Best Vegan Dog Foods
Things have come a long way in recent years in terms of the quality of vegan dog foods. Something that may have seemed strange a few years ago, and perhaps even irresponsible, is now perfectly legitimate and healthy for your dog.
Whilst we don’t advocate for any diet in particular at Bring The Pooch – we think you should find what works best for your dog – we can certainly confirm that vegan dog food brands are now well balanced, and actually of a lot higher quality than many off-the-shelf brands you’d find in typical supermarkets. They don’t tend to be packed with harmful fillers and low quality ingredients, and are carefully researched and nutritionally balanced.
Can dogs live on a vegan diet?
Again, we’re not here to advocate for or against any particular diet plan for your dog. What is agreed by experts, however, is that a dog can live and thrive on a nutritionally balanced vegan diet. Plenty of dogs have done well on vegan diets, including Bramble, the world’s fifth longest living dog who lived for over 27 years whilst consuming a plant-based diet.
Unlike their distance ancestors, wolves, dogs produce the enzyme amylase, which is present is the human digestive system (including our spit) and allows us to digest carbohydrates. This is a result of thousands of years of evolution in conjunction with humans. For millennia, dogs have been fed human foods, such as scraps and leftovers from meals, and have thus evolved the ability to digest carbohydrates from plant-based foods.
Best vegan dog food brands
We are going to list a few brands we’ve tried with our dog. She’s enjoyed and done well on them all. As with any dog food, we highly recommend slowly transitioning by maintaining their current diet whilst mixing in some of the new food, increasing the amount steadily. We will separate the different brands into both dry and wet foods.
Dry vegan dog foods and kibble
Benevo Adult Original
Nutritionally complete with added l-carnitine and taurine. This is one of the original vegan dog food brands, and has innovated over the years to develop an even better formula that’s perfect for dogs of all shapes and sizes.
V-Dog Crunchy Nuggets
V-Dog is one of the longest running vegan pet food brands, having been serving up veggie dog food for decades. Their formula has come a long way in recent years and it’s one that we can more than recommend. Packed with a full spectrum of nutrition, as well as antioxidants, superfoods, omega fatty acids, and probiotics. It also helps that our dog seems to LOVE this stuff! Unfortunately, it’s difficult to trial as it only comes in MASSIVE bags.
AMI dog
This is an Italian brand, and the food is a bit different with these guys. The kibble is much smaller than other brands featured here. They look like small rice puffs, but rest-assured they’re nutritionally complete, even containing vitamin D3. These work really well for older dogs who are missing teeth, or small dogs who struggle to swallow larger kibble. You can also mix this one with some water for a wetter, mushier food.
Veggie Dog from Green Petfood
Strictly speaking, this is 99.9% plant-based as it uses an animal-derived vitamin D3. But it’s otherwise all vegan. It’s brilliantly formulated and perfectly balanced, with a high protein content. It uses pea and potato protein, making it brilliant for dogs with allergies.
Veggie Dog from Green Petfood
Another one where the D3 is possibly from animal sources (we haven’t been able to confirm yet), but the food is otherwise vegan, so it’s 99.9% plant-based. Greenwoods are a trusted brand in dog food, serving many other varieties. Here’s their veggie edition, made using sweet potatoes and pea protein. Our dog LOVES this one… it might be her new favourite.
Wet vegan dog foods
Benevo Wet Food
Packed with a range of healthy whole foods, including peas, oats, potatoes, carrots and blueberries. This also contains a range of vital vitamins and minerals for your dog, and added taurine to keep them healthy.
Yarrah Vega
Loaded with organic whole food ingredients as well as soya protein. We found our dog went mad for this one – we would pour a little over the top of her standard food and she would devour the lot in seconds. Some nice added ingredients such as rosehips which care for overall health and vitality.
Trying a vegan food for your dog
We’ll be adding more vegan dog food brands to this list as and when we try them out. For now, let us know what your dog thought of the ones we’ve listed. As mentioned, transition your dog slowly to their new food. Remember, you don’t have to have a 100% plant-based dog either… that’s not what this is about! But adding some good quality plant-based sources of food to their diet can reduce their impact on the environment and may be better for their health too.
Oh, and we’ve now collated our list of some of the best vegan dog treats.
Neil Telman
November 8, 2019 at 00:50I’m transitioning my dog onto a 50/50 diet of vegan and meat to see how it goes (feel it’s better than a 100% meat diet for the environment). Thanks for the list – very useful.
Laura
January 30, 2020 at 12:41Really good list, my dog is on Benevo and I think it’s cleared up some of her gut issues. She loves the stuff too. We’ll be sure to take a look at some of the others.
Miss claudia Jane Miller
March 15, 2021 at 21:30Please everyone who has an dogs to completely change all they wet and dry foods it will help they immune System plus they heart and livers plus all they organs please buy plants based vegan foods products please help your dog thank you
Marie-Claire
August 13, 2021 at 10:00We are vegan and transitioned our dogs to 100% vegan last year. They have V-Dog mixed with wet Benevo. One of the dogs used to be very picky but they both love this combo and they seem very healthy and happy on it. We give them vegan dog treats too, expensive but again they love them and we feel great about not supporting the slaughter house in any way.
Christal
February 5, 2022 at 20:41I had massive doubts about transitioning my dog to a vegan diet, but he has suffered with IBS all of his life, so I thought it was worth a try.
He has really flourished on it and never suffers with any stomach issues any more.