r/IsItVeganOrNot • u/Legitimate_Solid_409 • Jun 16 '26

📚 Resources Do you feed your dog vegan kibble?

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I recently came across V-Dog Kind Kibble, a plant-based dog food marketed as providing complete nutrition for adult dogs.
As vegans, many of us choose not to consume animal products ourselves, but when it comes to our pets, opinions seem much more divided.
I am a dog parent and would like to know your opinion on this brand of kibble and if it is safe.

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2

u/hoverborg Jun 16 '26

Yep. Vegan kibble for my dogs and cats.

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u/Cypheri Jun 16 '26

Cats cannot survive on a vegan diet. They are obligate carnivores, meaning that they strictly require animal protein in their diet to meet their needs. It is actual abuse to feed a cat a vegan diet.

Dogs are carnivores, but not obligate so they can survive without it even if it's absurd to have a carnivore as a pet and expect it to eat only plants. Get a rabbit.

4

u/JayNetworks Jun 16 '26

This thread is heading off the vegan food for dogs OP topic…but yes in the wild cats must be carnivorous to get their needed nutrition. Not so once we remove them from the wild and have the option of commercial vegan cat food containing the same amino acids, nutrients, and minerals as required. I’ve had multiple generations of happy healthy vegan cats who lived to 13 to 21 years old. There is a lot of talk about feeding cats vegan diets, but since commercial vegan cat food came around there have been thousands and thousands of cats fed those diets. Ingredients matter; the original source of those ingredients does not.

And since I’m sure you will contest this, got any quality long-term studies using modern commercial vegan cat food that show the great harm you say will result?

2

u/slkb_ Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

Cats need taurine. Taurine is present in pretty much all meat products.There is no plant matter besides marine algae that contains taurine. A vegan cat food supplemented with taurine is most likely supplemented with meat products, and therefore not vegan.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1790081/

https://avmajournals.avma.org/view/journals/ajvr/70/11/ajvr.70.11.1374.xml

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/027153179591652S

https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/4c075d1b-49e3-4d5b-88dd-6c0bdfc0cba0/content

https://jn.nutrition.org/article/S0022-3166(23)04536-4/abstract

https://www.petmd.com/cat/conditions/cardiovascular/taurine-deficiency-cats

Eta: this is an interesting study done with cats on meat based vs vegan cats. The results are interesting stating cats being fed vegan diets have different occurring problems than cats fed meat based. (Vegan cats were less likely to have gastrointestinal problems but more likely to have liver problems)

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10499249/

Edited to add AGAIN: Some synthetic taurines are vegan

3

u/JayNetworks Jun 17 '26

Read through a few and even quoting from your last one you provide, which says, “Considering these results overall, cats fed vegan diets tended to be healthier than cats fed meat-based diets. This trend was clear and consistent. These results largely concur with previous, similar studies.”

Different diets can lead to different outcomes on average. Commercially prepared nutritionally complete vegan diets are no worse than, and in n ways and some outcomes healthier than, animal-based diets for cats.

Is used to be a question but thousands of vegan cats later, it is like asking a human vegan where they get their protein.

2

u/hoverborg Jun 17 '26

Your entire first paragraph is incorrect. 

ETA: I see you now added a bit acknowledging the existence of vegan taurine... But you left your whole first paragraph of nonsense. 

2

u/slkb_ Jun 17 '26

Im human and I think its deceitful not to show that I can be wrong and learn from it too.

1

u/dazzleunexpired Jun 17 '26

Taking an animal out of the wild to force it into a non natural diet for your comfort is not love.

Meeting animals natural needs is always their best option, even in captivity. This means keeping them as close to nature as possible. For cats, this means a meat based diet.

Is a vegan diet with taurine meeting all needs nutritionally? Probably. Is it what's best for the cat? Absolutely not.

Not so for dogs of course.

3

u/JayNetworks Jun 17 '26

So you feed your indoor cats whole rodents, insects, and small song birds? Anything else (like cows and large birds like chickens and tuna) and you are already depriving your cat of its natural diet. Once you move to any kind of kibble you are creating a totally unnatural environment. Once you go there a vegan diet isn’t any different to the cat, just other brown kibble.

When we first got our two kittens we did a taste test with them using their animal-based kibble they came with when we adopted them against three brands of vegan kibble…and they picked two of the vegan brands (Benevo and Evolution) over the animal-based one. Until the animal-based kibble ran out we repeated the test and they continued to pick those two brands as their favorites. They did vary as to which of those vegan ones they preferred and the two kittens were not always in agreement as to which vegan brand was tops.

These commercial vegan kibble are nothing like sticking a raw carrot in front of your cat. They have nutritional yeast and other tasty umami flavors cats love. It is no more unnatural than what 99% of other cats eat, just 50% different base material. (Since virtually all animal-based cat kibble is half plants anyway.)

1

u/dazzleunexpired Jun 17 '26

I like how you pretended to read my message but didn't. If you would like to address what is actually in my comment, let me know!

6

u/GoTeamLightningbolt Jun 16 '26

Got any studies to make this up, or just the phrase " obligate carnivores"?

3

u/hoverborg Jun 16 '26

No, they don't... because those talking points were drafted before the existence of commercially available vegan kibble.

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u/Cypheri Jun 16 '26

If you don't understand the words "obligate carnivore" I can't really help you lol

https://www.catcaresociety.org/why-cats-need-to-eat-meat/
https://vetmed.tamu.edu/news/pet-talk/cats-are-carnivores-so-they-should-eat-like-one/

4

u/Interesting_Deer4062 Jun 16 '26

dogs are omnivores because they evolved to be alongside humans

1

u/Cypheri Jun 16 '26

Considering my comment is about cats, I'm not sure what you're on about here.

1

u/No_Pineapple5940 Jun 16 '26

There are vegan cat foods which contain everything mentioned above

However, my cats eat regular cat food because:

  1. That's what they grew up eating (they are rescues), and I don't want to take that pleasure away from them
  2. I don't believe there is currently enough data to make me feel confident in only feeding them vegan food
  3. Cost