Can You Really Get Wine for Dogs and Cats?

Our pets are part of the family.

People who don’t have pets may not understand this point of view. But for anybody who has a furry friend at home, there’s no other way to look at your pet. They love you as much as you love them and it’s truly a loss whenever any of them departs.

Simply put, our pets have a huge impact on our lives and we grow attached to the animals that we welcome into our homes.

Of course, this means that we want our pets to experience as enjoyable a life as possible. We make sure they’re fed and have plenty of toys to play with. We keep them active and give them as much fuss as possible. We’re sure a few of you even let your pets up on the furniture when you’re not supposed to, or can’t resist feeding them a scrap or two from the dinner table.

But the responsible pet owner is sure to draw the line at Italian wine.

As much as you love your pet, feeding them wine can only go badly.

At least, that’s how it used to be.

We’ve got news about a shocking new development in the world of wine that may see your pets invited to the party after all.

A Cautionary Note

While this doesn’t really need to be said, we’re going to add it in at the start of this article to make sure nobody gets the wrong idea.

You should not allow your pets to drink any of your bottles of Italian wine. Alcohol is not good for an animal’s digestive system and you could cause serious damage to your pet with even a small amount of it.

This article is not about how you can share your own wine with your pets. Instead, it’s about the intrepid work of some very unique winemakers who want to give our animals the joys if wine with none of the issues that regular wine can cause.

With that being said, let’s get into the wines that are made especially for cats and dogs.

Wine for Cats and Dogs? Really?

It may seem like the strangest idea in the world to many of us.

But there exist a number of wine products that are made specifically for our pets.

These wines obviously omit the alcohol that makes a regular wine so dangerous to animals. But they do come with a few qualities that might actually make them a viable choice for your pets.

We’re going to take a look at one of the more famous pet “wines” around – Pawsecco.

Italian wine fans will instantly get the pun on the name Prosecco. But in truth, this pet wine is nothing like the sparkling bottle of white that you may have just cracked open to drink while you read this article.

Pawsecco is the brainchild of a company called Woof and Brew. It’s a non-carbonated wine that contains absolutely no alcohol.

Instead, it’s made under the watchful gaze of a number of veterinary experts. More importantly, it’s made using an array of natural herbs, which means this pet wine may actually manage to offer a few benefits to your furry friend.

Available as both a white and rosé wine, Pawsecco pulls together ginseng, nettle, elderflowers, and lime flower to craft a drink that’s apparently meant to emulate the general taste of wine. This obviously isn’t mean to be a gourmet product – and it’s unlikely that your pet will appreciate subtlety in a wine – but it does have some users. The makers claim that you can serve it a regular drink or drizzle food in it to give the food a unique flavour.

The wine launched in 2017 at the UK’s annual Crufts show, and it’s achieved some pretty remarkable feedback. In fact, it even won an award for being one of the best gift ideas of 2017 at the UK’s PATS Sandown trade show.

This isn’t the first venture into strange drinks for pets for Woof and Brew either. The company is already renowned for creating a range of herbal teas that are made specifically for pets. Moreover, they’ve even created a non-alcoholic beer for your faithful companions.

It’s also not the only pet-friendly wine around. In 2013, a Japanese pet food company called B&H released a pet wine called Meow Nouveau. There are also some similar products in the United States, including Pinot Meow and the delightfully named MosCATo.

But What About the Grapes?

Anybody who has a dog knows one crucial thing about grapes.

You shouldn’t feed them to dogs.

That right there makes pet wine seem like a really bad idea. After all, a grape-based drink is sure to cause all sorts of digestive issues for your furry friend.

Thankfully, the makers of these wines are more than aware of the dangers that grapes can cause to your pet. That’s why they don’t use grapes in the making of their “wines”. Instead, they’re really little more than water flavoured with natural herbs, though some producers have a sneaky little habit of infusing their wines with catnip. We assume this is to provide the “drunk” effect that comes with drinking too much wine, though we’re not too sure if it’s such a good idea.

The Final Word

So, that’s pet wines in a nutshell.

As you can see, they’re almost nothing like the wines that you’ll buy for yourself. This isn’t a case of exposing your pet to alcohol or anything that may cause harm to your pet.

If anything, the concept of pet wine seems to be a little bit or a marketing gimmick that has some novelty value. In fact, the drinks are so safe that you’re able to drink them yourself, though you may want to avoid any that have catnip in.

But yes, wine for cats and dogs is indeed a thing. Whether it will last after the novelty wears off is another question entirely. We’re also curious to see if the Italian wine industry jumps on board with this strange trend.