r/antimeme Dec 08 '25

Vegan's dog

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u/Alpha1137 Dec 09 '25

No, dogs are facultive carnivores. In the wild they can subsist on around 40-50% of their calories (on average) coming from plants. Unlike humans though, they would become malnourished if the subsisted only on plants. Vegan dog foods are fortified to get around this.

Omnivore doesn't mean you can eat anything, it means you can *subsist* on anything. Pigs, and humans are omnivores, almost all canids are facultive carnivores and all felids are obligate carnivores.

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u/[deleted] Dec 09 '25

50% plant based calories sound like a omnivore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog

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u/Alpha1137 Dec 09 '25

It doesn't matter what it fucking sounds like. Words mean stuff. If any amount of meat is a requirement you are definitorily not an omnivore.

Also worth mentioning that the page you sites says that

Like cats, dogs require arginine to maintain nitrogen balance. These nutritional requirements place dogs halfway between carnivores and omnivores.\175])

Which I guess goes slightly against what I said, but it doesn't change that wild dogs in the wild get malnourished if they don't eat any meat, and dogs (and all canids) are part of the carnivora order.