Should You Feed Vegetables to Dogs? Dr Conor Brady on the Real Plant Problem
Vegetables for Dogs? Dr Conor Brady Explains the “Plant Problem” is a deep dive into one of the most hotly debated topics in dog nutrition right now: how much plant matter, if any, belongs in your dog’s bowl. In this 250th episode, I sit down with Dr Conor Brady, author of Feeding Dogs, to unpack what he calls “the plant problem”—why dogs are biologically meat‑first, how vegetables ended up taking over so many commercial diets, and where things can go wrong when the plant side of the bowl gets too big. We talk about when vegetables might actually be helpful, which ones he considers most and least useful, how preparation (raw vs cooked vs pureed) changes the picture, and what all of this means for real‑world symptoms like itchy skin, gut issues, and chronic inflammation. You’ll walk away with a more nuanced understanding of vegetables in dog food, practical guidelines for how much to feed (if at all), and concrete questions to ask yourself before you toss anything plant‑based into your dog’s bowl.
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I’m Dr. Conor Brady, author of Feeding Dogs, the top-rated manual on canine nutrition (according to Book Authority / Amazon reviews).
I have had a lifetime with dogs. After a doctorate studying the effects of nutrition on the behaviour & gut morphology of mammals, I joined guide dogs in 2006 as a trainer, both in Ireland and Australia.
After a time as an award-winning pet food manufacturer, I've been back to research, writing and reporting on the pet industry from the inside out.
It’s clear there is a dizzying amount of bad information out there. People are getting confused and pets are getting harmed.
Dogs First was established to provide pet owners with a source of trusted information and it will always, always put those dogs first.