Oldest dog living (27 years) is a vegetarian???

[jboboxer]

Everywhere I read is how important meat is for dog food, yet I ran across this article on the longest living dog that is a vegetarian, which just made me think again about how important the meat contents are of kibble. At first I thought it was a mistake, so I found it in a few other places and a reference in wikipedia


Vegetable-Eating Dog Lives to Ripe Old Age of 29; Also: Who is the Oldest Dog in the World; And: How to Make Your Dog Live 1.8 Years Longer

Will Your Dog Live Longer on a Vegetarian Diet?, Page 2 of 2 - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluey_(...ian_cattle_dog)

[Caney Creek]

How funny that as I'm reading this post, my dogs are gnawing on two ginormous deer legs on the floor next to me LOL

Very interesting information, just not sure what to think about it... so... no comment, I guess?? I'm interested and looking forward to hearing some other opinions!

[jboboxer]

Originally Posted by Caney Creek

How funny that as I'm reading this post, my dogs are gnawing on two ginormous deer legs on the floor next to me LOL

Very interesting information, just not sure what to think about it... so... no comment, I guess?? I'm interested and looking forward to hearing some other opinions!

Funny thing is my sister is a vegetarian and has two dogs and refuses to feed them a vegetarian diet. She makes sure that the first couple of ingredients are some type of meat.

It just surprised me to see that the longest living dog isn't even getting any meat at all.

[gmacleod]

The dog's age is not verified

Irrespective, I've met (and heard of) people in their 90's or even over 100 who've smoked, drunk alcohol, had poor diets - generally lived very unhealthy lives. There are always a few who beat the odds, or don't seem affected by things that are quite well known to decrease lifespan for the majority. LOL - what we'll never know for those people is how long they might have lived, had they looked after themselves a bit better Maybe longer - maybe not. But its an enormous sideways leap of the imagination to assume that duplicating that sort of lifestyle is going to make everyone live long (evidence is to the contrary). In the same vein (and notwithstanding the doubt over true age), I would not assume that one dog having a long life despite a diet inappropriate to his species means that other dogs similarly fed are going to live long also (just as I wouldn't assume that he might not have lived equally long, or even longer, if fed something different). When it's a few hundred dogs living abnormally long by being vegetarians, then maybe there's reason to suspect there might be something in it.

[Sir Bentley]

All I know is when I grill meat, my dogs mouth starts watering and there is a big pile of drool underneath him.....I don't get the same effect when I cut up some veggies and make a salad.

[Caney Creek]

Originally Posted by Sir Bentley

All I know is when I grill meat, my dogs mouth starts watering and there is a big pile of drool underneath him.....I don't get the same effect when I cut up some veggies and make a salad.

Yes, my boyfriend reacts the same way

As for the articles, I would like to see more than one old dog as "proof" that a vegetarian diet leads to a longer life for canines. In the Associated Content article where 300 dogs were supposedly tested, the organization conducting the study was PETA, and it even notes in the second sentence of the article that "an organization like PETA probably has a natural bias
towards vegetarianism."

Also would like to see some stats on RAW fed dogs... no point in raving about vegetarian diets unless you have something to compare it to

[SweetCody]

Originally Posted by Sir Bentley

All I know is when I grill meat, my dogs mouth starts watering and there is a big pile of drool underneath him.....I don't get the same effect when I cut up some veggies and make a salad.

Ditto.......unless of course there is a big juicy chicken breast on top of that salad

[jboboxer]

Originally Posted by Caney Creek

Yes, my boyfriend reacts the same way

As for the articles, I would like to see more than one old dog as "proof" that a vegetarian diet leads to a longer life for canines. In the Associated Content article where 300 dogs were supposedly tested, the organization conducting the study was PETA, and it even notes in the second sentence of the article that "an organization like PETA probably has a natural bias
towards vegetarianism."

Also would like to see some stats on RAW fed dogs... no point in raving about vegetarian diets unless you have something to compare it to

yeah, I'd like to see some stats period. Unlike humans that we put so many different things down our system, there's a lot of people who for years only feed the same type of food to their dogs, so it would be interesting to see life span.

[jboboxer]

Originally Posted by Sir Bentley

All I know is when I grill meat, my dogs mouth starts watering and there is a big pile of drool underneath him.....I don't get the same effect when I cut up some veggies and make a salad.

Maybe even more if your eating Chocolate................so not sure if that's a great indication of what's good for them.
My dog for sure prefers anything meat and I think she would starve if I even though about a vegy diet for her