What if you could feed your dog or cat something healthy, nutritious and save animals lives and the planet at the same time? And, ward off dis-ease in your babies, too?! With the effects of global warming being felt around the world and pet parents looking to try novel proteins that could help with allergies and other conditions, alternative protein sources of pet food are more and more being explored. What are our options and how healthy are they, really, for our dogs and cats? Let’s take a look.
How Much Protein Do Our Dogs & Cats Really Need?
Protein is the key ingredient in all dog and cat food. So, how much do they really need? The rule of thumb for dogs is to feed 1 gram of protein per pound of current body weight. To prevent protein deficiency, the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) recommends our dogs ingest 4.5 grams/100 kcal of protein for adult dogs and 5.63 grams/100 kcal for pregnant or nursing dogs and puppies. Cats need at least two grams of protein per pound of healthy body weight in the number of calories they consume each day.
Some vets report that, even though dogs are considered omnivores (both meat and plant eaters), they should be fed a meat-based diet because that is what nature intended back in the wild. And cats, which are obligate carnivores, we’re told must eat a meat diet. I do teach in my course that dogs and cats teeth are shaped to tear, crush and mash meat and bone.
And, while this may all be true, today we’re grappling with a much more toxic planet and the factory-farmed animals and free-range animals alike, store those toxins in the muscle meat. Where does that go, twice a day, day in day out? Yep, into your dog and cat. So, we have to look at that, too, and we will, a bit further into this post.
Since dogs are omnivores, they can eat a vegan diet so long as protein sources and other nutritional requirements are met. There are vets who say that over the centuries, dogs adapted so well to their human’s world, their digestive systems adapted along with, so that now, they can pretty much each what we do and adapt to our lifestyle, as well.
I should also note that there are some cat parents who have found ways to successfully feed their felines a plant-based diet. There are cats who just won’t eat plant based food, but if your cat will and it is nutritionally balanced, it is possible and has been successfully done.
So, you can begin to see why the subject of nutrition and what is the best for our pets gets confusing and fraught with contradiction. Probably one of the key lessons I’ve learned from working with pet parents as a wellness coach is this: diet is not a one size fits all solution. Like us, every dog is different and responds in their own way to each type of diet. Let’s unpack our options.
A Scary Fact!
Did you know that about 10 billion land animals in the United States are raised for dairy, meat, and eggs each year? Factory farming accounts for 37% of methane (CH4) emissions, which has more than 20 times the global warming potential of CO2. Eating factory farmed meat is one of the leading causes of what’s killing our planet. What can we do about that? Let’s take a look at some options for our fur kids.
Vegan Dog Food
How is a vegan diet classified? As in the human practice of veganism, vegan dog foods are those formulated with the exclusion of ingredients that contain or were processed with any part of an animal, or any animal byproduct.
There are several vegan dog food options today, as well as home cooking, where AAFCO or pet nutritionist guidelines should be followed to make sure your animal is getting the full range of vitamins and minerals they need to thrive.
One benefit some pet parents have found in feeding vegan is in the treatment of food allergies, like skin and ear inflammation and infections. I have a different take on this, as I believe that allergies are a reflection of an imbalance in the body, caused by an overload of oxidative stress or free radicals. Unburden the body and balance it with a fresh food healthy diet and possibly, homeopathy, if a deep rooted and chronic condition exists, and the body will do what it was designed to do – heal.
Carbon60, also known as C60, is a supplement I love that neutralizes oxidative stress in the body of humans and animals 172 – 270 times better than our strongest antioxidants to date, like Vitamin C, E, Black Seed Oil, berries. It, in fact, delivered the final cure of my Sophie’s skin allergies in only 5 days. Students in my course have cured chronic ear and eye infections through diet changes alone.
For those pet parents who are vegan and prefer to feed their dogs that way, too, Bramble, is an option. It is the only vegan diet for dogs I’ve found that is fresh food; you lightly cook and serve. The others all appear to be kibble and, from what I’ve learned over the years, kibble, whether more expensive or less, is still kibble. The high heat process it goes through to make it dry food kills all the nutrients, which are added afterwards, synthetically. That’s not the same thing. Feeding dry food is like feeding your dog or cat McDonald’s for every meal. Sorry to be the bearer of this, but it’s junk food.
And, a very trusted pet food industry expert, who have eyes and ears inside the production plants, shared horror stories with me of the kinds of things that make it into some pet food, much of it, in dry food. The FDA oversight is very lax and so are the laws when it comes to pet food, deemed feed and not food.
With Bramble, you can also supplement with fresh fruits and veggies, especially cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and broccoli sprouts, which contain a significant amount of sulfuraphane, shown to deter or slow down the production of cancer cells in humans and dogs.
Insects
Remember the tv show Fear Factor, where people ate insects to survive? I don’t know about the cruelty of eating insects alive on tv, but as gross as it sounds, insects pack a powerful protein punch. Insect protein contains the most Omega 3’s of all animal protein sources, even salmon. I was surprised to learn that. Also, insects are the only animal protein with a natural prebiotic. Finally, insects are a complete protein source.
Brands like Neo Bites, who will be making the foray from cricket protein-powered treats into meals and Jiminy’s, which makes dog food from cricket protein powder, oven baked at lower temps to preserve the nutrients, with ingredients like oats, sweet potato, flaxseed and other plant-based ingredients, could be good options. Jiminy’s seems to be a balanced meal, has a veterinarian onboard as an advisor and has a very cool page on its site that tells you how much you can reduce your cost and carbon footprint by switching foods. My dogs love Neo Bites meal toppers and treats. They truly go nuts for them.
So, what’s all the rage about bugs?
Insects such as fly larvae, crickets and mealworms are low in fat and high in protein. They are also a good source of fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals. Insects are easy to breed and cultivate, can be raised on human food waste, and are far more sustainable than traditional meat-based protein sources. Protix, a Dutch firm which claims to have the world’s biggest insect farm, estimates that compared with beef, insect-based foods use 2% of the land and 4% of the water per kg of protein.
Cultured Meat
What is cultured meat? It sounds like meat with a refined taste. But, what it really is is real meat without the animals. It’s meat grown in a lab.
Cultured meat is grown from a small sample of humanely harvested animal cells. Those cells are fed a mixture of protein, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients, all inside a bioreactor, where they grow, divide and ultimately become cultured meat, without harming a single animal. The real meat is then harvested and used in healthy recipes for our dogs and cats, also without hurting the planet.
What I love about this is you get all of the benefits of feeding real meat to your dogs and cats, but no animals were harmed and no toxins from the environment are in the food. This is big!
So, what happens when you cross a cat rescuing microbiologist with another cat rescuing MBA student? In this instance, you get a passionate and purposeful team who set out to remove animals from factory farming and the pet food supply chain.
I’m talking about Shannon Falconer and her partner, Josh Errett of Because.Animals. I recently interviewed Shannon, one of the leaders in this space, on my Bark & Swagger podcast. This is a very exciting and buzzy space in the pet food industry, and still so new. Because.Animals is currently working with rabbit, but plans to foray into other forms of meat, and uses cultured ingredients like probiotics and nutritional yeast.
Now, nutritional yeast is interesting. A lot of people aren’t familiar with it. It is very nutritious, dairy-free and usually gluten free. It comes from a species of yeast known as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and unlike activated yeast, which is used to leaven bread, nutritional yeast becomes a deactivated yeast during the heating and drying process.
Nooch (as it is called by fans) is usually grown on a glucose medium, typically either sugarcane or beet molasses, and is sold as yellow flakes or a yellow powder in the supermarket. You need to try it to understand just how good it is. We have used nutritional yeast to season food with its nutty, cheesy flavor for dressings, sauces, when I was doing a detox diet. We liked it so much, we continue to use it.
Nooch naturally contains beneficial B vitamins and many manufacturers fortify it with B12. On average, a serving also provides 9 g of protein and that is a complete protein, providing all nine amino acids the human body cannot produce. So, nooch is a great ingredient in the Because.Animals palette.
Bond is also creating cultured meat. It calls itself An Ally For All Animals, and works to contribute to positive change by employing precision fermentation to produce nutritionally complete, nature-identical chicken, to start. Apparently, precision fermentation is routinely used to make ingredients such as enzymes for cheese manufacturing. Bond is currently only making a protein bar snack, not yet complete meals, which will come. It has also created a partnership with Hill’s, which could be a good or bad thing, depending on how much Hill’s imposes its ethos on Bond. Bond’s vegan recipes are approved by Board Certified Veterinary Nutritionists, which is great for us.
Just How Bad Are The Toxins We Live With?
Coming back to toxins, I had a conversation recently with Dr. Richard Pitcairn, the seminal homeopathic veterinarian who has taught over 500 conventional vets homeopathy through his world-famous 120 hour program, specifically for vets. Dr. Pitcairn has practiced holistic medicine for over 40 years and has written 4 editions of his best-selling book, Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats. In the 4th edition of that book, he shared studies about how the level of toxins in our environment are effecting our pets’ health.
In essence, even if you’re sourcing meat from a ranch that humanely treats its animals, they are pasture raised with no pesticides/herbicides, receive no antibiotics, hormones or other drugs and are humanely killed, which is what I sourced since moving to Texas, the amount of toxins your dog or cat is getting is enormous, with serious health implications over time. Why? Because toxins are everywhere. The rain that falls on that pasture, the nearby stream’s toxins leeching into the soil. The air the animals breath out in the pasture and the water they drink. It’s unavoidable and all of those toxins, day in and out keep getting stored in the muscle meat of that animal. Where does it go each time you feed your pet? Inside of them. Did you know that human babies are born with over 300 chemicals in their bodies, many of them toxins? 300! That’s crazy.
So, because we live in such a toxic world, it bears considering feeding less meat, feeding cultured meat and looking into alternative sources of protein for our pets, ones really that don’t carry the toxic load of the meat industry and are safer and saner for our planet. Personally, I can not wait for cultured meat to be everywhere, so those who love meat can enjoy it safely and eat consciously. Just food for thought, no pun intended!
I hope this has been informative. If you have any questions, personal experiences to share or comments, add to the conversation in the Comments. I’m finding there are a lot of opinions about this topic. Would love to hear yours.
Find out more about my philosophy on dis-ease and healing here.
Find more posts with useful tips, information and interviews with experts here.
To their best health!
Jody 
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