Vegetarianism and Veganism in Dogs: What Does Science Say?Sources: Domínguez-Oliva 2023, Linde 2024, Knight 2022, Knight 2024, WSAVA, BVA, Arendt 2014, Ollivier 2016. |
Can a dog be vegetarian or vegan?
Choosing a vegetarian or vegan diet for one's dog is often motivated by ethical or environmental convictions.
However, for dogs, the priority always remains the same: their diet must cover all their nutritional needs, sustainably and balanced.
Currently, available studies help us better understand this issue, but they are still few and have several limitations. Conclusions must therefore be interpreted with caution.
A dog is not a cat
First, we must distinguish between dogs and cats.
Cats are obligate carnivores: their bodies depend on nutrients naturally present in animal tissues, making a plant-based diet very difficult to balance.
Dogs have different biology. During their domestication, they developed a better ability to digest starch, notably due to an increase in the number of copies of the AMY2B gene, involved in pancreatic amylase production.
This does not mean that a plant-based diet is automatically suitable, but simply that it is biologically feasible for dogs, unlike cats.
Nutrients that require particular attention
A vegetarian or vegan diet is not simply about removing meat.
It must provide sufficient essential nutrients, including:
- highly digestible proteins;
- certain essential amino acids;
- taurine;
- L-carnitine;
- vitamins B12 and D;
- calcium and phosphorus;
- long-chain omega-3s.