Carnivore Basics, Chapter 2 - Wolf or Woofer?

Brenda Hagel © 2003

Studying carnivore physiology and eating habits shows us that we are doing our domestic friends a great disservice by not feeding them the diet they were designed to eat. Through millions of years of evolution, the dog has reached its present state with a digestive system that undoubtedly makes it a carnivore. Just as cattle or sheep cannot live on meat, your dog cannot thrive on plants. From one end to the other, your dog is adapted to digesting primarily animal matter, which includes the flesh, bones, and all the internal organs.

Although the shape of your dog’s head may not resemble the head of a wolf, all canids have a simple hinge jaw that works in a scissoring manner rather than the rotational fashion of the herbivore. As they do not repeatedly chew or mash their food as does the herbivore, their saliva does not play an active role in the initial stages of digestive function, rather it serves to lubricate the food for transport to the stomach. The dog’s front teeth are sharp and pointed enabling them to puncture, slash and cling. The most useful teeth for this purpose are the canine teeth or fangs, but the incisors also serve as a clamp. Behind the canine teeth are rows of premolars and molars, which are also called “flesh teeth” as they are useful for tearing and shearing meat. These teeth are also used for cutting through tendons, and small bones, and for crushing larger bones. The canine tongue is long and supple and is useful for lapping blood and licking meat off bones.

The digestive systems of all canids are remarkably alike and they all function in the same way. The overall length of the canid digestive tract is short although it remains relative to the size of the dog. This aids in rapid digestion of raw meat. Their simple monogastric stomach is a storage organ capable of holding large amounts of nutrient dense meat and fat. The other function of the stomach is to secrete concentrated solutions of hydrochloric acid, which create the highly acidic environment necessary for digesting protein in meat and bones as well as destroying pathogenic bacteria that may be ingested.

The small intestine is responsible for digestion and for the absorption of nutrients. The digestion of protein and fat, with little or no carbohydrate in the carnivore's gut is extremely efficient. Experiments which have measured the amounts of various nutrients eaten and compared these with the amounts passed in canine feces have shown that a healthy animal loses no more than four percent of its fat intake and only a trace of protein. The digestive efficiency of raw meat is 95% and takes place in 2 to 3 hours.

The small intestine joins with the large intestine by a small appendage called the cecum. While this has no real purpose in a carnivore, it should be acknowledged as this is a key difference between a carnivore and an herbivore. By the time the food has passed through the animal's small intestine, the process of digestion and absorption of the nutrients in the food is complete. The large intestine has only one function, which is to extract fluids and form waste material where it is stored in the rectum until it is expelled. The gastrointestinal tract of a carnivore is virtually sterile as most bacteria and other micro-organisms are destroyed by hydrochloric acid in the stomach. Those bacteria that are not eliminated are seldom able to survive the digestive processes. The colon is the exception, as it houses a variety of organisms which form vitamins such as pyridoxine, vitamin B-12, biotin, vitamin K and folic acid.

Wolf and coyote feces are similar in appearance. Coyote feces rarely exceed one inch in diameter, whereas wolf feces samples range from one to one and one half inches in width. Domestic dogs fed their biological diet have a similar stool size.

For permission to reproduce this article email bhagel@quadrant.net