I'll have to look at those articles, thanks. It might be that they've more recently found formulations that work well as full substitutes. At the very least, it warrants long term study with vets regularly checking vitals and levels.

I don't know if the extraction is necessarily true for vegan foods, that's why I'm rather uncertain about their validity. It seems like bioreactors and bacteria might be the vegan way of making them, which is sensible. I'm just not sure that they'd actually use that for vegan pet food, but it's something for me to check later.

And I didn't mean to take a dig at you with that last line of mine about ethics, sorry about that. I'm not a vegan but I personally think it slippery to define what life is okay to consume and what life isn't. It continues to surprise me what we learn about plants. That said, a plant is a far cry from bacteria, so I see your point.

I appreciate the conversation!