Department of Animal Nutrition, Bombay Veterinary College, Parel, Mumbai-400 012, India.
A study was conducted on 12 growing non-descript female dogs to compare and evaluate vegetarian and non-vegetarian dry pet foods on palatability and food efficiency. The non-vegetarian group consumed more food and the same was also reflected in the significantly higher gain in weight, but the apparent differences in dry matter intake were statistically non-significant. The DCP intake of non- vegetarian. group was significantly higher (P≤0.05), which also reflected significantly higher (P<0.01) gain in weight than that of vegetarian group. Non-vegetarian group had significantly (P≤0.05) higher food efficiency than that of vegetarian group. Dogs on vegetarian. diet required more DCP/kg. gain than those on non- vegetarian diet, but apparent difference in efficiency was non-significant.
