I've never voluntarily had a pet (they tend to arrive with wives, I find) but have had some experience. To state the blooming obvious - cats and dogs are different animals!
I don't see why a 'house' cat couldn't be weaned onto a vegetable protein diet of appropriate texture and flavour - ensuring that it was well dosed with appropriate vitamins: as in human vegetarian food. I suspect that an 'outdoor' cat would not stay vegetarian very long because they'd be out eating the wildlife ....
Dogs, however, clearly can live on vegetarian diets. They are pretty much omnivores in my experience. I knew two farm dogs that lived entirely on vegetables unless there was a piece of particularly fatty meat or gristle left over from a meal. I recall that there are vitamins in dog biscuits to avoid any deficiencies?
So, I have no problem with people administering vegetarian diets if it's done with consideration. If, on the other hand, carnivorous humans are giving their cats/dogs trimmings or waste from their own meals, then that's okay. After all, both of these animals are creations of humans so why shouldn't humans further adapt them to whatever diet they wish?
What I would ask is that pet owners should give serious consideration to the effect that their pets have on wildlife, the environment and farming-fishery practices ....
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Originally Posted by matt_xyz  It is a valid question, although it's worth bearing in mind that meat-based pet food bears little resemblance to what a wild dog or cat would have eaten. As such their diets are very much unnatural as it is. Plus the actual existence of domesticated dogs and cats is entirely unnatural and so too are the lifestyles that they lead.
If a vet could guarantee to me that a vegatarian based diet was healthy for a cat or dog (and contained the necessary vitamin supplements etc) and if the animal enjoyed the food then I don't think I would have a problem with that. However, I don't know whether vegatarian pet food is in fact healthy for dogs or cats.
Matt |