Will a vegan dog food diet affect my dog’s behaviour?

What would have caused Teddy’s behaviour change on a wholefood plant-based diet?

Firstly there would have been a reduction in discomfort from constantly itchy and uncomfortable ears due to Teddy’s intolerance to animal protein (a very common intolerance in dogs).

Secondly, Teddy’s devoted Mum chose to home cook wholefoods for him and this choice made all the difference. By naturally feeding his gut microbiome, this resulted in the natural production of serotonin – yes eating plants is SO important for our mental health as well as that of our dogs!

When switching to a plant-based diet for us and our pets, we enhance the beneficial gut bacteria which plays a key role in modifying our behaviour and that of our dogs too as shown in this very interesting article – when gut bacteria change brain function.

As research thankfully increases in this area, more and more owners of dogs on plant-based diets do report that their pets appear happier and calmer – maybe as they are not being fed on high fat meaty or sugary treats which like us plummet our sugar levels and leave us feeling anxious and lethargic. Anyone who has tried the Atkin’s diet knows that eating only one food group in excess (meat) leaves us craving carbohydrates to such a point that we feel extremely irritable  – could this be happening to so many of our poor dogs on an unbalanced high meat diet?

We know that dogs need 50% of their diet to be carbohydrate compared to a grey carnivorous wolf needing just 1.7% of their diet to be carbohydrates. By feeding our dogs excessively high meat-based diets that they are not accustomed to due to heavy marketing by pet food companies; our dogs end up so anxious due to the wrong choices.

A high fibre and high nutrient plant-based diet is satisfying so reduces these cravings as well as providing our brains and our pets’ brains with the mood enhancing healthy serotonin ingredient found in seeds, soya products, bananas, lentils and nuts. We advise the use of lentils in our recipes as these legumes are particularly high in the amino acid tryptophan that the body needs to produce the calming serotonin.

Many owners report a reduction in aggression between their dogs with some owners even going so far as to say that they possibly had to rehome one of their dogs prior to feeding a plant-based diet as their dogs were constantly fighting on a meat-based diet and this settled once they were both swapped to a plant-based diet.

Behaviour changes in dogs that are intensely itchy and uncomfortable, (just like Teddy was) due to food intolerances on a high meat-protein diet also report a far better quality of life and reduction in stress with a reduction in constantly being itchy on a meat-based diet compared to a hypoallergenic plant-based diet.