Avaliação da preferência de biscoitos veganos e cárneos para cães

Abstract

The choice to consume a vegetarian diet has several reasons, including ethical concerns with animals, religion and health. Thus, the conviction of these individuals can be so great that they choose to feed their animals in a similar way, then a new niche of products for dogs and cats appears using only ingredients of vegetal origin. In view of this, the use of palatability tests becomes essential to evaluate the palatability of these new vegan foods, ensuring that they are accepted by the animals, and then launched on the market. The objective of the present work was to develop two dog biscuits, one vegan (without animal protein) and another one containing meat product, and to verify by palatability test if there is preference of the animals for the meat biscuit, since these are considered carnivorous. Twenty-five male and female dogs were used. The palatability test lasted three consecutive days and was carried out in the tutors' homes. The biscuits were supplied simultaneously in two identical feeders, for a period of three minutes. The preference of the animals was evaluated by means of the first choice (first feeder that the animal smelled), first biscuit that the animal consumed and ratio of ingestion (IR). A significant difference (P <0.05) was observed in the results found for the intake ratio, first choice and the first feed that the animal consumed. The intake ratio was higher (59.06%) in meat biscuits. The first choice of animals was by the vegan biscuit (58.7%) and the first food most consumed was the biscuit containing meat (74.67%). It is concluded that the result found in this experiment is promising, since despite the preference of the dogs for the meat biscuits, there was also an acceptance of the vegan biscuits.