Pets At Home sell plant-based dog food!

Read this enormously encouraging article from October 23 about Pets At Home

Wainwrights is Pets at Home own brand, and in June 2022 they launched a plant-based food throughout all their stores – both tinned and dry food.

As a company that in our eyes has always been driven by profit from selling meat-based dog foods, with even holding freezers in their stores to sell plastic containers of non sustainable fish and meat-based raw food; to branching out so quickly into the plant-based market, is a huge win for our environment and the animals that are being killed to feed our pets.

For the average Pets at Home visitor to see this option on the shelves and choose plant-based over maybe their usual raw or meat-based food that they normally buy, is just so positive for our future. With Butternut Box launching their plant-based recipe this week, to now another big player in the pet food market offering a plant-based option, we are delighted.

Pets at Home Wainwright's Plant-based food

Ingredient list of Pets at Home Wainwrights plant-based food

What of the nutritional value of the food for our dogs?

As Wainwrights is company whose biggest profits are from the meat-based foods that they have always sold, they have not put the effort into producing a 100% balanced vegan dog food diet. Just like Butternut Box plant-based; their new food is not vegan, but is vegetarian as their Vit D3 will come from sheep’s wool. They have not been able to source a healthy plant-based version of Vit D3 as all the other companies that we do recommend have been able to achieve such as Solo Vegetal, Hownd, DoGood, Noochy Poochy, Omni, Green Crunch, Greta and The Pack.

The protein level of their food is also low (20% in the dry food and 16.6% in the tinned food with 70% moisture), and although they have included Taurine in the dry food as an ingredient which is really important for the heart health of your dog on a plant-based diet; there are 5 other amino acids that are not visible as having been added, or are not mentioned on the label which would contribute to the low protein content of the food.

We do feel though that although they advertise the food as complete, it is not of quite the same quality as the top brands of plant-based dog foods that we recommend, and so Pets at Home may be reaching out to people wanting to try a ‘flexitarian’ option on their pets, or a meat-free Monday for example as Lily’s Kitchen have advertised with their vegan rainbow stew.

Having this option however, is just SO promising as the effect of thousands (and hopefully eventually millions) of dogs going 50% plant-based will have an enormous impact so we can only commend Pets at Home for their new plant-based food!

We are also SO reassured to read this latest news –

Pets at Home invests in Project Blu

Pets at Home will be the first UK retailer to offer Project Blu’s full product range, available across its 457 stores and online at Petsathome.co.uk from early July 2022

Founded in Wales in 2019, Project Blu aims to “transform polluting materials into premium quality accessories and includes durable vegan leather products made from discarded apple skins, which reduce carbon emissions by 99% compared to traditional leather.”

This merger is very promising, as environmentally damaging plastic swimming pools for dogs used to be the biggest sellers at Pets at Home stores, and we really love the whole ethos behind Project Blu.

If only Pets at Home would stop selling ineffective and insect-destroying monthly flea products at their stores, then we would really be amazed….but the changes that they have implemented are enormous for our planet’s health and give us all such hope!

Read more of your valuable opinions about Pets at Home new plant-based foods

“I agree that the big companies are all driven by profit and I don’t think that the supermarkets or manufacturers of pet foods or human foods are now providing plant-based / vegan options because they suddenly have a conscience about animal welfare or the environment – they see an opportunity to make even more money! However I still think that any step in the right direction has to be good and will help to reduce the demand for animals to be killed for food.”

“My big concern with these things is that incomplete foods becoming available mainstream could cause health issues that will then be blamed on plant based diets, rather than nutritionally inadequate diets. It’s progress, 100%, but I do fear there’s a big catch… and it’s a shame brands such as Noochy Poochy and Omni aren’t the ones being stocked instead. I wonder why – margins?”

“I’m still getting over the absolute enormity of Pets at Home producing its own brand of plant based food! I know that they’re only driven by making money, but the fact they recognise there is a demand for plant based products is awesome!!”

“It’s definitely progress. I’m a little worried that they’re selling it as a complete food when it looks like it isn’t really. The protein is really low as well.”

“I’m worried that it is just them getting on the bandwagon without looking into what is really needed, plus pets at home are only driven with profit with the small pets they have coming from rodent farms and being returned there after one or two months should it be one that’s supported due to this? I find Hownd is a great product and an ethical company.”