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Originally Posted by Wylie's Mom  Totally fascinating, thanks for posting this. I love proof.
I only hope the dog food companies don't abuse this / take it out of context in order to 'cheap out' and start claiming the awesome benefits of 'high starch' diets for dogs...boy that would make me mad, but I could see it happen. I still believe that higher protein diets are best for canines.
Btw, does the article mention at all what % of starch they think a dog's diet should be? |
I agree, I hope too that dog food companies don't use this research as an excuse to add starchy "filler" to their foods. They should base their dog food formulations strictly on what is most nutritious for each individual breed.
The article doesn't explain what percentage starch a dog's diet should be. All they did was look at the genes that were selected for during the domestication of the dog, and they found that genes that allow a dog to digest starch better were selected for. They speculate that this came about because wild dogs were foraging around in piles of discarded human food, and also early dog domesticators lived in agricultural areas and tended to toss starchier food scraps to the dogs they were domesticating. The dogs who handled the change in diet the best were selected for.