Can Dogs Go Vegetarian? Are dogs carnivores or omnivores? Pet food producer, Butternut Box looks deeper:
S
o, can dogs eat vegan and vegetarian meals? It’s important to research what is best to give our pets considering they can’t tell us how their food is making them feel…unless you’re Dr Dolittle. Dogs evolved from wolves — spoiler alert if you didn’t already know. From this, it’s reasonable to assume that our beloved furry friends have the same digestion system as their wolf ancestors, known across the world for
46 | Total Grooming Magazine
their carnivorous diet. However, bear in mind that thousands of years of selective breeding has not only adapted dogs’ personalities, but their bodily processes too, including their digestive capacity. Genetic sequencing of dogs, which is essentially their DNA which makes them who they are from the colour of their fur to their personality, is significantly different to wolves in fat metabolism and starch digestion. Changes in their genes and how they’ve
accrued from the gene pool has been incredibly important in domesticating our dogs and adapting to starch-rich diets, the main carbohydrate in plants. When the agricultural revolution took place between the 16th and 19th centuries thanks to technology, there was a lot more plant-based foods available for us to consume, increasing dietary starch in both us and our dogs. And like animals do, they adapted! Humans have saliva to help break down starch, and while dogs don’t,
