Canis lupus familiaris..is now the official name of that pack member that shares your home and heart. Also known as your dog. Dogs are now officially classified as a variety of wolf. Until recently zoologists classified dogs and wolves as separate species; now these scientists have managed a taxonomic merger and proclaimed the two animals to be the same species. The scientific name of the wolf is Canis lupis and the dog used to be Canis familiaris; they are now both known as Canis lupus.
The official change from Canis familiaris to Canis lupis familiaris was formalized in 1993 by the publication of Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographical reference, edited by D.E .Wilson and D.E.A Reeder. Published by the Smithsonian Institute in association with the American Society of Mammalogists, this reference book is the final authority of the scientific community on mammal classification.
It has long been known that dogs were domesticated from wolves, and many scientists considered the dog a variety of wolf. Recent molecular genetic (DNA) analysis has proven without a doubt that the dog is now a wolf!
With this in mind it just makes perfect sense to feed your dog as a wolf would eat!
Toy Poodle to Great Dane they are all a wolves in Canine clothing, domesticated or not their digestive system is that of a wolf. The only problem is with us, and the pet food boys, who insist that all those cooked and processed grains are the ideal diet for our pack members. With generations of dogs fed on this stuff, it has produced weak stomachs and intestinal walls that are prone to gastrointestinal problems.
Let's have a look at the digestive process of the wolf/canine. This system goes from mouth to pharynx to esophagus to stomach to small intestine to large intestine to rectum and anus. In a raw food diet the digestive process would normally take 4 hours; on a kibble diet it may take up to 24 hours or longer.
The mouth includes lips, tongue, teeth and salivary glands. One has to only look at the canine teeth; they are designed for ripping and tearing! The salivary glands add saliva to the food which kickstarts the digestion process acting as a lubricant.
Canines lack the enzyme amalase which is the enzyme needed to digest complex carbohydrates. One only has to look at commercial pet food and see that the majority of them contain grains and fillers, cheap calories, hardly an ideal diet for our canine friends. Have you actually ever watched your dog eat? They do not chew their food as we humans do, their teeth are not designed for this, they will gulp the mushy veggies or cooked grains.
Several holistic vets are now in agreement that grains should NOT be part of a natural diet as they compose a very small portion of a carnivore's natural diet. In the true natural setting, grains hardly exist at all. Wild grains were much smaller that our hybridized domestic varieties. This means that a prey animal is not going to get much of its nutrition from grains. Therefore, the argument that dogs eat animals with grains in their digestive tracts doesn't hold up to scrutiny.
In the wild, dogs were scavengers, not predators. They mainly ate partly decomposed herbivorous animals, the stomach contents and also the droppings of which would provide most of their requirements for grasses, vegetables and herbs. We, in our civilized society get upset when Fido loves to eat and roll in horse or animal droppings. Just remember that this all is natural to them, everything has already been predigested!
As our canines lived in packs, the top dog and breeding bitches would have first pick and what was left would be shared between the old members of the pack and the young pups; this would mainly be the bones, a very important ingredient in their diet. Bones contain the calcium and phosphorous in balance that is necessary for proper development. Bones also help with muscle and joint development. Ever watch a young pup tackle a large knuckle bone? Good dentition and jaw development is another important factor in feeding raw bones.
Our wild canines would also scavenge for fallen, ripe fruit, various grasses and anything else that was semi-decomposed. Hence, we have the garbage bin tipper. This is natural for them; the only difference being that everything in the wild was RAW, whereas, todays dog eats the remains of our COOKED, human food which can make for some very upset tummies and gastrointestinal illnesses.
I've touched on this before regarding the benefits of enzymes, but in the wild all the raw food was full of natural enzymes, whereas the cooked food is dead, containing no enzymes.
The pancreas is the organ in the body that produces all the enzymes necessary for proper digestion. Today's dog has an underactive pancreas (due to all that unnatural food), and this food will stay in the digestive tract and putrefy, causing major toxins to be built up in the system, ( a precursor to bloat) and pancreatitis, plus a host of other manmade illnesses.
Along with the raw, meaty bones and veggies, some supplements to add for good health are acidophilus yogurt (live cultures) for promoting good bacteria, apple cider vinegar added to drinking water, a greens or kelp powder supplement, garlic, vitamin C and essential fatty acids (as in oils or ground flax seeds).
Just remember that your Poodle, Miniature Pinscher or St. Bernard are really..wolves, disguised as a canine and what they really want and need for a long and healthy life is what their forefathers ate.
