Dog food
food intended for consumption by dogs made from meat
Dog food is food made for dogs. Dogs are omnivores but they like to eat meat. They have sharp, pointed teeth and shorter gastrointestinal tracts of carnivores, better suited for meat than vegetables. Their feeding habits evolved as they lived with humans in agricultural societies and ate scrap leftovers and excrement from humans.[1] Dogs' ability to digest carbohydrates easily may be a key difference between dogs and wolves. [2]
The first food was made specifically for dogs in the nineteenth century, Spratt's Patent Dog Biscuit. In the United States people spent around $23.3 billion in 2022 on dog food.[3]
References
change- ↑ Arendt, M.; Cairns, K. M.; Ballard, J. W.; Savolainen, P.; Axelsson, E. (July 2016). "Diet adaptation in dog reflects spread of prehistoric agriculture". Heredity. 117 (5): 301–306. doi:10.1038/hdy.2016.48. PMC 5061917. PMID 27406651.
- ↑ Axelsson, E.; Ratnakumar, A.; Arendt, M.L.; Maqbool, K.; Webster, M.T.; Perloski, M.; Liberg, O.; Arnemo, J.M.; Hedhammar, Å.; Lindblad-Toh, K. (2013). "The genomic signature of dog domestication reveals adaptation to a starch-rich diet". Nature. 495 (7441): 360–364. Bibcode:2013Natur.495..360A. doi:10.1038/nature11837. PMID 23354050. S2CID 4415412.
- ↑ "Dog Food in the US". Euromonitor. Retrieved 2023-05-20.