12. Transition Dog to Vegetarian Diet

IN PROGRESS.

When I adopted my dog Noah, it was without a lot of prior preparation. Getting a dog was something I'd obsessed about for a long time, but when it actually happened, I didn't have a lot of time to prepare. I wanted to feed him a vegetarian diet, but I hadn't researched it. Plus, I had no idea where to get vegetarian dog food. I didn't have the luxury of ordering online and waiting for delivery, so I went to Costco.

I bought a big bag of lamb & rice food, and some meat-based treats. Noah liked the food, and everything was fine. Still, I felt bad serving him this food for a few reasons. First, Noah resembles a lamb; he's all white and fluffy. I felt like I was making him a cannibal. Second, I worried about the unhealthy things that get into conventional dog food: all the poisons that were in the random meats made into the dog food, other additives, etc. Third, I felt like a hypocrite: I think eating meat is unhealthy for me, and I refuse to support the meat industry with my meals, but I was feeding my dog meat and explicitly buying it for him.

When the bag of dog food was running out, I did my research and found a vegetarian dog food. Interesting note: the dog food says vegetarian, but looking at the list of ingredients, it's vegan. I think the manufacturers chose "vegetarian" because it's more universally accepted. I, being a cultural anomaly, was excited to see that the food contained no animal profucts.

Now to be honest Noah is not a full-fledged veggie dog yet: he still eats treats with meat in them. After all, we did get a Costco-size container of them. While I don't like him eating meat, I also can't support the wastefulness of just throwing the treats away. Giving them to another dog wouldn't address the fact that I don't think dogs shouldn't be eating meat. So I just suck it up and give them to my dog.

To make mealtime more enjoyable for Noah, and to make sure he's getting all the good nutrients he needs, I try to mix in healthy stuff. Ground flaxseed provides Omega 3's. Wheatgerm or Oatbran is another good option. I've also mixed the food with some apple cider vinegar. Noah eats it, but the smell is a bit much. Molasses is a more popular liquid, both for taste and smell. In the morning, if I have the time, I make Noah breakfast by mixing his food with some oatmeal, flaxseed, and molasses. I know he's spoiled!

We also give the dog scraps of human food when we'd otherwise just throw it away. I feel that "whole foods" provide more nutrition (and fiber!) to him. The only trouble with this is that he likes to take his food out of his dish and eat it over the carpet, making a mess in the process. Sometimes he even tries to hid bits of food in all sorts of fun places, like under sofa cushions, in the bed, or even under me while I'm sitting down! Oh silly dog.