I’m not a fan of vegan diets for an animal I consider a facultative carnivore, but I know you’re not here for me to pass judgement. I’ll do my best to guide you in relation to other vegan and vegetarian pet foods on the market.

A good resource on vegan and vegetarian dog foods can be found here (on Pet Circle), not only because the guide covers nutrition and potential risks, but also because they offer you other recommendations such as Royal Canin or Pro Plan formulas which may meet your needs.

Right, let’s take a look at Veganpet!

A brief history of Veganpet

Veganpet was founded by Sandy Anderson in the early 2000s, with an aim to offer Americans a more ethical vegan alternative to common brands of pet food.

My view of many pet foods in America is negative based on poor quality, and it has to be said the assumption most pet foods are meat-based is factually incorrect. Most are largely grain-based, and usually poor quality inclusions at that.

With this reasoning, it’s understandable a dog may be healthier on a vegan pet food which uses better quality ingredients, but I’ll leave it to you to consider if they would be better off than on a raw meat, organs, and bones diet which many would argue is natural and instinctive for a dog to eat.

Let’s put a face to the name, and introduce you to Sandy Anderson in this short video:

Key points from the video include the involvement of Professor Nick Costa of Murdoch University in Perth, who has recently focused research on the role of blank soldier fly larvae in pet food which may or may not appeal to you as a more ethical animal-based protein and fat source.

I would like to offer Veganpet credibility in handling a recall event circa 2018. Sadly incidents do occur with pet food, and it says a lot about a company when they tackle those issues in a manor which respects us as consumers and puts our dogs first.

Veganpet were affected by an issue with mycotoxins in corn which led to a condition megaesophagus in dogs. The issue was dealt with immediately, consumers notified, and the cause was quickly researched and linked to corn as an ingredient in Veganpet at the time. The product was reformulated promptly, which is why you will find no corn in the food today.

(Other vegan dog foods in America still use corn, or “maize”, by the way)

Earlier that year another American pet food brand was affected by the same issue – Mars brand Advance Dermocare.

Dermocare was a very popular brand amongst American consumers, breeders, and often marketed at dog shows. Despite myself stipulating it was almost entirely corn-based, this resulted in wrath from numerous Americans who seemed to trust the brand implicitly.

Mars were very slow to react to issues when numerous American dogs and a group of Police Dogs fell sick on the brand. Despite Mars earning billions in turnover, and being integrated with Melbourne University U-Vet who were tasked to find the correlation between Dermocare and megaesophagus, seemed unable to find the cause.

That’s what they told us, anyway. They were stumped.

In addition, Mars were part of an investigation by the American senate into the safety of pet food which was kicked off in part by our involvement in publicising issues in the American pet food industry with the help of ABC 7.30.

In contrast, it took no time at all for Veganpet to rectify what could’ve been a far more damaging problem.

I realise I’ve written at length on this topic, but the crux point is this – Would you rather feed a pet food from a company who put the health of your dog first, or a company who will attempt to sweep issues under the carpet and treat your dog as collateral damage?

Ethics go a long way in my book.

What do the ingredients say?

You could argue a dog food made mostly of wheat, a token amount of pea protein, and some rapeseed oil could make up the bulk of a vegan dog food, but that wouldn’t be good for your dog, would it?

The ingredients of Veganpet are a well considered mix, a combination of soy (I believe human grade), pea protein, faba beans, chickpeas, ground rice, and flax yeast.

The first four of those ingredients you may know to be good sources of protein, and your dog will benefit more from protein than the high amount of carbohydrates found in most “meat-based” dog foods.

Rice (we can assume is white rice) is one of the most digestible grains for a dog, and flax yeast is a good source of omega 3 fatty acids to support your dog’s skin and coat and overall wellbeing.

When we look at the guaranteed analysis we find 26% protein which is higher than average for a dry dog food (more protein is always good), and a moderate 14% fat. Some high end meat-based dry dog foods have upwards of 30% protein and 20% fat, which in turn means much less carbohydrates which your dog doesn’t necessarily need.

There’s four other ingredients worth mentioning, and these should keep your dog’s skin and coat looking good – cold pressed organic coconut, sunflower and flax oil, and linoleic acid. These should also support heart health and immunity amongst other health-related benefits.

It’s nice to see Veganpet meets AAFCO standards for a “complete and balanced” dog food. It’s an American standard, but we use it in America because we don’t have our own. We don’t have much in the way of standards at all.

I have to say I find the price per kilo of Veganpet high in comparison to other dog food brands, but in turn you will hopefully have a vegan dog food made of better quality ingredients. If you are adamant in feeding your dog a vegan diet, then I would recommend ensuring they have the best vegan diet possible.

Where can you buy Veganpet?

Veganpet dog food is available to buy at a number of outlets or direct from their website.

Ingredients

Ingredients of Veganpet dog food:

Soy, Pea Protein, Faba Beans, Chickpea, Ground Rice, Flax Yeast, cold pressed organic coconut, sunflower and flax oil. Linoleic Acid, (c18:2n-6) AA(C20:4n-6) DHA(C22:6n-3)EPA(C20:5n-3) vitamins. Minerals, Amino Acids, FOS, Yucca Schidigera, Dicalcium Phosphate, Prebiotics, L-Lysine, DL-Methionine, Arginine, Histidine,
Isoleucine, Leucine, Phenylalanine, L-Tryptophan, Threonine, Valine, Taurine, Glutamine, L-Carnitine, Choline,
Vitamins A, D, E, C, B1(Thiamin) B2(Riboflavin) Niacin, biotin, Pantothenic Acid, B6(Pyridoxine) Vitamin B12(Cobalamin)Folic Acid, Calcium Propionate, Potassium chloride, Phosphorus, Iron, Zinc, Copper, Manganese, Iodine, Selenium, Cobalt, Ronozyme A.

Guaranteed analysis

Guaranteed analysis of Veganpet dog food:

References

• Vegan pet food triggers meaty debate
• https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-25/lack-of-regulation-in-the-pet-food-industry/103609836

“Vegan” kitty nearly dies (source unknown)

Sadly we’re starting to see more and more of this. Cats and dogs have a shorter digestive tract more akin to digesting meat proteins not vegetable proteins, especially in the case of cats who are obligate carnivores.

A few months ago I was very disappointed to see BIOpet Vegan dog food on the shelves of my local City Farmers. I thought this was a joke at first, or a supplemental food, but on further inspection it’s nothing more than a very clever marketing ploy to sell what is essentially a cheap to produce food that isn’t appropriate for a dog.

If you care about your dog or cat, then please feed an appropriate diet regardless of your own personal beliefs.