet was not vegan or vegetarian, but was based on the principle that animals should be eating diet that was completely natural and closely resembled what the dog/cat would be eating in the wild. Everything must be raw, and for dogs the diet incorporated fruit and vegetables (certain vege were strictly excluded including the deadly nightshade family, potatoes, tomatoes and onions especially, and of course sultanas which are toxic.)
There was a vege mix that all dogs ate, i don't recall whether it had meat in it, but it did have a range of vege including beet root, cabbage, spinach, carrot, apple, parsley, flax seed oil and some other things. You could really add any vege and they don't have to be perfectly fresh, just blend to a thick mash in a food processor (kind of like the consistency of a thick hummus). Acidopholus (sp?) powder is also a good addition.
However, having said this, a natural diet for a dog that mimics that of an undomesticated animal does include a good portion of raw meat (cats are true carnivores while dogs are omnivores). Please be careful with a vegan diet for dogs and cats as it is not their natural state and they do need a lot of protein. I know as a vegan/vegetarian it is disgusting having to handle meat, especially raw meat, but sometimes you have just got to do it for the love of your baby..
::puppy:
I found some recipes on this site. They advocate using their vitamin and mineral supplement in the food, which i think is wise, but I imagine the recipes can be used with out it as well. Check it out for both moist foods and kibble recipes. I do not like that so many of their recipes use so much wheat. I'm still looking for some that don't use so much wheat.
http://www.vegepet.com/literature.html
and this looks good: http://www.ahan.org/veg_dogfood_recipe.pdf
veg dog chowder: http://www.e-healthypetfood.com/html/rhode_island_vegetarian_dog_ch.html
Somewhere I have a wonderful muttloaf recipe for veg doggies...Ill have too look around and see if I can find it.
I have two red heeler pitbull mixes that are coming up on 4 years old. They have been vegetarian for their whole lives, and they look absolutely ripped. The only downside is their inexhaustable pool of energy. LOL
They are fed once a day, with a smoothie over a bed of grain and legume.
For the grain-legume base, here is an example:
1 cup dry brown rice
1 cup dry brown lentils.
I put that in the rice cooker with four cups of water.
For the doggie smoothie:
Scraps from our vegetarian day (Carrot ends, zucchini skins, lettuce cores, celery ends...everything but onions really)
Six large carrots chopped (Adjused for the ammount of other daily veggie scraps)
4 boiled eggs, shell and all (for calcium, protein, B12, etc)
1/4 cup healthy oil (Olive, flaxseed, walnut, sesame)
2 cups of water
We blend the smoothie in a vitamix blender for a minute, and pour it over the grain/legume bed
We have an egg cooker that combined with the rice cooker makes this an easy painless ritual.
We also slice sweet potato on the mandolin slicer and dry it in the dehydrator for afterdinner "Rawhide" teeth cleaning.
while this is not "Vegan" it is very low cruelty vegetarian. And seems to be a nice middle ground for our boys. We get the free range eggs locally, so we are involved in their food in a very positivie way and are very confident it is a healthy alternative to Purina or some other rendered protein garbage..
I'm a big fan of nature's recipe vegetarian dog food (mixed with liberal amounts of squash and lentils and potatoes and stuff) It's available at PETCO and various other places.