Why can’t dogs eat pork?

Wrong food

A dog – by the way, this is also true of a cat – should not be given pork in the form in which the owner consumes it. Firstly, such food is too fatty for a pet: there are significantly more fats in it than in poultry meat or beef. Secondly, it is a highly saturated fat that is difficult to digest in the dog’s gastrointestinal tract, and this is a big load on the liver and pancreas.

It is important to take into account the characteristics of the dog’s body, due to which it has difficulty digesting a whole piece of meat. These features, in particular, are as follows: food is swallowed without serious saliva treatment in the mouth, the pet’s intestines are half the size of a human, and the microflora of the gastrointestinal tract is less saturated. This means that the dog should receive a balanced, easily digestible diet to avoid digestive and health problems, which pork in the form of a piece of meat is definitely not.

Weight matters

At the same time, pork is widely used in the manufacture of industrial feed. For example, they may contain dry defatted pork meat or dehydrated pork protein. This ingredient is a good source of proteins and amino acids, and the dog is able to absorb them much more easily than when eating meat from the home table.

In other words, pork is often used as part of ready-made diets, and there is a significant amount of feed with it on the market. You can verify this by simply examining their composition in a store or on the Internet, this is open information. So, pork is part of the Royal Canin Maxi Adult diet, designed for dogs of large breeds. In addition, the brands Prolife, Go!, Acana, Almo Nature and so on have pork products.

There is only one rule: only ready-made rations are a balanced diet for a pet. Other products can harm the health of the dog.

Photo: Collection

29 2018 June

Updated: July 5, 2018