Ok folks, I told my friend I'd throw it out to the board...my friend's brother is feeding their little dog (do not recall the breed) a vegetarian diet...their justification is:
1. the dog is in renal failure. They believe (from what source I do not know) that meat is *the cause* of renal failure in both humans and canines.
2. they believe canines are omnivores just as humans and since humans live on vegetarin diets, so shall the dog.

Anyone know of anything which references this or any one with experience with a canine veggie only diet?

Go figure, the only thing that came up in 10 years on a search of leerburg was a small LOCKED thread involving PETA!!!

I told him I'd post, there. I posted. The conversation of course came up over some beers, and well, apparently, I didn't have enough beers because I actually remembered telling him "yes, I will ask the board" !!!

http://www.vegetariandogs.com/

http://www.ehow.com/how_5339_dog-vegetarian-diet.html

http://b-naturals.com/Aug2003.php

There are some of the articles I found.....I do not think I would recommend this at all.......if you google "vegetarian diet and dogs" you get a lot of stuff, then add renal failure to the end of that you get even more.

http://www.leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/138622/page/0/fpart/1

Also,
http://www.dogaware.com/kidney.html#protein

QUOTE: .... newer research shows dietary protein is not detrimental to kidney function. On the contrary, protein restriction can result in impaired wound healing, diminished immune function and lowered enzyme activities and cellular turnover. by Susan Thorpe-Vargas, Ph.D. and John C. Cargill, M.A., M.B.A., M.S.

QUOTE: High protein diets cause an increase in blood flow through the kidney (glomerular filtration rate). The myth has been that if the dietary protein is restricted, this will make the kidney work less, and will ‘spare' the kidney from damage. Thus in the past, many have recommended low protein diets to ‘protect' a dog from developing kidney disease. This has been the focus of considerable research over the last 10 years. There has been no scientific evidence to support this theory. The feeding of low levels of dietary protein are NOT protective against the development of kidney disease. END from Patricia Schenck, DVM, PhD, Veterinary Nutritionist

 Quote: carol boche

http://www.vegetariandogs.com/

http://www.ehow.com/how_5339_dog-vegetarian-diet.html

http://b-naturals.com/Aug2003.php

There are some of the articles I found.....I do not think I would recommend this at all.......if you google "vegetarian diet and dogs" you get a lot of stuff, then add renal failure to the end of that you get even more.

And if you use "renal" or "kidneys" here, you'll get a lot of returns.

Thanks for the links, I will pass them on...the whole thing just sounded really crazy to me...

 Quote: Michele McAtee

Thanks for the links, I will pass them on...the whole thing just sounded really crazy to me...

Me too.

Me three..

Last month's Whole Dog Journal had a box in the fresh diet article that warned against vegetarian diets for dogs.

Among other problems, there is no source other than meat for taurine, which is essential to dogs.

Actually, taurine is only considered to be essential for cats (and other strict carnivores).

Dogs have the metabolic ability to synthesize the taurine they need from methionine and cysteine (dietary sulfur amino acids).

I did however read a study recently

- A. R. Spitze, D. L. Wong, Q. R. Rogers and A. J. Fascetti. Taurine concentrations in animal feed ingredients; cooking influences taurine content. 2003. Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition 87:251–262 -

in which the researchers tested the taurine contents of a variety of foods depending on the method of preparation. They found that in certain cases, dogs can indeed suffer from taurine deficiency:

"Historically, a need for dietary taurine is not generally recognized in dogs. This is because dogs are known, like many species, to have the metabolic capacity to synthesize taurine from the dietary sulphur amino acids, cysteine and methionine. Recently, however, nutritional paradigms have been recognized to result in taurine deficiency in dogs. In many cases, taurine deficiency was also associated with dilated cardiomyopathy."


Connie has a point about taurine though; it is NOT found in a vegetarian diet. Taurine is highly concentrated in muscle meats though, and especially in seafood.

Here's a quote from that article where the results of the taurine testing were presented:

"In addition to the categories listed in the table, fruits, grains, legumes, nuts, seeds and vegetables were investigated for taurine content. Fruit and fruit juice samples tested include apple, cranberry, and orange juice, canned peaches, raisins and fresh tomatoes. All of these samples contained no taurine. Grain and grain products analysed include white, white enriched and whole-wheat bread, cream of wheat, wheat germ, long grain white rice, extra long grain enriched white rice, and brown California rice, single grain rice cereal, pasta noodles, low- sodium corn flakes, high-protein cereal infant food, barley, bulgar, crackers, rye and oat flour, oatmeal and homemade pancakes. None of the samples contained taurine..."

"There was no taurine detected in any of the legumes analysed, which included garbanzo, lima, red and pinto beans; pinto bean juice, garden and blackeye peas and lentils. Tofu, a product of soya beans, did not contain detectable levels of taurine. Sunflower and sesame seeds, almonds, cashews, filberts, pecans, peanuts and walnuts were tested. None of the nuts and seeds analysed contained detectable taurine. Vegetables that were tested included steamed asparagus, fresh avocado, broccoli flower and stalk, carrot, celery, corn, cucumber, fresh green beans, lettuce, onion, russet potato with the skin (boiled and baked), potato chips, sweet relish and sweet potato including the skin. None of the vegetables contained any measurable amount of taurine. Tapioca was also tested and found to contain no taurine."


The taurine deficiencies caused in cats are pretty obvious:

"In cats, inadequate provision of dietary taurine clearly results in deficiency. A deficiency of taurine results in clinical diseases including feline central retinal degeneration and dilated cardiomyopathy (Hayes et al., 1975; Pion et al., 1987). Taurine deficiency also adversely affects reproductive performance, growth and motor function and the immune system (Sturman et al., 1985; Schuller-Levis and Sturman, 1990)."

It was definitely surprising to see that in certain cases dogs can also suffer from taurine deficiency.
One hypothesis put forward by the researchers was that the sulfur amino acids used to synthesize taurine may not have been bio-available in the COMMERCIAL KIBBLE that the dogs in the study were being fed.

Interesting...

So anyone who decides to feed a carnivore a vegetarian diet is an IDIOT. There's really no PC way to put this
I'm sorry, but if one doesn't want to feed meat to their pet, get a pet rabbit.


Additionally, taurine is highly water-soluble so any meat that is in contact with water (or cooked with water) will lose a lot of taurine. This is one thing to be aware of for people who feed homecooked diets. The less water used in preparing the meats, the more taurine is conserved (of course raw had the highest rate of taurine retained).


Moral(s) of the story?
1. Feed a species appropriate diet
2. The less food is messed around with, the more nutritious it is. Feed RAW, not cooked, processed, extruded, in kibble form, dehydrated, etc. etc.


Fascinating article, certainly.

Please don't ask me for a link!! This article is only available via subscription to the journal so there is no link to it.
I can e-mail it to anyone who's interested though, just let me know

*correction: the researchers DID find some taurine in the high-protein infant formula tested... forgot to include that in my quote.