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Originally Posted by Britster  Oh, yes, I am in agreement with you, that it's questionable what is best for our dogs. I don't know if there's really one right answer.
FWIW, dogs and wolves can still reproduce. We cannot do that with mice or apes (ha, at least I hope nobody tries!) So I'd think wolves & dogs have a lot more in common than any other species.
Also, don't apes eat a lot of fruits, and plant material? I do know they are not all strict vegetarian though, either, as they do eat insects for animal matter. Technically speaking, we probably could survive on a diet of what apes eat in the wild, but it wouldn't be my first choice.  I know studies were done on why humans live longer than apes, and they were saying because we eat more meat. However obviously many humans thrive on vegan/vegetarian diets as well. Again, individuals, all different.
Oh and no, I believe it is is AAHA which provides the 3yr vaccine protocol vets should be following, not AVMA. However I still think 3 years is way too often, and most research backs that up, so I don't really believe AAHA protocol to be the best choice either. But that's a whole 'nother debate... Lol |
And while humans can't breed with mice or apes, we do use parts of pigs and mice and for biomedical measures to keep certain body parts functioning and mice/apes/chimps and pigs are used for biomedical research and study/development medical techniques specifically to benefit humans. Humans and animals share a lot of similar DNA as do wolves and dogs and I guess other animals. Mammal life on land is all very similar, isn't it?
When my parents were children, they said their dogs ate parts of chickens but they were taken away for family food, occas. caught/ate rabbits, squirrel, roadkill, old/rotten fruits/vegetables/meats but mostly lived on table scraps and lived to grow up with the family! Daddy's 2 dogs got run over rather young & he got no more. Mother's dog, Drover, which sounds like a Staffy, was in his teens when he died and he was bitten by a black snake he attacked in an effort to prevent it from attacking mother as a child. She said it was chasing her(?). She said his head swelled up to basketball size for 3 days and he was comatose for longer, neither eating or drinking and no medical support at all except cold compresses and my grandfather gave it liquor in its mouth. She said Drover never broke a bone or limped.
Dogs when I grew up lived on canned dog food and table scraps and my Tippy lived to be 16, my sister's Archie lived to 9 or something before he was lost. Both were healthy except Tippy contracted distemper and lived through that with little in the way of vet support. He took some dropper medication for a week - had no IV's or fever reduction Rx. No cooling pads. My brother had a Boston, Archie, and he lived until he was old and gray. He did wear an E-collar for something he had, otherwise healthy on canned dogfood, tablescraps.
Regarding the interchangeable foods all the species mentioned above consume, it seems that no one diet is accepted by a majority of humans for any significant period of time until problems of one sort or another are identified and I guess it is the same for dogs, too. We see that the different species - humans, apes, mice, pigs, wolves, dogs can eat similar foods and some even thrive on a certain type of diet while no one diet seems to service humans or dogs best to any majority without its own set of problems eventually seeming to crop up in the form of deficiencies, food-borne pathogens, diseases of one sort or another, raising alarms. Doesn't it seem like the bar we set so high for what and how much of what is best to eat ourselves and feed our dogs is ever changing?