After switching to a whole plant based diet for me, why was I still feeding my dogs the standard dog food from the store? Starting yesterday I switched my dogs to the new vegan dog food I show here! For those of us that want to see what motivated me to make the switch from the standard American diet to whole plant foods, we can read at https://steemit.com/dtube/@jerrybanfield/odangy6p.
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View V-Dog Vegan Kibble Dry Dog Foodon Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0086YESK0.
While many of us believe that dogs and similar animals "must eat meat" because "they are carnivores" this is no more true for them than for us because the digestive systems can handle either. In fact, the Bible tells us in Isaiah 11:6 that
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.
Thousands of years ago our ancestors had a vision of a utopia where even "carnivores" like the wolf and the leopard and the lion could lie down together. Today we can see exactly how that works with vegan dog food where our carnivores can get all the nutrition needed without having to use animals for food.
Note that the bag here mentions the fact that 50% of all water used in the USA is for live stock including for live stock that feed our pets. As we see on the back of the bag, this food is packed with protein for the dogs from a variety of plant sources which use a fraction of the resources needed to produce the same nutrition through an animal.
The quantity of food to feed is significantly more than the dog food we were using before which helps our dogs to have more regular bowel movements which in turn promotes a healthier colon and digestive system. Conversely, infrequent bowel movements and a slow digestive system appear to lead to cancer as food rots inside the colon before it is removed.
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It looks like the standard dog food which is a big improvement over how I was previously feeding my dogs by cooking them oatmeal, blending in beans, and mixing up some peanut butter with it to make my do it yourself whole plant dog food.
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For my dogs, I feed two cups each twice a day which makes this cost about double what the "standard" dog food does.
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I use plastic containers from Publix to eliminate the need for dog bowls.
My dogs eat this food just the same as any other of course!
I tried some and it tasted fine!
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Empty dog bowls in just a minute as with whatever I feed them! Meanwhile, the amount of resources needed and the impact on the planet from making this dog food is a fraction of what it is to make the other dog foods. I feel good about doing my part to help make a world where we all have enough and thank you for reading about this with me!
Love,
Jerry Banfield
Lol.. dont go against nature.
We drive cars, use smartphones, and eat iodized salt and bread fortified with folate and thiamine. If we humans never went against nature, we'd be living in caves.
When kibble grows in the wild, it's made of ground up random animal parts and filler. It must always be that way. 😜
Vegan dogs...... never even thought about that.
I posted your post in r/vegan
It reached the second page of the most upvoted post of the last 24h.
If you post something even more catchy about veganism make sure to post it on r/vegan it could hit the front page of r/vegan and translate in many thousands of views.
Take care Jerry!
~~~ embed:vegan/comments/7nerb3/switched_to_vegan_dog_food/?st=jbws4quk&sh=06223ac5 reddit metadata:fHZlZ2FufGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnJlZGRpdC5jb20vci92ZWdhbi9jb21tZW50cy83bmVyYjMvc3dpdGNoZWRfdG9fdmVnYW5fZG9nX2Zvb2QvP3N0PWpid3M0cXVrJnNoPTA2MjIzYWM1fA== ~~~
Oh nice. Thank you for doing this. There's plenty of evidence around to suggest most dogs do fine on a vegan diet (unlike cats). I hope your dog will thrive also.
And Happy New Year to you Jerry. I hope your 2018 is great.
CraZy world 😥 Pets go vegan...😅
Happy New Year! 🌟☃️
Taurine? Isn't that (along with Caffeine) the active ingredient in Red Bull and similar energy drinks?
@jerrybanfield Happy New Year. Best wishes to you always :D
happy new year
Thank you!
Dude I appreciate all the effort and research but isn't it a bit unfair, shouldn't dogs be fed what is their natural diet?
It's a fact that most vegans and many vegetarians end up with leaky gut. I feel for this dog because the main fat he's getting is rancid canola - not good.
That's a fact? If that's true, I would love to see some evidence of it.
That's a fair enough question, but here is a follow up. Do you really think the bits of dry kibble that many dogs get is natural? My dogs wear sweaters and sleep in human beds. That's not really natural, either. I think we should trust that responsible and compassionate people like Jerry would never do anything which was not in the better interest of their companion animals.
I like the dog on the bag with the "plant" ears! cute!
Feed your dog what you want. but some of your reasoning isn't correct. Like what the dogs are getting is the left overs of what can't be fed to humans. These ingredients come in a powered form they are not the complete plant. But the other thing is that more plants that is needed to feed people and animals means less nature for wildlife. If you want to make sure your dog is eating good quality food the only way to insure that is to make your own dog food. What I see in the ingredients isn't any better than any other dog food. Just charging you more for sub-par ingredients.
"But the other thing is that more plants that is needed to feed people and animals means less nature for wildlife." Well, I would calculate it a little different: The most plants are used to for feeding animals that you want to feed to animals (pets) and humans.... so plant-eating does not really reduce nature for wildlife as less plants are used to feed all these cows and pigs and chickens that end up in dogs food.
Every time forest are cut down for farming and housing developments you see things like Coyotes, bears, and large cats coming into neighborhoods.
On average it takes about 8 kilograms of plants fed to cows to create 1 kilogram of beef. Rather than that 8 kilograms of food feeding many people, only 1 kilogram of beef feeds fewer people.
http://news.cornell.edu/stories/1997/08/us-could-feed-800-million-people-grain-livestock-eat
I am more worried about wildlife not cows https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/08/humans-have-destroyed-a-tenth-of-earths-wilderness-in-25-years-study
http://www.jpe.ox.ac.uk/papers/consistent-vegetarianism-and-the-suffering-of-wild-animals/
Looks like you are not getting the point @tecnogirl!
The argument in the link of the paper you are referring here is fundamentally flawed.
If you are really worried about wildlife, you should be worried about forests. Today a little less than half of arable land on this planet is being used to feed farmed animals. This means, more forest land is cleaned to make land available for cultivating crops to be fed to animals.
The leading causes of rainforest destruction are livestock and feed crops.
91% of amazon rainforest is being destructed for farming i.e. to say 1-2 acre of rainforest is cleaned every second right now. These causes a lot of wildlife destruction. As many as 137 species go extinct every day on an average.These are no small numbers. e.g. worldwide, cows drink 45 billion gallons of water and eat 135 billion pounds of food each day. And all this is just tip of the iceberg! There are several other associated problems which threatens our very existence on this planet. Look the problem as a whole and with the right perspective.
So if you want to protect forests & wildlife, the very first thing you need to accept is the benefits of wider adoption of plant-based living.
There is a balance in nature that humans are ruining and some of the forests that get cut down are used for planting more crops. It happen every day where I live. Look at what happened to Yellowstone national park. Wildlife that use to balance the park was removed ie the wolves and it damaged the environment. They introduced the wolves back and it has slowly started fixing the environment and wildlife that has moved else where has moved back.
My whole point was look at the label there is some good ingredients but all those chemical ingredients are no better than the cheaper dog food and not any healthier. If you want healthy food for your animals you have to make it yourself, because that bag of food is laced with chemicals not plants.
Looks good jerry, just wanted to say thanks for introducing me to Steem bro : )
I wonder if the dogs accepted the food wholeheartedly.
Dog: What the heck is this?
Jerry: Vegan food. It's good for you.
Dog: No way! That's grass.
Jerry: You've got no choice.
Dog: (Sobsob* munching away unhappily and plotting the next piss-on-the-sofa revenge)
excellent... I am going to have to try that.. thanks. !! :)
Simply amazing!
Plant based and whole grain food it is good and beneficial for our health, and if humans protect and take care of ourselves, why not our hairy ones?
our pets deserve the best, and that there is that kind of feed is great.
Happy new year!
Most brands labelled vegetarian are actually in fact vegan, they just don't feel they need to make such a distinction for dogs. Dogs don't particularly favor dairy, and although some dogs can digest dairy fine, many can get acute intestinal distress, so therefor you wouldn't typically find it in dog food. What really matters is whether it's organic or not. Unfortunately I don't believe V-Dog's dog food is organic. The only thing organic V-Dog sells is their 'Wiggle Biscuits'. If you want vegan & organic, there's a brand called "Pet Guard" available on Amazon @ https://www.amazon.com/Pet-Guard-Vegetarian-Food-4-4-Pound/dp/B000VK8CL8/ref=as_li_ss_tl?&linkCode=sl1&tag=tdt01-20&linkId=85dca850bbc534f0b712e871ca07d40e - Natural Core is another brand that's organic & vegan as well. There is a significant difference between organic and GMO in regards to your health. All my pets typically live over double there age, and I believe a vegan/organic diet is the reason for it. Glad to see you make these diet considerations for your dog though, I hope people follow your lead and you start a trend :)
Another Organic/Vegan brand is 'Halo Holistic Vegan Dog Food'. I haven't looked much into it but it seems to be well-reviewed. Natural Balnce's vegetarian type is not organic. They currently only have an organic option with there dog food containing meat, but I've emailed them requesting that they make a vegetarian version, hopefully they comply.
Awesome news, Jerry both for you and your dog (you'll profit much more than the dog tho', since they are better adapted to eating meat)... When did you go vegan, how are you feeling?
Dogs do fine on a vegan diet, like humans do. On the other hand, it is difficult to put a cat on a vegan diet.
I know, what I wanted to say, is that Jerry now has fewer chance of chronic disease, while the dog has the same (cholesterol, saturated fat, animal hormones, etc don't affect carnivores like dogs)!
They are cute ! You ate taking good care of them !!
Happy New Year !!
Thank you so much my friend !
I really would like to know how they feel and if they liked it after a few weeks, my German shepherd eats a lot of vegan food but not her kibbles, sounds like an amazing addition:)
Do a follow up :)
Thanks & Happy new Year from me and my dog
The right choice! Vegan dog food is not available in my country yet but there is vegetarian one, includes salmon and my dog loves it! His stomach and poo is excellent. With meat based food he had more gasses and poo than with the vegetarian one.
My dogs love porridge - which is what Jerry's mum (a vet) recommends.
Thanks for the info. Do you give it as a main meal or a supplement?
A main meal. Usually just for breakfast. They love it with peanut butter. And corned beef. But I'm not sure it's great for their teeth.
Thank you!
Ya Amazon has bad shipping availability, so you can't get that brand shipped to the Republic of Macedonia. Most brands labelled vegetarian are actually vegan, but more important than that is whether it's organic or not. Natural Core has a brand that's organic & vegan. You can find it on ebay. Here's a link to a source I found that ships free to Macedonia. - http://www.ebay.ca/itm/EXP-SHIP-Natural-Core-ECO-10-Vegetarian-Organic-Dog-Food-USDA-ECOCERT-13-2lb-S/121669293267?hash=item1c540e14d3:g:Gp8AAOSwBahVcBfT#shpCntId
That's great, and I see that have free shipping to Macedonia! Thank you!
what is your dog name. what was the cost of it
Hey Jerry. That's the best decision you could have made. We feed our dog vegan since he was 6 months old. He is now 4 years old and he is doing very well. He has no problems and smells really good. The veterinarian always says that he rarely has such healthy patients.
The switch to vegan food is difficult for some dogs and they sometimes get diarrhea. You should make the transition flowing.
Our food preferences are the following:
Greetings from Germany!
Obvious
That's really good to hear! (with reference to my comment above/below)
wrote some words to your comment ;)
Yay for Vegan Dogs!! We switched our golden over to v-dog...went through about 2-3 bags and he seemed to itch a lot more, so we decided to take him off. We are now on to Grandma Lucy's Artisan premix which we add beans, lentils and rice. He doesn't seem to like it as much but he eats it and is doing well. Good luck with your dogs and way to be a conscience consumer!
Dont you ever miss it to eat meat? I would like to read a little more abouth your whole plant based diet. I have no idea what it's like.
Happy newyear
Happy new year @jerrybanfield I'm your big fan you always give right suggestions on which coins are best for investment hope you carry on with this good work.... Keep steeming!!
I didn't know there was vegan dog food... Nice info Jerry!
Probably be better if most humans switched to that too. Must be much healthier than McDonald's.
vegan dog life! mine are vegan too, and I give them lots of homecooked food, like pumpkin, sweet potato, veggie with their kibble. And they love to chew on fresh carrots and brocoli
Don't tell tell you dogs its Vegan. ;)
Lol
LOL that's a good one.
HAPPY NEW YEAR MY DEAR SIR HAVE A NICE DAY.
Hi Jerry, I think it is great! I hope your dog gets as old as Bramble - a dog living on a vegan diet of rice, lentils and organic vegetables. He lived to the ripe age of 27! That is big for dog! Some people attribute it to the vegan diet.
source: https://www.care2.com/greenliving/vegetarian-dog-lives-to-189-years.html
Wishing you Happy New Year with lots of success....Dear@jerrybanfield
Upvoted and resteemed
Very nutrient :D
Very well done Jerry
Source
Happy New Year Brother
Quite innovating :D
I've 3 dogs :D let's see if I can get it in Portugal :DD
Wishing you Happy New Year.
While my screen was loading i thot that your holding thos 2 leaves on a pack!:D
If we are becoming more health conscious ourselves, why not also find better ways of nutriotion for our little best friends.
Yes!
Thanks for sharing this dog food.
alas we have lost our dog!
take care of yours
I hope I'm wrong about this, but aren't dogs carnivores? That's what multiple veterinarians told me, when I wanted to put my dog on such a diet.
My mom is a veterinarian and she told me the same thing. I read blogs online of people saying their vegan dogs lived to almost 30 years old and that is what sold me on the change
"I read blogs online of people saying their vegan dogs lived to almost 30 years old and that is what sold me on the change"
There exists chain smokers who lived for 100 years. So I suggest any person to start chain smoking, if they want to become a hundred years old...
Why do you ignore the scientific statements made by your vet moms for some random statements in the internet? I call this animal abuse and think this should be chargeable.
The veterinarians of the old school have unfortunately little idea of vegan diet. The wolf from which the dog is descended only eats meat when he is in the pack and kills other animals for his pack. When the wolf is traveling alone, it feeds on mainly berries, fruits and roots. Vegan diet is great for the dog, as there are no animal remnants with flavor enhancers that give the dog alergies and other diseases.
Yes, but as wolves are never alone all of the time, they are not on a vegan diet at all. If this would be the most healthy way for wolves, nature (or god) would have made them this way.
You are playing god here and your dogs likely suffer from this. Don't punish your animal for some strange human believes... it is not bad or immoral to be a dog and eat meat!
Lol, dude. Those who feed their animals chemically packed food from the supermarket slowly but surely kill their dog. Dogs of this kind get illnesses, allergies and are permanent guests of veterinarians. It has nothing to do with playing God. I take responsibility for my dog and want him to live long and healthy. You wouldn't feed your kids shit if you know that it makes them sick, would you? Or do you send your kids to McDonald's a lot? Good Lord, get informed before you write anything.
Your argument seems invalid, as there is not only a choice between vegan food and "chemically packed food from the supermarket".
And - seeing the pictures of the OP - do you really think this food is not "chemically packed food"? At least it looks pretty much like industry shit in my eyes.
All right, thanks for your opinion. Have a nice life.
I will, but likely your dog won't. And that is the problem here...
"You wouldn't feed your kids shit if you know that it makes them sick, would you? Or do you send your kids to McDonald's a lot?"
To use a similar argumenting style: Do you feed your children on green grass (which would be similar to a dog being fed purely vegan)?
Great, congratulation for this switch, you have a really cute dog. Happy new year to you and your family. Thanks for sharing.
Have a great day and stay blessed.
Doggo is love, Doggo is life !! happy new year to you and your Doggo :)
You have a soft and kind heart
Happy ew year too
Wow I didnt know even that it is existing. Thats really a great step. I also switched to plant based food. While people are eating Turkey here tonight , I am eating potatoes lol. But it is always good to be healthy. Enjoy this evening with your family and have a Happy New Year :)
Healthy start to the new year. I bet the dogs will get used to the vegan food after a while.