Vegan puppy food: what you should know

A purely plant-based diet is generally possible for puppies as long as the nutrient and energy requirements are met. And that brings us to the "problem" of feeding puppies. As the nutrient and energy requirements of puppies are constantly changing in the first few months of life, no puppy food can cover the entire puppy phase as required - this applies to both vegan and conventional food. This is why VEGDOG there is currently no vegan puppy food available.

If you still want to feed your puppy a vegan diet, you should use a professional ration calculation from a nutrition expert. They can create individual feeding plans that are optimally tailored to the puppy's age, weight, growth and specific needs.

Proper feeding during the growth phase lays the foundation for a healthy dog's life. An oversupply or undersupply of nutrients is particularly critical in puppyhood - because the consequences often remain undetected for a long time and can have a negative impact on physical development. Especially with vegan puppy nutrition, it is therefore essential to pay attention to individually tailored rations.

What you should pay attention to when feeding:

• Nutrient imbalance is risky: both a deficiency and an excess have a negative effect on development.
• Excess energy accelerates growth unnaturally: This can damage bones and joints in the long term.
• Slim puppies are often of normal weight: Visible ribcages do not necessarily mean underweight.
• More food is not always better: increasing the amount of food does not necessarily lead to weight gain, but rather accelerates growth.
• The right amount of food is just as important as the food composition: this is the only way to optimally meet your puppy's needs.
• An individually created nutrition plan is recommended: to be able to optimally satisfy hunger as well as nutrient and energy requirements

There are foods that are suitable for a certain phase of puppyhood. However, this is currently rare on the vegan food market and there is hardly any scientific data on purely plant-based commercial puppy food. This is also one of the reasons why we do not yet have any in our range ourselves, but recommend a professional ration calculation until the puppy is fully grown and can be switched to a vegan adult food.

Dry or wet food - which is the best choice?

It is also important for puppies to drink enough when they are given dry food. Until the 8th or 9th week, puppies still have milk teeth, which sometimes make it difficult for them to chew the hard dry food. The dry food should therefore not be too hard or should be soaked if necessary.

As with adult dogs, once the energy and nutritional requirements have been met, taste, preference and practicality are the deciding factors. Whether dry or wet food, you should always make sure that your puppy food consists of ingredients that are not too exotic and does not contain any artificial colors or preservatives.

The following example illustrates once again how different the nutritional requirements can be between puppies and adult dogs:

Up to 11 or 12 months of age, the energy, protein and mineral requirements of growing dogs are significantly higher than those of adult dogs. Puppies that are switched to adult food before the end of their growth period do not consume enough calcium in addition to other important nutrients, as the nutrient density in puppy food is much higher than in complete food for adult dogs. The lack of minerals, vitamins and protein can lead to massive growth disorders, which have long-term consequences - including for the health of the adult dog.

The distinction between puppy food, dog food for adult dogs or dog food for seniors is therefore not an ingenious marketing ploy. The distinction is necessary to provide dogs with the nutrients they need at every stage of their lives!

Our GREEN CRUNCH is not suitable as a complete food for puppies, but can be fed as a small snack from time to time. Our snacks are also very popular with dogs of all ages. Our DENTALS in particular are suitable for occasional chewing fun for young dogs thanks to their small size. But beware: excess energy should be avoided at all costs - less is definitely more!

Good appetite 🙂