There has been some discussion on dogs and the need to feed them vegetables and green foods (barley grass, sprouts, kelp, alfalfa, dulce and other seaweed foods. And every so often a ‘new’ green food is marketed, claiming to offer all the nutrients a dog needs. It would be delightful if that were true, but it is not. Dogs are carnivores and need animal-based proteins and animal fat. Meat also contains taurine, which is NOT found in plant-based foods, including green foods. (see Taurine concentrations in animal feed ingredients; cooking influences taurine content, 2003) Green foods may brag they contain amino acids, but meat-based diets are far more complete and useful for dogs. Proteins are simply amino acids and there is no need to add more. Dogs also need iron, and they can only use heme iron, found in animal-based foods. Dogs cannot utilize or process iron from plants, herbs, vegetables, kelp or grain. They can only process iron from animal-based foods, including eggs, liver and kidney. Dogs also have difficulty processing vitamin A from plants (beta-carotene) and do better with animal-sourced vitamin A, retinol. “We can make as much vitamin A as we need. Carnivores cannot do this. They must ingest pre-formed vitamin A, often from animal livers. Too much preformed vitamin A is toxic to us. Carnivores can detoxify preformed vitamin A.” (see The Startling Truth Behind the Foods We Eat) While many sea-based greens do contain B vitamins, so does meat. So it is rare a dog would be B vitamin deficient if they are eating a raw or homecooked diet. Vitamin D must be animal-based for dogs to be effective. This is known as D3. This is similar for humans, so make sure to purchase Vitamin D3 only! (see The case against ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) as a vitamin supplement, 2006) |