Gently Cooked Vegan Dog Food – Higher Amino Acid Digestibility Score Than Chicken Based Dog Food

Adding to a rapidly growing body of research supporting the legitimacy and viability of vegan dog food, the latest vegan dog food study conducted by researchers at the Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, and published in February 2023, has found that gently cooked human-grade vegan dog food (at 74°C) performed well, easily meeting the Crude Protein and Amino Acid needs of dogs according to The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) and European Pet Food Industry Federation (FEDIAF) nutritional requirements, having high Amino Acid digestibility, and high energy contents that exceeded current Metabolisable Energy equations and estimates.

Research Studies on Vegan Dog Food

In the study, the researchers tested two gently-cooked human-grade vegan diets, Bramble’s The Cowbell and The Roost, and an extruded dry meat-based kibble diet, Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula Chicken and Brown Rice recipe (CT). The Cowbell’s (BC) recipe included organic pea protein, lentils, and whole peas for protein. The Roost (BR) contained organic pea protein, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), and whole peas as primary protein sources.

Although diets containing pulses and legumes have been on the market for decades and have been shown to have high Amino Acid digestibility, such diets have been accused of contributing to low taurine status and the development of dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs. Over the past few years, many research groups have conducted prospective randomized studies to test if or how legume-based and/or grain-free diets impact the taurine status or biomarkers of dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs, but without significant findings (Donadelli et al., 2020; McCauley et al., 2020; Pezzali et al., 2020; Reilly et al., 2021).

No significant association between grain-free diet sales and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) incidence rates was identified when data over the past two decades were examined (Quest et al., 2022). Despite the lack of evidence linking legumes and pulses with dilated cardiomyopathy in the scientific literature, the media and federal regulators in the USA have heightened the attention that these ingredients receive, with many veterinarians and consumers being fearful of their presence in dog foods.

The current study demonstrates that the vegan diets tested contained sufficient sulphur-containing Amino Acids, and contained more taurine than the animal-based control diet, and that indispensable Amino Acid digestibilities were high and similar to that of the animal-based control diet. All indispensable AA were present at concentrations above those recommended by AAFCO and FEDIAF.

As can be seen in the table below the indispensable amino acid levels for the 2 vegan dog foods tested (BC and BR) were higher than those in the meat-based food (CT) that formed part of the study.

Digestible indispensable amino acid concentrations of dog foods tested:

^aValues are based on the measured AA digestibilities and TME_n of the dog foods tested.

^bCT = Life Protection Formula Chicken and Brown Rice (Blue Buffalo, Wilton, CT), BC = The Cowbell (Bramble Inc., New York, NY), BR = The Roost (Bramble Inc., New York, NY).

Because sulphur-containing AA are typically the limiting AA of legumes and pulses, and because some have attempted to link these ingredients with dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs, it is important to note that the vegan diets (BC; BR) tested easily exceeded the AAFCO methionine and methionine-cystine recommendations and contained higher taurine concentrations than the CT diet, evidenced by the table below.

% dry matter g/1,000 kcal

Amino Acid AAFCO CT BC BR AAFCO CT BC BR

Arginine	0.51	1.78	2.59	2.83	1.28	4.88	6.54	7.18
Histidine	0.19	0.61	0.78	0.84	0.48	1.67	1.97	2.13
Isoleucine	0.38	0.98	1.48	1.62	0.95	2.68	3.74	4.11
Leucine	0.68	1.78	2.57	2.78	1.7	4.88	6.49	7.06
Lysine	0.63	1.65	2.30	2.42	1.58	4.52	5.81	6.14
Methionine	0.33	0.74	0.63	0.65	0.83	2.03	1.59	1.65
Methionine-cystine	0.65	1.11	0.96	1.04	1.63	3.07	2.45	2.66
Phenylalanine	0.45	1.06	1.71	1.86	1.13	2.90	4.32	4.72
Phenylalanine-tyrosine	0.74	1.91	2.81	3.03	1.85	5.23	7.10	7.69
Threonine	0.48	0.96	1.21	1.27	1.2	2.63	3.06	3.22
Tryptophan	0.16	0.23	0.27	0.33	0.4	0.63	0.68	0.84
Valine	0.49	1.18	1.63	1.76	1.23	3.23	4.12	4.47

Alanine	–	1.58	1.42	1.50	–	4.33	3.59	3.81
Aspartic acid	–	2.22	3.77	3.97	–	6.08	9.52	10.08
Cysteine	–	0.38	0.34	0.40	–	1.04	0.86	1.02
Glutamic acid	–	4.22	5.38	5.91	–	11.56	13.59	15.00
Glycine	–	2.11	1.33	1.39	–	5.78	3.36	3.53
Proline	–	1.56	1.35	1.48	–	4.27	3.41	3.76
Serine	–	0.98	1.51	1.59	–	2.68	3.81	4.04
Tyrosine	–	0.85	1.10	1.17	–	2.33	2.78	2.97
Taurine	–	0.27	0.42	0.38	–	0.74	1.06	0.96

Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO, 2022) for adult dogs at maintenance.

CT = Life Protection Formula Chicken and Brown Rice (Blue Buffalo, Wilton, CT), BC = The Cowbell (Bramble Inc., New York, NY), BR = The Roost (Bramble Inc., New York, NY).

It is becoming increasingly clear that plant-based, vegan dog food is not only capable of meeting our dogs’ requirement for amino acids, via a variety of vegetable protein sources, but also provides levels of amino acids, and digestibility, that matches (and often exceeds) meat-based dog food.

As highlighted in this latest vegan dog food study, formulating a plant-based dog food using a variety of complementary plant-based protein sources delivers complete and balanced diets for our dogs without the need for meat.

Bonza vegan dog food has been formulated to include a greater variety of plant-based proteins than any other vegan dog food (or meat-based food) available. These quality human-grade protein sources include oats, potato protein, quinoa, peas, chickpeas, fava (broad) beans, pea protein, nutritional yeast and seaweed.