Interested In Trying
Plant-based Dog Food?
Millions of pet parents have switched their dogs to a plant-based diet and 2021 is projected to be the biggest year ever for dogs going plant-based!
Just like humans, the scientific community classifies dogs as omnivores.
There is a wide misconception that we need to feed meat to our dogs. But dogs don’t need meat, they need quality protein!
Contrary to popular belief, complete proteins aren’t only found in meat. High quality plant proteins such as yeast, fungi, and algae are complete proteins, meaning they contain the 10 essential amino acids a dog needs to obtain from diet. Amino acids work for dogs in the same way they do for humans. They help dogs build muscle, produce hormones, and fight infection.
These influencers are feeding their dogs plant-based!
The influencers in this video understand that your dog’s health is directly impacted by the food they eat. That’s why it’s so important to select a food that best suits their needs. Wild Earth’s vegan kibble has been formulated to not only exceed nutritional standards, but also to alleviate many health issues caused by meat-based formulas.
We’ve created a delicious, high protein, completely vegan dog food (and dog treats!). We’ve made a radically better food for dogs with 31% complete protein, superfood ingredients and zero junk that is perfect for vegetarian and vegan dogs!
Plant-Based Dog Diet:
Fact or Myth?
Contrary to popular belief, complete proteins aren’t only found in meat. High quality plant proteins such as yeast, fungi, and algae are complete proteins, meaning they contain the 10 essential amino acids a dog needs to obtain from diet. Amino acids work for dogs in the same way they do for humans. They help dogs build muscle, produce hormones, and fight infection.
I thought dogs need to be eating meat? Can my dog be plant-based and thrive on a meat free diet? It’s a common question. Part of the myth of your dog needing meat is based around amino acids. These building blocks of protein are required for a dog’s health, similar to humans. Over thousands of years, dogs have developed the ability to digest nutrients from a variety of sources, not just meat.
Here are some basics about a meat free diet for your dog, how protein works and why it’s so important for your dog:
- A dog’s body uses amino acids to build different protein molecules, which then work to grow and maintain muscle, fur, and nails; produce hormones; transport nutrients; and aid in the functioning of the immune system.
- A dog needs around twenty common amino acids for health and vitality.
- There are 10 essential amino acids that a dog must get from their diet. The remaining amino acids are created by the dog internally.
These ten essential amino acids are – yes – found in meat, but that’s not the only place they’re found. High-quality plant, fungi (that’s yeast!), bacterial or algal protein sources also carry these essential amino acids.
What does that mean? It means that your dog can thrive on a high quality plant-based dog food diet from Wild Earth. Yes, there are other plant-based dog foods out there like Halo Vegan, V-Dog and other dry foods, but none of them have the protein content of Wild Earth plant-based dry food!
Does My Dog Need To Eat Meat?
The dogs of today are quite different from their wolven ancestors. Wolves hunt animals like deer, and consume the meat raw right after the kill. Dogs on the other hand have been raised to eat what humans feed them.
Our relationship with dogs dates back 15,000 years, and for most of that history, we’ve been feeding them food off our plate. Before the industrial revolution, it would have been rare for dogs to be fed meat, as it was a premium commodity. In the 1850s, supermarket dog food came on the scene and the pet food industry was born.
Contrary to popular belief, complete proteins aren’t only found in animal products. High quality plant proteins such as yeast, fungi, and algae are complete proteins, meaning they contain the 10 essential amino acids a dog needs to obtain from diet. Amino Acids work for dogs in the same way they do for humans. They help dogs build muscle, produce hormones, and fight infection.
Fermented yeast protein is the dog food of the future. Wild Earth’s pet food provides all essential amino acids without the need for animal suffering, and puts the debate to rest once and for all over what kind of food dogs really need to thrive.
Yeast: A Plant-Based Dog Food Protein
The secret behind Wild Earth’s high-protein, vegan dog food is the #1 ingredient on our nutrition label: YEAST. These “tiny miracles” are miniature protein factories—they pump out ultra-high quality protein, grow easily at scale, and require radically fewer resources.
The protein generated by our yeast is of the highest quality and contains all 10 essential amino acids dogs need, so it’s every bit as nutritious as meat-based protein, with none of the downsides.
Yeast is also a great source of healthy fiber and probiotics. Dogs eat our yeast based kibble and thrive!
Conventional pet foods made with animal meat have tested positive for — or been recalled due to — contaminants ranging from euthanasia drugs to mad cow disease to salmonella to cockroaches to E. coli.
Our pets deserve so much better. This is why we set out to make a truly vegan and “clean” protein: it offers the complete nutrition our dogs need, with none of the scary contaminants that plague conventional pet food.
FAQs About Wild Earth Vegan Dog Food
It’s often thought that dogs are exclusive meat-eaters. This belief stems partly from the fact that dogs are related to wolves, and from the fact that dogs belong to the scientific order Carnivora, which includes wolves and other meat-eating species. Despite its name, this order also includes herbivores and omnivores, such as giant pandas and raccoons, according to Tufts University’s Cummings Veterinary Medical Center.
The truth is that dogs have evolved a number of differences from wolves over the millennia. One of those differences, according to a study published in Nature, is that the genomes of dogs have evolved to not only enable them to digest plant-based starches, but to thrive on foods that include a wide variety of ingredients including fruits, vegetables, herbs, grains, meats, poultry, fish and more, making them true omnivores.
Dogs can get their protein from multiple sources, because dogs are omnivores — scavenging omnivores, to be exact. Science shows that dogs evolved alongside humans over tens of thousands of years, developing gut enzymes that allow them to digest a wide variety of foods.
From a biological perspective, dogs lack most of the metabolic adaptations to a strict diet of animal flesh that is seen in true carnivores such as cats or ferrets. Compared to true carnivores, dogs produce more of the enzymes needed for starch digestion, and can easily utilize vitamin A and D from plant sources, just as people do.
The truth is, that the digestive system of dogs (and humans) doesn’t care where the protein comes from — it matters that the protein is complete, high quality, bio-available, and easily digestible. In independent studies, our dog food tested high in digestibility, meaning your dog absorbs all the needed healthy protein and nutrients with every meal.
Essential fatty acids (such as omega 3, 6, 9) can be found in both plant and animal sources.
Healthy oils and fats, such as those found in canola, sunflower and flaxseed, are an essential part of any dog’s diet. Oils derived from plant sources provide a healthy mix of unsaturated fat (source of energy) and omega fatty acids -3, -6, -9, which are important for maintaining healthy skin and a radiant coat.
While there are some common ingredients to other plant-based diets, our food provides higher levels of specific nutrients – such as proteins, digestible fibers and omega fatty acids – than other options.
Yes, Wild Earth Complete Protein dog food meets the nutritional levels established by the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles for Maintenance.
Wild Earth believes this is a baseline requirement and will always strive to exceed AAFCO guidelines.
Furthermore, we have taken both AAFCO and European guidelines into account in the development of our formulation to ensure exceptional product quality and safety.