It’s another one of my polls — I love doing them! Please ask anyone you think might be interested to answer the poll too. 
I’m kind of curious about what people actually feed their pets — please tell me, what kind of pet food do you feed your pet? (Uh, omnivorous pets, that is — I HOPE you’re feeding your rabbits/guinea pigs vegan food. )
Categories : cruelty free, pet food, poll
My name is Emily. This blog chronicles my efforts to buy 100%-animal-testing-free cosmetics/household products. (I have a list there of 100%-animal-testing-free companies -- go look!) I don't buy just any product that says "no animal testing" on the back -- I think those products may have raw ingredients that were tested on animals. I don't buy PETA-approved products either, because I have the same fears about those products.
I also write about supporting humane farming, vegan foods, and my life in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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Natasha
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:24 am
Oh how I wish I could feed my cats a vegan diet! They are so fussy sadly.
I recently bought a can of vegan cat food at my local grocery store . I have no idea when the store started selling it since I never saw vegan cat food in my crappy city. Two of my cats won’t touch the food and my other kittie just nibbled a little bit of it.Like maybe half a teaspoon. I’m especially dissapointed since my two boy cats are on the heavy side so now it’s even harder for them to lose weight since they are not fond of the food.
Emily
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:53 am
Hi Natasha! Great to hear from you! Oh gosh, I’m sorry about your cats — but I’ve met many picky cats and FULLY BELIEVE you on the pickiness factor. I’ve known many a cat to go on a hunger strike just over new formulations of their usual petfood. I’m so impressed you tried vegan cat food though! You are a really committed vegan.
I’m sure you did, but I just have to ask — did you try mixing in a little of the new food with the old food?
Natasha
May 23rd, 2009 at 9:48 am
Isn’t it sad? I can’t understand why cats are so picky. They looked at me like I was feeding them barf. The kind I got was so good. It had veggies, fruit, brown rice, and sunflower oil. Yeah I did mix the vegan food with the meat kind and my cats still wouldn’t touch it. I even put a little olive oil on it too since they love olive but still no luck.
If they were dogs they would probably eat it!
Emily
May 23rd, 2009 at 4:48 pm
oh, that is sad! Definitely if they were dogs they would eat it — my dog will eat ANYTHING that isn’t citrus fruit. Anything.
That DOES sound like good vegan cat food — veggies, fruit and brown rice — what brand was that?
Natasha
May 24th, 2009 at 3:22 am
It’s called Holistic Blend Fresh Fruit and Veggies . It’s organic too! It’s for cats and dogs.
http://www.holisticblend.com/
They have so many organic products. Most are not vegan though.
Emily
May 24th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Wow — that looks like great pet food! Organic and vegan, nice! I hadn’t even heard of it. If I’m ever in the market for vegan pet food, I’ll definitely give that a try!
Natasha
May 25th, 2009 at 3:07 am
I’m sure your doggie would love it.
Raffaella
May 25th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Hi Emily, I quote Natasha
“Oh how I wish I could feed my cats a vegan diet!”
As far as I know in Italy we have only two vegan pet food brands for cats (three for dogs) at the moment…my cats tried both, but it was impossible to feed them just that way! You can believe me, I tried to….
I have to say that they don’t even eat every kind of meat-based pet food, and anybody who had at least one cat knows what I mean, cats are really terrible to feed.
Anyway, I think that often it can be a matter of taste more than a matter of meat vs vegan, for example one of my furry girls loves pasta, pizza and even some vegetables but won’t eat those vegan pet food I buy…no way, and there is the other trouble about the too high proteins level they usually have, not suitable for old cat, and the same is for dogs, of course. You also have that problem, right? Well, it’s frustrating…we don’t have vegetarian/vegan renal pet food on the market yet!:(
Dogs are so different from cats and they usually eat everything without many problems, I know that, good for you!
That “Holistic Blend” Natasha was talking about sounds VERY intersting, surely won’t be available in my country!:(
Emily
May 25th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Hi Raffaella!
I completely believe you! I know you’re devoted to veganism.
Definitely, the too high-protein level is a serious consideration for me. They make all those vegan petfoods with too high protein (ironically!) for dogs at risk for kidney failure. Kidney diets have to be low-protein and low-potassium, which is really hard because vegetables are full of potassium (which is actually a good thing if you don’t have compromised kidneys). I didn’t realize high protein vegan petfood was a problem for older cats — it makes complete sense — thanks for enlightening me!
Natasha
May 26th, 2009 at 3:54 am
I feel your pain Raffaella! It can be a headache to feed cats!My cats won’t even eat every brand of meat based cat food either.Only two different brands of wet and two brands of dry.Of course they would have to be the commercial brands.
Victoria
May 27th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Emily, I hit “standard” but I should point out.. my cat used to be fed Iams.. she liked it, so all was good. Then we found out Proctor & Gamble does animal testing, and after checking out Iamscruelty.com, I switched to a canadian brand that doesn’t.. it’s still got chicken/fish in it.. but cruelty free
Emily
May 27th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Hi Victoria!
I’m SOOOOO glad to hear that! I actually considered making that one of the options, but then decided I didn’t want to calculate how few people actually buy nonIams petfood. But you’ve changed my mind! I’ll definitely make that the subject of my next poll.
Raffaella
May 28th, 2009 at 5:59 am
Ohhhhh, I am sorry to disappoint you, I am not so perfect!:)
I do not make any compromises with clothing, cosmetics, etc…but I made some with my diet, I eat some organic cheese…even if I’m also sure they are not good for human health, but that is a long personal story…
Ah, Emily I always forgot to ask you something about another topic, what do you think about this:
http://www.petakillsanimals.com/
Emily
May 29th, 2009 at 8:31 am
You’re not perfect! I’m shocked.
That’s really interesting — I’d actually love to see PETA’s response to that. I know in the San Francisco bay area anyway there are a lot of good shelters that euthanize a lot of pets — basically they have a finite capacity to house pets, and by euthanizing the ones that are less-adoptable they have enough room to house more adoptable pets, are able to only adopt pets out to good homes, keep fewer pets trapped for long periods of times in cages, and move more animals off the streets. It’s kind of a cold calculation, but by euthanizing some animals, they can facilitate a lot more to find homes. Really it’s a horrible decision that shelters have to make because so many horrible people abandon their pets.
Because I’m a pro-PETA person, I suspect PETA is working along those lines. I know PETA is violently against no-kill shelters for those kinds of reasons:
http://blog.peta.org/archives/no_kill_shelters/
Still, the numbers are shockingly high. What do you think? Are you appalled?
Raffaella
May 29th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Thank you!
I’m not surprised by the numbers, but I’m quite appalled by that site against PETA!:)
Anyway I agree with you, it’s a very hard decision that shelters have to make, I won’t blame anyone! Is it the right choise? Is it ethical? I don’t really have an answer, what I know for sure is that I feel a big pain!!!!
I’m so angry with those who abandon animals and those who don’t spay and neuter their pets…it’s an endless chain…overpopulation is a global problem! Controlled euthanasia is in use in several countries, not much in Italy but we have many “lager kennels”…is that better??!! Not mentioning the other countries where people kills the strays on the street in the most barbarous ways, controlled euthanasia would be much less horrible than what happens in Turkey, for example:
http://turkeymassacre.wordpress.com/
or in India:
http://fotografandolavitablog.blogspot.com/2009/05/giustizia-sommaria-pagare-sempre-il-piu.html
How can somebody comment on that????????
Emily
May 31st, 2009 at 6:48 pm
No problem! Yeah, that site against PETA is a little suspicious.
I totally agree with you — what a hard decision to make! I personally could never do it — but then, I’ve never managed to come home from a shelter without an animal, so euthanizing one would be completely beyond me.
I also think there is a special place in hell for people who abandon their animals. And I think governments everywhere should impose really high fines for pet abandonment. 
What you say is very interesting about controlled euthanasia — I’ve never thought about it before, but you’ve made me realize how much I appreciate it. It just breaks my heart to read about sick malnourished stray animals in places that don’t control their stray animals. I went to Greece once, and it was just a beautiful trip I really enjoyed, but there were groups of injured/sick/limping/malnourished dogs begging for food all over the place, and I just couldn’t stand it. And all in all, you’ve definitely convinced me — controlled euthanasia — just falling asleep and never waking up — is a very peaceful way to die.
Wow, I’m just appalled at what goes on in Turkey and India. I’ve always wanted to travel to both those places, but I’m rethinking that . . .
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