Dogs chewing bones is a custom left over from the past
No matter whether there is meat on the bones or not, it seems to be very attractive to dogs. Basically, when a dog sees a big bone, he will happily eat it. Naturally, helping yourself to grind your teeth is one of the reasons why dogs like to chew bones, but this problem cannot be fully proven. From this point of view, there must be other factors that lead the dog to appear in this situation.
We know that many carnivores like to chew bones, whether there is meat on them or not. This is because in the past when food was scarce, the first fat buryers in a skinny animal were its bones. More than half of the content of bone marrow is fat. In addition, there is also a kind of fat called psoralen in the bones, which combines various calciums to form bones. Although this fat is not very digestible, , the concentration is not high, but it is also a source of a lot of fat.
It follows that if you are a predator and your prey is in extremely poor physical condition at certain times of the year, then you should do everything possible to Eating fat is particularly critical. Whether you have enough ability and perseverance to crush large bones and eat them cleanly, and whether you can digest those bones after eating them are all important matters related to your life and death, so you like to chew bones. Got it.
Pay more attention to the selection of bones, although they are not easy for dogs to bite Large bones
So many carnivorous species, including hyenas and some long-extinct dogs, such as dire wolves, have specialized bones that can The sharp teeth and masseter muscles have also evolved to be very powerful for chewing bones. In this regard, although our domesticated dogs do not have those specialized sharp teeth,However, their jaws are more healthy, and even the bite force of an average puppy can be about 490 Newtons/cm2, so they are also capable of eating the largest bones slowly.
The most important thing about nature is still natural selection, which makes all surviving dogs have a natural desire to chew bones. Making behaviors that are essential to the existence of individuals and species particularly pleasurable is a trick often played by nature. The satisfaction of dogs when chewing bones may also be rooted in this.
So it is also a good idea to give your dog a big bone to chew. However, the best thing to feed is raw bones, and the kind of large bones that are difficult for dogs to swallow. The cooking process will cause the bone fat to penetrate from the bones, and often melt the fat in the bone marrow, which will also reduce the ideal for dogs to chew the bones. In addition, boiled bones will definitely be easier to chew than the original ones, allowing dogs to bite into small pieces easily. This will reduce a certain degree of harm. If dogs chew such bones, it will easily break. The bones may slip and injure the dog's intestines, or even the bones may get stuck in the throat.
It turns out that nowadays large bones often only play the role of grinding teeth, and the number of owners who use bones as food is gradually shrinking. For the safety of dogs, we only give them large bones that are difficult to chew, rather than thin and soft chicken bones. Therefore, you must also consider the selection of bones to avoid threatening the dog’s health.
</p>
</p>