Hey there...if the teeth are designed to process vegetable matter why do people puree and agree that nutrients can't be obtained unless vegetables are pureed, if the teeth did that why do so many people process the veg first?

Also how many dogs actually use those teeth to thoroughly chew veg? With wolves eating berries and such like are they really chewing them?

I'm not denying they can and do eat the stuff but I do query that they spend much time chewing it. To me those teeth are for crushing bones. Yup I see em (dogs) chewing their whole carrotts I throw them but they come out undigested, why is that if their teeth have done the processing?

I believed if you do want to feed veg that the idea is that you process it first to replicate the breaking down it has received in the preys digestive system (apparently making the nutrients available). But we wouldn't need to do that if those teeth serve that purpose.

Can't argue with shaun saying he see's them eat stomach contents...maybe it's a preference? (When I gave my dogs whole rabbit they want those guts out and far away lol). Regarding shaun, other experts in the field (with reference to books written by ~ Mech) say that the wolves they have studied time again are seen to shake the stomach contents out and leave it.

I guess it's swings and roundabouts. There is no doubt dogs who arn't fed veg can and do live long, happy and healthy lives as do dogs who are fed it. I'm not opposed to the idea so long as people keep it in proportion at around 10% and not much higher and certainly not using it to replace meat or just using it if they feed to much bone (in that case the bone should be reduced and be replaced by meat, not kept at the same level and just adding veg - thinking it will help them not to get constipated - I know some people do that).

...but...I don't think people should fall out over it

You're absolutely right Mys, dogs' molars, unlike our's, are primarily for grinding and crushing bone ... but they are also used for (rather inefficiently) grinding and crushing plant material as best they can. If you observe a dog eating grass, he will tear at it, and then sort of munch and chomp and grind at the same time. But dogs do not produce the enzyme cellulase to properly digest cellulose, which plants are made of. So, over the evolutionary millenia, wild wolves have cannily adopted the practice of eating the stomach contents of their herbivorous prey to extract at least some of the goodness from the predigested vegetation. Wolves and our dogs will eat things like raw carrots, blackberries, roots and bits and pieces, but these will pass through undigested and therefore of no practical use to the animal, except for fibre, which is good of course.

So wolves, being primarily carniverous, will eat stuff like grass and roots, but will get little goodness in doing so. By eating the stomach contents of their prey, they get far more goodies from the predigested material, in addition to the meat, organs and bones. A bit like the icing on the cake if you like.