How to be More Dog at Dinner Time!

It is fair to say that we would always choose the best food and treats we can for our dogs, but if they had free choice – what would they select for themselves? And how would they choose to eat?

Most of their world is controlled by us and food is just one of the many choices we make for our dogs.  But if we were to understand a bit more about their motivations with regards to food, could meal times be much more  enjoyable and consequently more fun as well as meeting their nutritional requirements?

What food would dogs choose?

Some of the most interesting studies which have looked at this have used free ranging dogs.  In particular, a study of street dogs in India looked into their food choices.   Of course, we know the dogs we live with are always attracted to meat based food and treats.  Indeed, we term meat treats as being ‘high value’ for training purposes. In addition, dogs are drawn to high protein diets with meat that is either cooked, raw or in an extruded form in kibble/dry food.  

Does this relate to the fact that they are descendent from wolves or have they leant to eat to seek out meat after weaning.  

The study looked at the dietary choices of Indian street dogs who live near to humans and survive by scavenging and occasionally begging.  In terms of the nutrient composition of their diet it is largely a mix of flour based foods (carbohydrates) such as bread, rice and biscuits they have scavenged or received from humans and protein from meat/fish from the remains of carcasses left out in the rubbish.

The researchers offered the street dogs four different types of diet.

• Diet 1: choice between bread, bread soaked in water, bread soaked in chicken stock

• Diet 2: choice between bread, bread soaked in stock and cooked chicken

• Diet 3: choice between dry kibble and bread soaked in various concentrations of chicken stock

• Diet 4: choice of various combinations of bread and kibble soaked with different concentrations of chicken stock.

Diet 4 was to see whether dogs were selecting on the basis of protein content or just the fact that the food smelled meaty.

The Results

The researchers found that in all four diets, it was the smell of meat which was the biggest influencer of their food choice.  They chose the food which smelled the meatiest even if it was very low in protein such as bread soaked in chicken stock.  In other words they were not selecting on the basis of the quality of the food (the amount of meat protein present).  From a survival point of view, this would make sense because the stronger meat smell was most likely to relate to higher meat quality, it was just that this was not the case for the sake of the experiment. 

Conclusion

It suggests that while dogs have adapted to digest carbohydrate, if given the choice they have a strong preference for meat, not surprisingly!  

But don’t worry though, domestic dogs are better at digesting a diet that is rich in carbohydrate (starch) and so are thought of as omnivores in comparison to their carnivorous ancestors.  It is this ability that is thought to be a crucial step in the early domestication of dogs so if you see carbohydrates listed on the ingredients list of your dogs’ food and treats that is absolutely fine, they can handle it!