Hi Steve,

I can speak from experience that a dog can eat vegetables, but doesn't need to eat them. What it needs for a balaced diet is, as Evie said, meat, organs and bones.

My dog eats a prey model diet and is extremely healthy

As long as the dog gets the right amount of vitamins and minerals from his diet (which bones can provide), then there's nothing wrong with it at all. Just as long as the dog gets those vitamins and minerals.

Still, doesn't mean that the dog is carnivorous only.

Picking up on what Patch here Quoted..........

Whoa there, I did`nt say dogs don`t need exercise. I teach Agility, I have a reasonable understanding of the need for a dog to be fit and healthy but having a fit dog which can`t use his or her brain will potentially lead to as much in the way of behavioural issues as a dog which does`nt get enough physical exercise for his or her individual needs.

I said mental stimulations is as important if not more important for a dogs wellbeing, and a regimented ` walk a dog this many times a day for this number of minutes` won`t make as much difference as mental work toward helping a dogs behaviour.


................................can I say that owning Bc's, I....as most people on this forum know, walk mine for up to 4 hours, yet agree, that after 30 mins they would happily go out again...but can I say Patch is absolutely correct about 'mental stimulation' I have been playing a game with mine today, they were very relaxed afterwards and had been sleeping it off for a couple of hours, now they have been out this afternoon and now flat-out.
Walking is important, but BC's need to ''''work-out'''' the brain too not just the body....just my opinion.....and there are other breeds on this forum that I can think of that need that too

i totally agree -

but doesnt a carnivore need them as well?

That's true - they are omnivorous: they will eat anything including their own feces. It doesn't me that it is appropriate food though

There's lots of nutrients in the faeces, it's not uncommon for a dog to eat rabbit droppings at all. A mother will eat her own pups faeces whilst cleaning them.

It's inappropriate for us to witness however and I'd discourage it if any of my dogs started doing it, it may also be a sign of a lack of nutrients in the dogs diet, or it may just be a habit that the dog never grew out of.

Even so, it's not unnatural in the slightest, to the dog.

Sorry, I wasn't being clear. I know dogs eat poo. My dog eats rabbit poo all the time.

What I'm saying is they can and will eat certain foods (poo was a bad example I guess) but they don't have any nutritional value. A dog will eat veggies, but they can't break down cellulose because their digestive tract is much shorter than ours. So it's pretty much pointless them eating veggies because they just go straight through. They don't digest them.

Ya get me?

Steve.....and this aint a meant to be a provocative question ( poor Patch gets all them from me ) - can i ask your qualifications and experience mate?

Dogs are a subspecies of the grey wolf, aka Canis lupus familiaris, classification, carnivore.

They are "facultative carnivores." This means that they are carnivores that can live on a diet that contains other things than meat, while still consuming meat
as a primary source of nourishment.

A true omnivore requires both the protein found in meat sources as well as those found in veggies. They need both to survive. Dogs don't need veg, but they can eat them as a supplement to meat if times are tough and that is all they can find to survive.