Dogs are suitable for vegetarian food
Some healthists respect vegetarianism, and some owners also intend to use this method to use cats and dogs. But if cats and dogs only eat vegetarian, can they meet their physical needs and whether they are suitable for using such breeding methods.
1. Cats are not suitable for vegetarian
Family cats often run on the lawn to eat grass, but they do not want to make a living, but to help them excrete the hair in the digestive tract, the unlimited food residues, and parasites. Some things are easy to eat, but it is not easy to digest. In order to turn some food into a raw material for energy and component body, animals must have the corresponding equipment -suitable digestive tract and necessary digestive enzymes.
In fact, after a long evolution, cats and their big relatives have abandoned the source of food that are easy to obtain. The relatively short digestive tract is one of the characteristics of carnivore animals. Cats are suitable for eating meat. Their intestinal length/body length ratio is around 4: 1. Essence In addition, mammals are adapted to the types of digestive plants, and they have evolved a long bag of cecum, especially those animals that cannot be reversed. Rabbit's cecum can grow to 60 cm, which can be ignored compared to the cat's cecum length.
Starch is a very good source of energy for planting animals and most omnivorous animals, but this is not the case for cats. The cat's saliva lacks saliva amylase. The content of amylase secreted in small intestines and pancreas is low, and the activity is low, which limits their ability to use starch. In addition, cats lack several enzymes that are necessary to decompose fatty acids, which are not good for lipids (this is why many cat food emphasizes low fat). Therefore, cats are only suitable for eating protein -rich foods.
No need to force the dog to do vegetarianism
2. Dogs may have the talent of vegetarians
Dogs are omnivorous animals dominated by meat. Although they cannot depend on microbial digestive cellulose in the abdomen, they cannot eat some fruits and rice at all. The dog's intestinal length/body length ratio is around 6: 1, and the length of the cecum can reach nearly 10 cm, which is longer than cats. Therefore, we can also see that dogs can accept vegetarian food than cats.
In addition, the dog's protein content in food is not as high as cats, and the ability to use starch and lipids is not as low as cats. Although dogs do not have saliva amylase, the amylase secreted by pancreatic intestines is enough to allow them to use starch. Therefore, as long as the food formula is appropriate, they may get enough energy and nutrition in vegetarian food.
Like cats, there are also dog foods with all -vegetarian and non -animal products in foreign markets. And because the dog is not as picky as a cat, there are many tutorials for self -made all -vegetarian dog food on the Internet. Some people also publish books to discuss all vegetarian food is safe to dogs.
However, the famous American pet magazine "Everything of the Dog" published an article entitled "Don't force your dog's vegetarian articles to rotate people. After all, dogs are carnivorous animals. Don't be too enthusiastic about dog vegetarian food. Because vegetarian dog food is artificially made after all, the nutritional matching is not necessarily suitable for the needs of each dog.
Since our current feeding method can still raise dogs well, then we do not have too much need to force dogs to make vegetarian food.