Plant Powered Planet Magazine
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
from companies way ahead<br />
of their time, and tens of<br />
thousands of dogs and cats<br />
have been maintained happily<br />
on them for years on<br />
years. Of course, the argument<br />
re-iterated by many is<br />
that it’s ‘not natural’ to feed<br />
plant-based food to dogs<br />
and cats but it seems we<br />
have a skewed interpretation<br />
of what natural really is.<br />
Feeding cats bluefin tuna,<br />
prawns, whitebait, salmon,<br />
sheep or cattle is far from<br />
natural - surely we should<br />
be instead opening up tins<br />
of ‘raw field mouse, small<br />
bird and rat’. Worming, defleaing,<br />
microchipping, vaccinating<br />
them, giving them<br />
dentals when their teeth<br />
start to decay and get infected<br />
and painful etc - not<br />
natural but thank god for<br />
scientific advances that we<br />
have these available to us.<br />
So it is too, we have advances<br />
with food.<br />
With the increased interest<br />
and traction in the plantbased<br />
companion animal<br />
sector in the last few<br />
years, more studies are<br />
being carried out to evaluate<br />
plant-based diets compared<br />
with conventional<br />
companion animal diets.<br />
A recent study carried out<br />
by vet Dr Andrew Knight,<br />
Fellow of the Royal College<br />
of Veterinary Surgeons -<br />
showed that cats and dogs<br />
on plant-based commercial<br />
diets enjoyed their meals<br />
as much as those on meatbased<br />
diets. Another of his<br />
recent studies showed that<br />
the nutritional soundness<br />
of commercial plant-based<br />
diets was the same or superior<br />
to meat-based diets.<br />
When adopting a dog<br />
or a cat can their diet<br />
be changed immediately<br />
or do you advise<br />
a gradual change?<br />
Because dogs and cats<br />
are often fed on only one<br />
brand or flavour of food as<br />
the majority of their diet for<br />
months at a time, their digestive<br />
systems do tend to<br />
get used to digesting only<br />
those ones.<br />
In order to reduce the risk<br />
of a very upset tummy when<br />
switching, you need to give<br />
their systems time to adjust.<br />
Ideally this is slowly<br />
over 10 days- starting with<br />
the new food as 10% of<br />
the total meal (90% the old<br />
food) on Day 1 and working<br />
up to 100% by Day 10. If<br />
you’re feeding dry (kibble),<br />
Another of his recent<br />
studies showed that the<br />
nutritional soundness of<br />
commercial plant-based<br />
diets was the same or<br />
superior to meat-based<br />
diets.<br />
54 I <strong>Plant</strong> <strong>Powered</strong> <strong>Planet</strong>
Change language