You might be wondering: what is the point of Veganuary? Well, people sign up for Veganuary for a whole range of reasons — and all are perfectly valid. It’s a great way to explore veganism in a manageable, incremental way. Some people may decide to continue a vegan lifestyle after January, while others might choose to go back to eating meat and dairy.

Often, the following are the main reasons for taking part in Veganuary:

• ANIMAL WELFARE
• ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
• HEALTH
• VARIETY

Ultimately, Veganuary is about trying something new and challenging habits to reduce your intake of animal products. 

During last year’s Veganuary, over 706,965 people ditched meat, dairy and eggs in the name of animals, the planet, their health or to add more variety into their diet. This year we’re expecting even more participants, as plant-powered converts convince family and friends to give veganism a try. And as we all know, family isn’t limited to two-legged relatives! Our dogs are part of our pack (there's a whopping 12 million plus dogs in the UK alone!) and there’s absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t join us on our Veganuary journey. In fact, the benefits for your dog – as well as for the environment and other animals – are just as big!  

The practicalities of transitioning – for you and your dog

If you’re used to a diet heavy in animal products, it’s going to be a daunting leap to go vegan cold tofurkey. Similarly, if your dog has been eating meat-based dog food for every meal up until now, they need time for their tummies to adjust from one food type to another. Making the transition gradual means you and your dog are far more likely to enjoy and stick to your new diet, for January and beyond.

For you, that might mean slowly phasing out animal products (only eating meat and dairy at weekends, for instance) so your taste buds and stomachs adjust. For your dog, we recommend transitioning over a 10-14 day period. 

Or before you change your hound’s main meal, start by rewarding him or her with vegan treats instead of meaty bites. Our Oven Baked Crunchy Feast is super palatable and many pupstomers are loving it as a treat as well as their main meal, our 100g sample bags are pawfect to start your dogs journey to a plant-based diet, while our wet food is designed to be mixed in with dry food, enabling you to slowly add more variety into your dogs diet. 

Make simple like-for-like swaps…

One of the exciting things about doing Veganuary in 2024 is the wealth of plant-based options now readily available in the supermarket. In fact, over 1,600 new vegan products and menus were launched last year!

It used to be that you’d have to order online or seek out your local organic health food store to find non-dairy cheese alternatives; today, every major supermarket stocks numerous different kinds! Forget that generic ‘vegan cheese’ to replace your cheddar, you can usually find the exact branded substitute, from plant-based Babybels to almond-milk Philadelphia. Fancy a non-dairy milk in your coffee? Choose from oat, almond, soy, hemp, pea and even potato alternatives, depending on the taste and consistency you’re used to. Swapping out meat is even easier, with thousands of new vegan brands offering plant-based burgers, sausages and even 3D printed plant-based steak that taste as good, if not better, than their animal predecessors. So there’s no need to change our meal plans at all: the Wednesday night spag bol can stay on the menu and the Sunday roast is as tasty as ever!

It’s no different for our furry friends. Over the last year, we’ve seen a plethora of new plant-based dog foods and treats arrive on the market, with many established brands launching meat-free treats or complete foods. The pet space has seen a huge movement towards more vegan brands and products, in fact, vegan pet food is forecasted to be worth $16.3 billion by 2030!

If your pup loves kibble, they will LOVE our new Oven Baked Crunchy Feast. This is the 1st of its kind in Europe, lovingly cooked at a lower temperature for a longer period of time, locking in the proteins, nutrients and flavours to create a delicious meal that is highly palatable. Our taste trials found that dogs overwhelmingly preferred THE PACK kibble to a leading meat based brands chicken dry food, with dogs choosing to eat 280% more of THE PACK vegan kibble compared to the chicken kibble. So we can assure you, that your doggo will love making this switch this January. 

Or if they’re more of wet food fan, THE PACK's wet food provides those same complex tastes and textures of meaty wet food with our stew-like texture, rich in gravy, plant-based meat and an array of premium functional veggies and fruits. Today’s Veganuary pawrents and dogs are spoiled for choice!

…or embrace different tastes and new foods!

While we all have our favourite dinners, it’s easy to slip into an uninspired routine when it comes to meal planning. Who else finds themselves reaching for the same ingredients and ready meals for every weekly shop, or playing it safe with tried-and-tested recipes? Comfort food is all very well, but getting too comfortable when it comes to our diet is a formula for dull dinners and boring breakfasts. It’s no different for our dogs. If we’re getting bored eating the same dinners every week, imagine how it must feel to eat exactly the same food for every meal, day in, day out! Yet that’s how most of us have traditionally fed our furry friends: the same brand of kibble or wet food, the same flavour, for lunch and dinner, seven days a week for our dog’s entire adult life… 

That’s why Veganuary offers a fantastic incentive to shake up mealtimes, for you and your dog! Losing ‘safe’ ingredients like eggs, milk and cheese, not to mention mincemeat and chicken wings, encourages us to venture into different aisles of the supermarket and get more inventive with our cooking. We might try new spices and seasonings, experiment with different global cuisine or find a new plant-based brand of sausage that offers something more exciting than the usual pork. If you are curious to check out new recipes for yourselves, check out Vegan Recipes | Plant-Based Recipes | Veganuary 

For your dog, THE PACK offer three different flavours of wet food; No Moo Ragu, No Cluck Casserole and No Fishy Dishy. Each packed with tasty veg and pulses, while our Oven Baked Crunchy Feast is THE best tasting dried food on the market thanks to our delicious ingredients and cooking process. These can be fed individually or together for a truly drool inducing meal, packed with variety and flavour. 

You have a whole month to find out which your pal likes best, mixing up mealtimes to keep it interesting. Pet Nutritionist Emma Passman says, “I always try to recommend feeding a varied diet where possible, barring certain illness and dietary intolerances” and explains that “a vegan diet containing a blend of vegetables and fruits, supplemented with vitamins and minerals can contribute to that variety to help ensure a dog gets all the nutrients they need.”  

Fielding questions from naysayers

Unfortunately, despite the wealth of scientific evidence supporting the health and safety of plant-based dog food, feeding a ‘vegan’ diet to your dog is still perceived as a controversial practice. That means you may get lots of questions about your motivations, from the curious to the outright aggressive! We therefore advise reading our free eBook or blogs at The Woofington Post, which distil the science behind plant-based feeding in a simple, accessible way. Arming yourself with key facts such as ‘dogs are actually omnivores, not carnivores’ and ‘scientific research has shown that plant-based dog food may be healthier and safer than meat-based dog food’ will leave critics with little ground to stand on. 

Another way to avoid scepticism is to be careful about the language you use when you talk about your dog’s diet. Many people like to accuse vegans of imposing their ethics onto their unknowing or unwilling dog. That’s why we recommend using ‘plant-based’ instead of ‘vegan’ to describe your dog’s eating habits. That way you’re not implying that you’re opting your pet into a social or political movement; instead, your motivation is to simply feed them the healthiest diet possible. For those naysayers that say 'but dogs need meat and prefer meat', we recommend you say, "well actually, plant-based diets like THE PACK are 100% nutritionally complete and give my dog everything they need to be healthy and happy" or "dogs actually prefer THE PACK PACK to meat based food when they're given the choice". Removing animal products from your dog’s bowl is first and foremost about benefiting them; that it also helps the environment and other animals is a happy bonus!

A Treat For You This Veganuary

To help encourage you to make this switch and try plant-based food for your dog this Veganuary, we are giving you 30% off your first order with code VEGANUARY2024 

Or, click the below link and we will auto apply the discount at checkout for you

https://thepackpet.com/discount/VEGANUARY2024 

If you have any questions at all about transitioning your dog to THE PACK, please email us at woof@thepackpet.com