Do dogs on a homemade vegan diet live longer?

Yes, we truly believe that your dog could live a longer healthier life on a balanced plant based diet than on a meat based diet. We know the value that we place on our pets in our home and our lives, and as vets and animal lovers, we want to help you have your pets with you for as long as possible.

Humans on a balanced vegan diet suffer with far less life-threatening illnesses such as heart disease, strokes, cancer and diabetes than those on a normal animal product based diet and thus live longer, healthier lives. Exactly the same is true for your pets……….but their plant-based diet MUST be balanced with all the essential nutrients in it.

 

Why is fresh and homemade best for our pets?

It is well known that once our babies are past the bottle/baby food phase of their lives where we stop feeding them processed food from little jars and packets and move onto healthy home-cooked food, they will thrive.

The same rings true for our dogs. Marketed packaged dog food has to have a shelf life for the manufacturers of the food to make any profit from it, so it is made in such a way that the extrusion process (with dry biscuits) heats the ingredients to a very high temperature thus reducing the nutritional value of the food. Even for ourselves, if we were only to live on ready-meals, we know that it is not sustainable as these meals are packed full of extra ingredients to keep us tempted – addictive high fat, high sugar or high salt ingredients that keep us buying more and all end up as detrimental to our health.

So fresh is definitely best. We then know exactly what we are adding to our food or our pet’s food and with this knowledge comes peace of mind that you are doing the right thing for your pet, just as you are doing for yourself.

We go even one step further!

Why not feed our pets superfoods that are full of anti-oxidants, non GMO organic ingredients that we want for our family with all the correct prebiotics for a healthy gut biome and the healthiest range of amino acids from organic plants, not from meat that may be affected by growth hormones, antibiotics and heavy metals?

 

One remarkable example of a vegan dog is that of Bramble, a 25-year-old border collie whose plant-based diet of organic brown rice, red split lentils, vegetables, and some additional ingredients like yeast extract and herbs earned her a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s oldest living dog in 2002. Bramble’s owner is Anne Heritage  – a devoted vegan and animal lover growing up in the North West of England in the 50’s. In her words she not only had Bramble, but “I’ve had seven dogs – three of them lived to 19-years-old, one lived to 20-years-old, and then Bramble lived to 25-years-old.”

As a vet, this is remarkable and can definitely be attributed to a life dedicated to feeding a healthy plant-based vegan diet as well as the freedom of exercise and kindness. We should all aim for this……and it IS achievable
Read further in this rare interview with Anne Heritage.

Anne’s inspiring story in the book shown below has certainly changed the way we think about our pet’s nutrition as it is written with such honesty and says everything we feel about our own dogs and their short lives with us.