Why is a dog considered a carnivore?

Carnivores are meat eating animals. They hunt, kill and eat the flesh of other animals in their ecosystems as nourishment. Every ecosystem has carnivores. They live on land and water or in the air. Each carnivore’s prey depends on their ecosystem. For example, the badger eats earth worms and rodents. The lion eats zebras and gazelles. The largest carnivore on the planet is the Blue Whale and they eat 6 tons of krill a day!

Dogs are facultative carnivores, which means they are primarily meat eaters, but can survive for a short time on alternative food sources. We know that the dog’s carnivore skull and jawline have pointy teeth. They’re called canine teeth. They are designed to rip and tear flesh off the prey. The jawline is a lateral movement, meaning it only moves up and down. This results from a need to grab and hold the prey after extremely strong crushing force. Any side to side movement would reduce the force of the bite and allow the prey to shake free. The wolf has a longer snout. Their Jawline is not capable of grinding plant matter. They don’t produce salivary amylase that breaks down plant matter. These are other ways to determine they are in fact carnivores. The wolves do catch and eat prey that are herbivores. They will eat the stomach contents, which is partially digested plant matter. Studying the wolf helps us properly feed the dogs in our homes if we mimic their diet, considering the dogs & wolves dna is a 99.9% identical match. Their digestive system is also identical & another blog to come soon!