If your dog is like most dogs, he probably loves you more than anyone else in the world except maybe his favorite human family member. But that doesn’t mean your pooch has to be so smitten with the taste of flesh that it prefers meat to healthy food. In fact, there are many reasons why your dog might not want to eat as much meat as you’d like him to eat.
Meat-eaters or Vegetable-Eaters?
Just because your dog enjoys eating steak every now and then, it doesn’t necessarily follow that your pet should enjoy eating lots of red meat. It may just be too rich and heavy for his digestive system. In addition, if your dog eats too much animal protein, he could become overweight, which can lead to health problems.
Because your dog has such a short gastrointestinal tract compared to humans, he can’t break down large amounts of meat into small enough pieces to digest properly. Plus, the enzymes needed to digest certain proteins aren’t present in dogs.
This means that even though your dog may like the flavor of beef stew, he won’t get any nutritional value from it. He also wouldn’t benefit from eating large amounts of milk products, since these don’t contain the same nutrients found in cheese.
While some people believe that their dogs need meat to build strong bones, this isn’t actually true. Bones are made up largely of collagen, which is what gives them strength. Collagen is produced naturally by the body, and it forms when connective tissue cells die (this happens constantly). If your dog gets plenty of calcium and vitamin D, both of which are essential to bone development, he will still develop strong bones without consuming large amounts of meat.
The question arises of …