Are there foods that dogs can safely eat but humans can't?
Are there foods that dogs can safely eat but humans can't?
No, not talking about their own shit or vomit, har de har. I mean how dogs can't have chocolate, can't eat grapes. Are there things it's no big deal for them but would be toxic for us.
Dogs have a much shorter digestive tract. So things that have been sitting out and have parasites in them have a much smaller chance of making a dog sick than they do humans. This is why dogs can eat most raw meats without getting sick, while humans need special preparation for raw meats to make sure parasites aren’t in them.
This is new information to me and a great example of the internet having a positive role in my life. I wish it was all this way. Thanks for the mini-lesson.
I not sure this is true.
As I understand, humans have an extremely acidic stomach compared to other animals, even carnivores. Our stomach acid is on the level of scavengers, and this is to kill bacteria and parasites in the food we eat. Humans could be more tolerant of spoiled food than most other species.
The modern western diet/lifestyle can damage our digestive tract in ways that affect our pH and microbiome making us susceptible to what we should normally be tolerant of. Anyone taking antacids or dealing with heartburn type issues I would expect to more vulnerable to food poisoning since any pathogens can more easily pass deeper into their digestive tract.
The short digestive tract in a dog is all that is needed to extract nutrients from animal sources, digesting plants requires help from a microbiome and they need somewhere to live and do their work, this is why plant eaters have extensive digestive tracts that are not very acidic so they don't kill them off. Humans (not sure about other animals) neutralize the "chime" exiting your stomach so that it's pH is appropriate for the microbiome living in the intestines.
The human digestive tract suggest sit evolved for adaptability, a healthy human can safely eat anything from carrion (not saying it's fine, just that we evolved to be able to survive it), be a vegetarian, or eat mostly meat and thrive.
Why is this so highly up voted? Is there any data backing this up? This sounds eerily to the 5 second rule... If you pick up up quick enough it's safe!
I'd really love some sources on this.
My dog often eats raw bones of various animals. Last month he came home with a wild boar skull which has now eaten almost entirely, aside from the teeth and tusks.
Yesterday he caught and ate an entire rabbit. There wasn't even a single hair left.
These are not things any human I know can do, safely or otherwise.
These are not things any human I know can do
You need better friends.
He has, and he has 4 feet.
You mean there wasn’t a single hare left
These are not things any human I know can do, safely or otherwise
Tarrare would like a word
Man, Tarrare is always worth reading about
dog food. most contains bone meal which can shred the somewhat delicate human digestive tract, but is safe for dogs to eat.
This isn't true, at least in the US. The vast majority of dog food is safe for human consumption, albeit not recommended.
Some antibiotics, like sulfonamides, can be used in dogs but might cause adverse reactions in humans, such as allergies or severe skin reactions.
might cause adverse reactions in humans, such as allergies or severe skin reactions.
This is true for every antibiotic used on human beings as well. All of them can give you severe skin reactions or you might develop potentially deadly allergies against them. It might be rarer with the ones we use regularly, I don't know, but it happens.
Old meat. Immune to botulotoxin. May get diarrhea, but if they gobble up some old thing they find, they'll be more or less fine.
Well that's how I got thinking about this - they're not fine to eat some foods which seem innocuous to a human, it could kill them, like grapes. Some commenters here have talked about sort of the condition of food - if it's old, spoiled, has bacteria or maybe parasites. But I'm curious specifically about food that's inherently toxic to humans, even in pristine condition, which isn't to dogs.
I have 51 dogs at home and can't think of anything. BTW: garlic being toxic to dogs is an old myth, we feed them lots of garlic powder in summer to repel mosquitoes a little.
Garbage?
Raw chicken
The arseholes of other dogs
My new (to me) puppy mill rescue eats her own shit.
They seem to tolerate eating straight up poop just fine. Humans wouldn't handle that so well.
poop