Learn about Vegan Dog Food

Do you want to know more about the benefits of feeding dogs a fresh, plant-based diet? Maybe you aren't sure about plant-based feeding and want to know more about the science? Take a look at this short page for three ways to learn about vegan dog food. 

1) Frequently Asked Questions on Vegan Dog Food

2) Plant-Based Nutrition Course for Dogs

The best way to decide what diet is right for your dog is to learn everything for yourself. We recommend this course by Dr Arielle Griffiths BVSc MRCVS. 

This Plant-based Nutrition Course for Dogs is an in-depth course where you can learn at your own pace. It can be used as a reference and is always there to go back to. What is particularly amazing is that it keeps getting updated as science does!

We particularly love that:

• You find out which are the top brands that DO contain everything your dog needs.
• You can learn what nutrients/ best food you dog needs dependent on their age, breed and health needs.
• Learn about fresh food and the benefits of developing a healthy gut microbiome.
• Dr Arielle uses actual case studies from hundreds of dogs that she has helped through the right diet - this course will support you to do this too. 

3) Look at the science yourself

There is so much science that states how positive plant-based feeding is for our dogs, the environment and animal welfare. If you would like to read more science about vegan dog food and feeding your dog a plant-based diet, we recommend you start with Professor Andrew Knight. This page contains most of the most recent articles on vegan dog food. 

Information on recent papers are here:

Knight A (2023) The relative benefits for environmental sustainability of vegan diets for dogs, cats and people.

Dodd et al. (2022) Vegan dogs showed improved overall health with reduced occurrence of ocular, gastrointestinal, and hepatic disorders. No adverse health effects were observed, and dogs fed vegan diets reportedly had a longer lifespan of approximately 1.5 years compared to those on non-vegan diets.

Knight et al. (2022) The healthiest and least hazardous diets for dogs are nutritionally sound vegan diets.

Cavanaugh et al. (2021) Indicated the health of the dogs was maintained and did not deteriorate after 12 weeks on the vegan diet.

Linde et al. (2023) Findings suggest that the dogs in the study thrived on a vegan diet, demonstrating positive health outcomes and improved nutrient levels over time.

Davies (2022) Significant improvements in various areas, including activity levels, fecal consistency, defecation frequency, flatus frequency, reduction in antisocial smell of flatus, coat glossiness, reduction in dandruff, decrease in skin redness (erythema, inflammation), alleviation of itchiness (scratching; pruritus), and reduction in anxiety.

Conclusion on learning about vegan and plant-based dog food

There are so many 'experts' in the dog food world. Multibillion pound marketing has contributed to worldwide promotion of certain diets and trends - without considering the impact on long term canine health - only profits. The only way to truly understand what is right for your dog is to learn about all the different diets available. When it comes down to common sense - we all know that we are healthier the more organic plants we eat. This is the same for our dogs too.

If you have any questions or comments - please get in touch hello@fleetful.co.uk