Like Lewis Hamilton, I’m putting my dog on a vegan diet – what could go wrong?

The F1 champion’s dog Roscoe found a new lease of life after going plant-based, like his owner – but, says Charlotte Cripps, if her golden retriever Muggles is put on quinoa, blueberries and alfafa, will she have to, too?

Lewis Hamilton’s adored – and famous –vegandog Roscoe has sadly died.

The F1 champion, 40, posted on X: “Lost my best friend last night. Thank you all for the love you’ve shown him over the years. Roscoe forever.”

The English Bulldog, 12, who starred on the front cover of Dogue in August, a special digital edition of Vogue magazine for dogs, accompanied Hamilton to numerous F1 races, and had 1.5 million followers on Instagram, was put down after he slipped into a coma after a fatal bout of pneumonia.

But his main claim to fame? He was vegan.

Hamilton, who has himself been vegan since 2017, switched his dog's diet to a plant-based one in 2020, to improve his health – with apparently remarkable results.

The quinoa and vegetables “literally changed his life”, revealed Hamilton on an Instagram video. “He’s like a puppy again at nine years old.”

‘Muggles, 11, is currently in the process of switching back over to a vegan diet again’ (Charlotte Cripps)

Like Hamilton, I’m all for a vegan diet for my dog. My dog Muggles, 11, is currently in the process of switching back over to a vegan diet. We all want our dogs to have a record-breaking lifespan. Plus, it could help save the planet. I’m a vegetarian – as are my two children, Lola, nine, and Liberty, seven. I find it hard to justify Muggles eating meat.

It’s been somewhat of a trial-and-error journey for me. But done properly, I’m hoping it’s going to give my senior dog with arthritis a new lease of life – like it did for Hamilton’s dog. I’d seen a few sleek-looking Golden Retrievers around Notting Hill, whose owners swore their super healthy and glossy coats were down to a vegan or raw diet – and I really wanted Muggles not to look like a matted sheep anymore.

I grated raw vegetables and mixed them in with his chicken kibble, to gradually wean him off meat. Being totally uneducated, and as I later discovered, irresponsible, I then started maximising sweet potato, brown rice, sprouted organic tofu, chia seeds, digestive enzymes, pumpkin, blueberries, alfalfa, lentils, pea protein, and cold-pressed rapeseed oil into homemade meals for him.

I thought I was the best dog mum out there. I even made homemade peanut butter and banana vegan dog treats. He looked great on a vegan diet, I have to say – the only downside was the flatulence and excessive toilet dumps up to six times a day due to it being carb-heavy.

It’s only recently that I got on the phone with a top nutritionist to help me plan Muggles’s vegan diet a little more intelligently. She wasn’t that keen, telling me it’s simply not so good for certain breeds, like Golden Retrievers, but she could understand why I wanted to do it for ethical reasons.

My main question was: Can dogs survive and thrive on a vegan diet alone? A recent study by experts at the University of Nottingham, who analysed the nutrition of vegan dog food sold in the UK, found that plant–based diets, when properly formulated, can be a healthy and viable alternative to meat–based options.

Sally Barker, founder at The Canine Dietitian, agreed. “Absolutely, they can,” she told me. “And it’s a good diet to manage health conditions in dogs with food allergies or intolerances.” However, she had a stark warning.

“Never try to create vegan meals at home — always choose a complete, professionally formulated diet that includes key nutrients such as taurine, methionine, and L-carnitine. If your dog has a current health condition, speak with your vet or a qualified canine nutritionist before making any switch.

It’s true Muggles will eat anything – so I don’t have a fussy eater on my hands – and I’m yet to see if he regains his puppy-like energy.

I was advised to get him a blood test before starting, and every six months afterwards, to monitor taurine levels, which can get depleted on a plant-based diet – causing a serious heart condition, Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs.

I’m not alone in having a vegan dog – other celebrities such as Joaquin Phoenix, Katy Perry, and Alicia Silverstone have all reportedly fed their dogs a plant-based diet.

The biggest problem – apart from those toilet dumps – is peer pressure. “Hang on a minute,” I thought to myself. “Why is my dog eating more healthily than the rest of us? Why aren’t we eating this as a family?”

So sorry, kids. We need to start keeping up with the family dog.