Reddit reviews Dr. Goodpet - Canine Formula Digestive Enzymes - 7 oz
We found 1 Reddit comments about Dr. Goodpet - Canine Formula Digestive Enzymes - 7 oz. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
For general health and digestive supportSupplement for dogs designed to aid in digestion and nutrient absorptionDerived exclusively from plant sourceStops stool eating, stops gas, sweetens breathAll natural
I don't think Golden Retrievers have any specific nutrient requirements that are different from other dogs, so general dog advice should suffice here. One thing I would point out though is I don't think there are any vegan dry kibble puppy foods — although I believe most foods are advertised as complete for all life stages. If you had a puppy, you may want to identify how the nutrient profile in puppy food differs from normal food and add supplements. If you were using a food mix like Vegedog you might be able to modify it more easily, but I don't have experience with that.
I have three dogs that have been on a vegan diet for most of their lives: a German Shepherd/Chow mix that is around 9 (on the vegan food for 7-8 years) and two Husky/Malamutes that are 13 1/2 (on the vegan food for 10-11 years). They haven't had any health issues attributable to diet and in general have been quite healthy (full disclosure: one of the Husky/Malamutes recently got SARDS, but that isn't known to be affected by diet).
I've fed my dogs mostly Evolution as a staple supplementing with other foods for variety — V-Dog, AmiDog, Natural Balance, etc. I also supplement, and I'd consider it advisable to do so. I add about 1g each of taurine, l-carnitine and canine digestive enzymes (this is what I use) to their food.
So there's the personal anecdote. As for very solid evidence, there's a fair amount of research on how digestible various vegetable-derived ingredients like CGM (corn gluten meal) are since many commercial foods use it. Vegan/vegetarian dogs aren't exactly mainstream and there isn't a lot of demand for research on that topic, so you aren't going to find anything like a nationwide study with millions of dogs.
Here are some links you might find helpful. (Not intended to be exhaustive, and you certainly could find some more information combing the web if you were so inclined.)
Extracted from another post, so may be slightly redundant:
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There is of course also considerable anecdotal evidence from the people that have vegan pets. I don't think I've heard many stories about people who had an issue — most of it has been positive. Note: Could be confirmation bias.
Furthermore, canine nutritional needs are pretty well understood as is how digestible various substances are. I'll point out that many commercial non-vegan dog foods derive most of their energy from plant-based ingredients.
There are vegan/vegetarian dog foods that meet AAFCO standards — AAFCO is the organization that designs animal feed guidelines in the US. Those foods are nutritionally complete based on AAFCO standards.
There are also veterinary prescription vegetarian/vegan foods that are used for dogs that cannot tolerate meat for whatever reason: it's unlikely those foods would exist if they were severely nutritionally deficient.
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I'd definitely recommend at least trialing the food, with monitoring and health checkups it can be done with minimal risk. You could likely reduce the risk still further by waiting until the dog is fully mature.
Even though I don't find it very palatable, I think it is justified to take at least some risk: the alternative is to sacrifice the life of a creature that likely is just as significant as a dog's. For the pig/cow/chicken/whatever that would be killed to make dog food, their death is a fact: not a risk.