# Do wolves eat fruit/veg in the wild help please?



## lucky (Jan 8, 2011)

Ok, so I am seriously getting p*ss*d off in the jrt forum, can someone please tell me whether wolves eat fruit and also stomach content of their prey in the wild because it has nutritional benefit or is this rubbish, I am insisting that dogs do not NEED fruit or veg but it's 1 to 3 over there and I need a few quotes :tongue:


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## Tobi (Mar 18, 2011)

Wolves do NOT eat the stomach contents of their prey. Only if the prey is small enough (like the size of a rabbit) will they eat the stomach contents, which just happen to get consumed along with the entire animal. Otherwise, wolves will shake out the stomach contents of their large herbivorous prey before sometimes eating the stomach wall. The following quotations are taken from L. David Mech's 2003 book Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation. Mech (and the others who contributed to this book) is considered the world's leading wolf biologist, and this book is a compilation of 350 collective years of research, experiments, and careful field observations. These quotes are taken from chapter 4, The Wolf as a Carnivore.

"Wolves usually tear into the body cavity of large prey and...consume the larger internal organs, such as lungs, heart, and liver. The large rumen [, which is one of the main stomach chambers in large ruminant herbivores,]...is usually punctured during removal and its contents spilled. The vegetation in the intestinal tract is of no interest to the wolves, but the stomach lining and intestinal wall are consumed, and their contents further strewn about the kill site." (pg.123, emphasis added)

"To grow and maintain their own bodies, wolves need to ingest all the major parts of their herbivorous prey, except the plants in the digestive system." (pg.124, emphasis added).

This next quote can be found on the Hunting and Meals page at Kerwood Wildlife Education Center.

"The wolf's diet consists mostly of muscle meat and fatty tissue from various animals. Heart, lung, liver, and other internal organs are eaten. Bones are crushed to get at the marrow, and bone fragments are eaten as well. Even hair and skin are sometimes consumed. The only part consistently ignored is the stomach and its contents. Although some vegetable matter is taken separately, particularly berries, Canis lupus doesn't seem to digest them very well."

From the mouths of the wolf experts themselves, who have observed countless numbers of kills: wolves do NOT eat the stomach contents of their large prey, and are carnivorous animals. Additionally, Neville Buck from the Howletts and Port Lympne Zoological Parks in Kent, England, notes that virtually no small carnivore (which includes varieties of cats, wolves, wild dogs) eat the intestinal contents of their large prey. The contents are spilled in the enclosures and are often rolled in by the animals, but very little is eaten (if any is eaten at all). His observations can be found in Appendix B of Raw Meaty Bones.

Myths About Raw: Do wolves eat stomach contents of prey?

Wolves do indeed eat berries and such when they are in season, it's been documented... but... is it because they know they need it? nah, it's simply because they taste sweet and sugary... they don't have any need for that, they just taste good.


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## lucky (Jan 8, 2011)

Thankyou Tobi


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## lucky (Jan 8, 2011)

have you ever heard anything more stupid

"Good Dog food companies actually add veg to their brands of food"


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

Has nothing at all to do with how cheap it is, I'm sure


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## KittyKat (Feb 11, 2011)

Dogs are carnivores, they don't need fruits and veggies. They may go after things for the taste, much like how I eat cookies even though I don't need them.


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## lucky (Jan 8, 2011)

Thankyou everyone, I know they don't need fruit/veg etc but couldn't explain why


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## Tobi (Mar 18, 2011)

There is truly no hard evidence supporting that they can. Carnivores do not produce amylase and therefore breaking down complex carbohydrates falls to the pancreas to produce the proper enzymes to break them down. unless the vegetable matter is broken down before hand in some way (boiled, finely chopped, pureed) they will likely evacuate it relatively the same as it went in.

Another poster "sonyabullydog" just posted some poop pics of her pups poop after she started on some veggies (per her vet) and the seeds of the green beans were still in tact, and she's stated that even more of the vegetable matter has been coming out visibly.


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## doggoblin (Jun 6, 2011)

Wolves do indeed eat berries in the wild as can be seen here. The question is why, not do they. I believe as others that they simply like the taste just as dogs at home like chocolate even though it's dangerous for them to eat it. You've already been provided with the stomach content myth but if you don't mind graphic images the http://dogfoodchat.com/forum/pictures/2200-raw-feeding-its-finest-caution-graphic-photos.html link shows a coyote kill and remains left.

As far as dog food companies go and what they think the Orijin white paper is an interesting read.


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## kennyk (Sep 17, 2011)

I tried giving all kinds of berries to my boy but he just made a huge staining mess all over my room playing with it... NEVER AGAIN! D:


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## sozzle (May 18, 2011)

I tried my dog on apple, banana and nuts and he won't touch them. I was just experimenting and feed PMR. He will eat scraps of toast if my kids offer them but I tell them they are better off given to the birds.
I do give my dog green tripe and of course he eats the whole thing which includes undigested green matter probably grass as our animals are grass fed, he loves it, nice and stinky.


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