complete vegetarian diet for dogs pls. - Page 2

What the hell are we playing? God? Now were trying to turn dogs into a complete vegetarians when they were normally designed to eat meat?!?!??! It's ok to have a vegetarian religion but don't force anybody else or any other animal into your religion. keep it to your self.

Brittany, Hush, child. Take a course on World Religions, and then come back to this topic and discuss it informatively.

hexe, No thanks.

Shantha, I am sorry to see some of the replies you are getting. There are dogs that cannot digest meat or meat products. Check the internet (google), I have seen some info some time ago on a home made all veggie diet for dogs. I also suggest some recent books on proper dog nutrition to make sure you are not missing anything and your dogs will stay healthy on such a diet. Amazon.com should help you there. Are you allowed to use yogurt, cottage cheese, eggs? Those are very good sources of protein. And if you are from India I am pretty sure you can use yogurt, have had it with Indian dishes... but in westernized restaurants.

if you are allowed to use fish, sardines and mackerels are very good supplements too.

I am sorry that you don't like our answers, D.H., or that you feel they offend you. I have never heard that a dog cannot digest meat, since he is a carnivore. But stranger things have happened, I grant you that. However, I have the distinct impression that Shantha does not want to feed beef or any meat for personal reasons (vegetarian, religion, etc.). I do not have any patience to entertain that thought. A dog is a carnivore and needs meat or animal products. If the owner is not willing to supply that than that person should not own a dog. Sorry if my opinion offends you! It does not have anything to do with Shantha or her religion or beliefs. On the contrary, I believe that everybody has the right to believe in whatever he or she wants to, as long as it does not hurt or affect anybody else. If Shantha has reservations about beef, she can feed Lamb or Chicken. She does not have to feed raw meat, she can feed a good dog food. What is the problem, please ???? Chris

H All, strange things happening here a comment was made under my use name, honsetly did not reply to this thread, I do not even feed Eukunuba, do not know what happened only read it,next thing I know a comment here!!! Any body have this happen?

Hi Chris well, I had a dog that hated raw meat. Any kind - beef, pork, chicken, turkey, fish, didn't matter. Tried it fresh and frozen. Should have seen his face when that was on the menu. The moment it touched his mouth he would spit it out. This dog would starve himself for up to 10 days, rather than eat raw meat. I have friends that raise organic turkeys and when slaughter time comes I get lots of free stuff, and this is what the dogs get until gone. Or friends that are fishermen. Steaks from a 200 lbs halibut from sportfishing are not that great for human eating, but great for dogs. The salmon and albacore tuna stays in my kitchen :). Also, there are dogs that cannot digest meat and meat products, just like there are babies that cannot digest mothers milk. Nature has a weird way sometimes. Most things the digestive tract reacts allergic to comes from the proteins of that food. Ie nuts - its the nut proteins. So it stands to reason that there are dogs that cannot handle meat proteins. And when you look at the ingredient list of some of the commmercial foods, especially lower grade, the word meat seems to be put on ingredient list merely for image sake. Many low grade commercial dog foods consist of virtually all soy and corn and other crap. Many, many people feed their dogs this stuff. Not saying that is good, just saying that it is. People are not meant to be vegetarians either, we are omnivores after all, but many do well on such a diet. If a veggie diet is designed properly why not feed it to a dog? Otherwise if you'd wanted to provide the best diet and would want to do perfectly fine by your dog you'd have to keep a small herd of different prey animals and let your dog eat the whole thing: beak, feathers, eyes, hooves, skin with fur, gut with contents in different stages of digestion, blood, lungs, tongues, tracheas, naughty bits - all. To be supplied in different variets of fresh or rotting, with or without extra protein from maggots, to nearly mummified (great for rolling too). That is what the ideal diet for your dog would be. The don't mind a stinky 3 months old carcas after all. On the contrary. Very impractial though... ;) Finally, is it really soooooo hard to be a little tolerant? Why do so many people on this board have to cut into others so quickly and sometimes fiercly just because they do not seem to "fit the mold"? It is perfectly ok to disagree, but IMO there are a lot of different ways of putting it. The beauty of this site is that it attracts to many people from different cultures. Harsh comments to honest questions only chase them away, and that would be a real shame. JMO.

Hello Daniela, I never heard of a dog not liking meat, but as I mentioned before, stranger things have happened. But as I stated before, that does not seem to be the case here. I like to think about myself as very tolerant, but tolerance has its limits. It is good and necessary as long as nobody gets hurt or worse. My guess here in that case is that this is all about beef in hinduism. Again, there are other alternatives like chicken or lamb or turkey or fish. I do not think it is healthy for a dog to be a vegetarian. But Daniela, this is just my opinion. I completely agree with you in all other matters and keep your posts in high regards, as you are very knowledable. Take care, Chris

:o)