Dog’s Digestion

Dogs’ digestive systems are interesting.  Have you seen dogs chew their food? In case you never noticed, they rarely chew it. They actually gorge on it. A dog’s digestive system is designed to fit its eating habits and style. Given a set of forty-two teeth, the incisors, canines, pre-molars and molars are created for scraping, gripping, tearing and breaking meat as well as bones.

A dog’s digestion starts when the food inserted in the dog’s mouth gets mixed with its saliva, and then goes through the esophagus down to the stomach.

Most of the action happens in the small intestines. This is where food becomes enveloped by acids. The dog’s pH (a measurement of acid levels) is so strong that it doesn’t matter if they eat out on the streets. Compared to us, their pH is one to two, while ours is only four to five. No wonder they can eat raw meat without suffering from stomachache because the acid destroys most of the bacteria before it strikes.

It’s not just the acid that helps in the dog’s digestive system. Enzymes, which are present both in the food and inside the dog’s digestive organs, also play a major role. Chewing breaks apart the food’s cell membranes, allowing the release of food enzymes. The pancreas, at the same time, secretes proper amounts of enzymes too. These are needed to develop proteins into amino acid, convert carbohydrates to three disaccharides (namely sucrose, lactose and maltose), disintegrate fiber and digest fats to fatty acids. Aside from dog’s digestion and nutrition assimilation, enzymes promote weight-loss. These can also strengthen immune system, prevent the dog from forming the habit of eating stool and increase the generation of cancer-fighting cells.

But, lacking enzymes, caused by insufficient food and improper diet, can make dogs digestion sick. Since only the dog’s digestive system can supply enzymes, it has to work overtime to come up with the amount required by the body. Eventually, it will be stressed out, and may not be able to perform its job properly. This can lead to malabsorption of nutrients and improper digestion. With this, the dog may suffer internal sickness like diarrhea, halitosis, body odor, bloating and sluggishness. Physical signs of abnormality may also surface like skin cancer, allergy, arthritis, premature aging, dull coat and others.

Upon reaching the large intestines, almost all the nutrients would have been processed and absorbed. This is where the water and electrolytes are sucked up, and fecal matter stored until the need to excrete arises.  Keep you dog processing nutrients with ease by using Peti-Paaws.  It is the first anti-aging supplement for dogs.  Get a free trial today!

Dogs can eat huge amounts of food and still have it digested, but grains, vegetation and fiber are not that easy to process. Just because these are good for us, doesn’t mean we can say the same for dogs. Since they have short digestive tracts, they are unable to absorb these kinds of food. As aforementioned, dog’s digestive system is designed perfectly for them as carnivores. Such digestive tract is only good for digesting animal flesh, bones and fat. A dog’s digestion process takes about four to six hours for wet food, while dry food is processed for ten to twelve hours.