Can a 100% vegetable feed produce stones or crystals?

Decades ago, when 100% vegetable diets were first used in dogs and cats, this concern about the appearance of stones or crystals in the urine began, let’s see.

First of all, we must differentiate the formation of stones or crystals at the renal level from the appearance of stones or crystals in urine (in the bladder). The former have a greater severity and there are usually different factors that influence in addition to food, however, for the appearance of crystals or urinary sediment yes that food can play an important role.

Another thing that we must take into account, is the difference in the causes of the formation of crystals in dogs and cats:

-In cats obesity, stress, dehydration, presence of other diseases and changes in urinary pH are the main factors for the appearance of urinary crystals.

-In dogs the origin is usually secondary to a urinary infection, changes in urinary pH, an inadequate diet or genetic predisposition.

As far as food is concerned it affects two modes:

-Modifying the urinary pH: foods of vegetable origin tend to make the urine more alkaline, which favors the formation of crystals. For years this has not been a problem, in VeggieAnimals we added methionine, an amino acid that helps maintain an optimal urinary pH. But it is true that the first 100% vegetable foods did not take this into account and therefore urinary crystals appeared more often.

-A poor formulation of the food: it is very likely that you have heard veterinarians or people trained in animal nutrition talk about pests of low quality feed, with a poor quality at nutritional level, well, both low-end and medium-range feed can cause crystal formation problems by an excess, deficit or inadequate proportion of some nutrients.

In conclusion, a well-formulated 100% vegetable food does not differ in anything from a well-formulated non-vegetable food.

We must bear in mind, that in a company like VeggieAnimals the economic benefits are not the priority if not that our main objective is the health of our fellow dogs and cats, therefore, our product will prevent health problems from occurring, optimizing the composition to provide all the quality of life we can to those we love most. Today, there are non-vegetable foods on the market that are very dangerous for the health of our colleagues, but the stigma at the moment lies in plant foods that do not contain animal abuse, neither in the product nor in its consumption.

María González Sola.
Co-founder of the Refugio la vida color Frambuesa and responsible for veterinary consultations VeggieAnimals.