18 Jun 2025
Officials hope the new materials will help to increase clinicians’ confidence in having dietary discussions with owners.
Allister Webb
Job Title
Image © New Africa / Adobe Stock
The BVA has today (18 June) launched a new online resource to help veterinary professionals provide dietary advice to clients with dogs and cats.
The resource, which can be found in the “advice for pet owners” section of the BVA website, features a compilation of frequently asked client questions relating to topics such as vegetarian and vegan diets, raw food and sustainability.
The guidance says feeding cats a purely plant-based diet is “not currently” recommended and is “challenging” but possible “in theory”, but also highlights areas where further research is desired.
Recommendations also contain links to other dietary resources and scientific papers from organisations such as the BSAVA, WSAVA and Food Standards Agency.
Following the lead of its updated policy statement published last year, the new resource stresses it is not trying to advise on the “best” choice for individual pets, but to help owners meet both their animal’s nutritional needs and their own personal values.
BVA president Elizabeth Mullineaux said veterinary professionals “have a key role to play” in ensuring pet health “remains paramount” by helping clients make informed dietary decisions.
She continued: “When it comes to pet diets, there’s so much opinion available to pet owners from breeders, family, friends, online influencers and others, it can be difficult to know which information to trust.
“We want to support all members of the vet team to feel fully confident in their conversations with clients around alternative dietary options.
“Our new resource will improve the information available to both vets and clients, supporting owners to make healthy, informed choices for their pets.”
In figures released last year from the BVA’s Voice of the Veterinary Profession survey, 94% of companion animal vets reported having clients who feed their pet a raw diet; 6 in 10 respondents did not know how many cats and dogs presented to them are fed meat-free diets, while 42% said they had clients who did feed such diets.
Almost one-third (29%) reported having clients who have substituted meat with insect protein.
As well as more long-term scientific research into alternative diets, the BVA has also called for vets to help establish a stronger evidence base when it comes to such diets by recording nutritional histories and any resulting issues arising from them.
