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Post by Tiggerwoos on Mar 1, 2006 13:03:49 GMT
What do you feed your pets? Do they have a vegan diet or not and if you like, add your reasons pro or against it. What are your oppinions on standard commercial cat food in the supermarkets?
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Fauxmage
EV Friend
I eat food.
Posts: 186
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Post by Fauxmage on Mar 7, 2006 7:47:48 GMT
I don't like to go into details on vegan forums about what I feed my animals, because they are not vegan, and it is gross to talk about. But they do not eat commercial food either, which is garbage. I am a pet sitter, and get to see lots of animals, and mine are remarkably healthy and beautiful compared to many their age and younger, and they never get sick. Except for Fod, my oldest dog, who used to get chronic yeast infections in his ears until I changed his diet. If a person wishes to try their carnivorous animals on a vegan diet, they should visit a vet quite often. Carnivorous animals have different enzymes that are not suited to breaking plant protein bonds, and if the carnivore is not able to fully utilise the plant protein, his body will rob its organs of the necessary amino acids not absorbed from the diet. It isn't a matter of the vegan diet not providing all the essential amino acids, its an issue of the enzymatic system not being able to unlock the bonds and release the amino acids for use. An animal can appear healthy for a very long time on a vegan diet, but his organs will slowly be damaged by having their tissues robbed of their protein for use in other more vital functions, and if you are not seeing a vet regularly you will never know this is happening until it is too late, and the damage is irreversible. Also, any unabsorbable plant protein will be a burden on the kidneys, as well as contributing to the growth of benign lumps under the skin. Its a difficult position to be in, to keep carnivorous animals who are not vegan. Often, it is they who will decide, not you, by refusing the vegan food. I am not happy with feeding animals to my animals, and I am not happy trying to force my animals to eat something they refuse to eat. I would never compromise my vegan ethics for my own sake, but for me its a case of having to compromise them for the animals I live with.
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Post by Tiggerwoos on Mar 7, 2006 15:50:13 GMT
I know what you mean about not going into detail. I have the same dilemma. My cats are not vegan as I know its more difficult for a cat to adapt to a healthy vegan lifestyle, although of course there are many many healthy vegan cats. I, like you don't feed my cats commercial cat food anymore since the event of Gizmo having a tumor. They are fed an organic high quality diet, although when I get Gizmo to the holistic vet next I am going to talk to him about a vegan diet. I also give all my cats an antioxidant complex with added taurine anyway and Gizzie gets some extra ester-C and immune boosting herbs.
The strange thing is though that my cats actually love Veggiecat and seem to prefer it to anything else as I got some samples at the Incredible Veggie Show in Wembley last year.
I have heard that its pretty easy for a dog to adapt to a vegan diet though.
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Post by tabitha on Mar 8, 2006 21:32:12 GMT
I havent made any decisions with cat food. The only thing I dont do is buy Iams, Hills etc., as I have seen footage of what goes on in their kennels. I wrote lots of letters to various companies about their petfood and just got a load of woffle back. Someone told me that you can make your cat very ill by giving it a vegan diet and as Arnie is prone to urine infections it put me off a bit.
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Post by maisiepaisie on May 27, 2006 0:35:30 GMT
I feel bad for feeding my dog vegan dog food that he really doesn't like I'm afraid I cannot bring myself to serve meat. Even just thinking about it makes me cringe
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Post by alisont on May 27, 2006 8:19:26 GMT
Jeds not vegan, but i live with my parents so dad cooks meat for him. I have tried him on vegan dry foods and he loves them I will stock up at Bristol fair from veggiepets to save postage. He will also eat most of the meals i eat - pasta/rice and loves veggies. Hes on a low fat diet as he needs to reduce his weight. We dont buy tinned/Iams/Hills etc... Tricky area - id love him to be vegan but am settling for some meals being vegan at the mo.
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Post by tabitha on May 27, 2006 9:32:32 GMT
Arnie (cat) loves the "fake" chicken meat I sometimes get for sandwiches. ;D
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Post by Geoff on May 27, 2006 9:59:06 GMT
My little friend, Martin, is vegan. He eats apple, rock melon, pawpaw, carrot, banana, lillypilly leaves and bottlebrush flowers. He also drinks milk formula.
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Post by tabitha on May 27, 2006 13:01:50 GMT
That possum eats better than I do. I bet he has a lovely, wrinkle free complexion.
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Post by Tiggerwoos on May 31, 2006 16:46:51 GMT
If I'm ever reincarnated, I'm going to return as one of Geoff's possums!
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Post by muffin on Jun 5, 2006 11:44:35 GMT
I'm a newbie vegan but my dogs are not and many times I've thought myself a tad hypocritical because of feeding my dogs a meat diet and so wished they'd also be vegan - I would not make my dogs eat something they do not like because of my decision to become vegan... my dogs turn their noses up to veggie dog food, so for me, forcing them to eat something they hate, isn't fair on them - I wish my dogs would be happy eating a non meat diet but alas this is not to be, at least not totally - I love my dogs so very much that it's a small sacrifice to deal with feeding tinned or dry food that contains meat.
My dogs ate meat before I was a veggie, maybe if I'd been a veggie before I got my dogs, things might have been different and we could all be on a non meat diet... if only life was simpler. ;D
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Post by squirrel on Jun 6, 2006 10:54:23 GMT
Like most folks who've replied I'm in a similar position, the dogs and cat still eat meat. The cat won't touch anything else and one of the dogs has such a delicate bowel that anything other than chicken makes him very ill. The chinchillas, happily, are vegan.
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Post by fezzarooooo on Jun 8, 2006 21:05:32 GMT
I'm worried now about what we've been feeding our kitties. Someone at another forum mentioned not feeding cats tuna because of the mercury. I did some searching on it and discovered as well as the mercury the vegetable oil can cause Vit E deficiency. They would get tuna 1-2 times a week at bed time as their dried food doesn't keep them full very long. I decided to do a search on their dried food and read that it's not good to feed them dried food too often as there's too much carbohydrate in it (the grain in theirs is rice). Now I'm worried I've been doing something which might have harmed them . I think I'm more worried by it as I've noticed Jethro seems to have aged suddenly recently. They're 13 now but have always looked fresh & young. Jethro seems to be getting stiff round his back legs recently which has been playing on my mind. They see the vet every Sept for their inoculations so I might get the vet to run a series of bloods to make sure everything's ok *sigh*
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Post by vaiovegan on Jun 11, 2006 13:31:54 GMT
I feel bad for feeding my dog vegan dog food that he really doesn't like I'm afraid I cannot bring myself to serve meat. Even just thinking about it makes me cringe
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Post by tabitha on Jun 11, 2006 13:40:58 GMT
Vaiovegan - Hi!! do you feed your dog meat?
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Post by maisiepaisie on Jun 11, 2006 14:37:01 GMT
I feel bad for feeding my dog vegan dog food that he really doesn't like I'm afraid I cannot bring myself to serve meat. Even just thinking about it makes me cringe What is that supposed to mean? Why don't you just say what you're thinking
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Post by vaiovegan on Jun 11, 2006 15:29:26 GMT
Vaiovegan - Hi!! do you feed your dog meat? No they do not eat meat nor are they my dogs.
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Post by vaiovegan on Jun 11, 2006 15:32:20 GMT
What is that supposed to mean? Why don't you just say what you're thinking Need I spell it out for you young lady? You are forcing your dog (How long this poor animal has had to put p with it I do not know) to eat something it doesn't like day in day out!!! I don't know about everyone else but that sounds a little bit crappy to me. Your dogs need rescuing, if a veggie or vegan rescues it it can be claimed as an ALF action
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Post by fezzarooooo on Jun 11, 2006 15:39:23 GMT
Vaiovegan tbh it looks like you really have something personal against maisiepaise and seem to be hounding (no pun intended) her round this forum. I suggest you air your grievances though the Private Messaging system with maisie and stop cluttering these threads with your picking & poking. Of course you can keep this present form of action up but tbh you're just going to make yourself look childish & rude. Just my honest opinion.
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Post by vaiovegan on Jun 11, 2006 15:48:05 GMT
Vaiovegan tbh it looks like you really have something personal against maisiepaise and seem to be hounding (no pun intended) her round this forum. I suggest you air your grievances though the Private Messaging system with maisie and stop cluttering these threads with your picking & poking. Of course you can keep this present form of action up but tbh you're just going to make yourself look childish & rude. Just my honest opinion. I think you will find I am doing the rounds and it look that way because we are posting around the same time. You know how it is, you see a new post you reply to it, its not rocket science. Do you want me to not reply to a post I do not agree with? I have made many posts and If you care to look around I think you will see I have made a contribution. I could ask if this reply is in response to me admitting to be a friend of Saucy but i will give you the benefit of the doubt and hope you would not revert to such a childish thing Chill.
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