Dogs like human food
Dakota has fully recovered from getting run over and has become a shadow again. He has developed a taste fro spaghetti. He kept nuzzling my elbow with an insistence so I put some in his food dish. ...
Forum Discussion
down home wrote:This is internet myth not supported by scientific feeding studies or genetics.
Dog Food is not good for dogs. Grains and cereals is not something their digestive tract is designed to handle and they have lots of gas when they eat it because it is fermenting or rotting in their gut.
Dogs (in general) have the genetics to digest cooked grains and cereals (i.e. starch); this has been proven over and over again in well controlled feeding studies and testing of nutritional values in food prior and after digestion by dogs. Individual dogs may have compromised genetics or health issues which require specific diets to maintain proper health.
The genomic signature of dog domestication reveals adaptation to a starch-rich diet
Erik Axelsson, Abhirami Ratnakumar, Maja-Louise Arendt, Khurram Maqbool, Matthew T. Webster, Michele Perloski, Olof Liberg, Jon M. Arnemo, Åke Hedhammar & Kerstin Lindblad-Toh1
Nature Volume:495, Pages:360–364 Date published:21 March 2013
The domestication of dogs was an important episode in the development of human civilization. The precise timing and location of this event is debated1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and little is known about the genetic changes that accompanied the transformation of ancient wolves into domestic dogs. Here we conduct whole-genome resequencing of dogs and wolves to identify 3.8 million genetic variants used to identify 36 genomic regions that probably represent targets for selection during dog domestication. Nineteen of these regions contain genes important in brain function, eight of which belong to nervous system development pathways and potentially underlie behavioural changes central to dog domestication6. Ten genes with key roles in starch digestion and fat metabolism also show signals of selection. We identify candidate mutations in key genes and provide functional support for an increased starch digestion in dogs relative to wolves. Our results indicate that novel adaptations allowing the early ancestors of modern dogs to thrive on a diet rich in starch, relative to the carnivorous diet of wolves, constituted a crucial step in the early domestication of dogs.
