Dogs are more vegetarian than cats
Some health-conscious people highly recommend vegetarianism. Some owners also plan to apply this method to cats and dogs. However, if cats and dogs only eat vegetarian food, will their physical needs be met and whether it is appropriate to adopt such a feeding method?
1. Cats are not suitable for fasting
Home Cats often go to the lawn to chew grass. However, they do not want to make a living from this. They rely on eating grass to help eliminate hair, undigested food residues, and parasites in their digestive tracts. Some things are easy to eat but not easy to digest. In order to convert certain foods into energy and raw materials for building the body, animals must have corresponding equipment - suitable digestive tracts and necessary digestive enzymes.
In fact, through long evolution, cats and their larger relatives have abandoned plants as an easy source of food. Short digestion is one of the characteristics of carnivores. Cats are suitable for eating meat. Their intestine length/body length ratio is about 4:1, while the ratio of herbivorous rabbits is 10:1 and that of sheep is 27:1. 1. In addition, all mammals that are suitable for digestion have evolved a long bag-like cecum, especially those that cannot ruminate. The cecum of a rabbit can grow to 60 centimeters, compared with the length of the cecum of a cat, which is almost negligible.
Starch is a very good source of energy for herbivores and most omnivores, but this is not the case for cats. Cats lack salivary amylase in their saliva, and the amount of amylase secreted in the small intestine and pancreas is low and has low activity, which limits their ability to use starch. In addition, cats lack several enzymes necessary to understand fatty acids, and they do not use lipids well (this is why many cat foods emphasize low fat). Therefore, cats are only suitable to eat food rich in protein.
There is no need to inhibit dogs from becoming vegetarians
Two, dogs probably have the nature of being vegetarians
Dogs are omnivorous animals that mainly eat meat. Although they cannot digest cellulose like herbivores like cattle and sheep by relying on the microorganisms that grow in their abdomens, it is not a problem to eat some fruit, rice or something. The intestine length/body length ratio of dogs is about 6:1, and the length of the cecum can reach nearly 10 centimeters, both of which are longer than cats. From this, we can also see that dogs are better able to eat vegetarian food than cats.
In addition, dogs do not have as high requirements for protein content in food as cats, and their ability to use starch and lipids is not as low as cats. Although dogs do not have salivary amylase, the amylase secreted by their pancreas and intestines is enough to allow them to use starch. Therefore, as long as the food formula is suitable, it is possible for them to obtain sufficient energy and nutrients in a vegetarian diet.
Like cats, there are also vegan dog foods for sale in overseas shopping malls that do not contain animal products. And since dogs don’t blame cats like cats, there are many self-governing vegan dog food tutorials online. Some people have also published books stating that a completely vegetarian diet is safe for dogs.
However, the famous American pet magazine "All About Dogs" once published an article titled "Don't force your dog to eat fast" to warn people, After all, dogs are mainly carnivorous animals, so don’t be too excited about dogs being vegetarian. Since vegetarian dog food is artificially created after all, the nutritional mix may not meet the needs of every dog.
Since our current breeding methods seem to be able to raise dogs well, then there is not much need for us to suppress dogs from becoming vegetarians.
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