I was sitting at the computer, munching on a bowl of raisins. LB had crept up behind me and was earnestly bathing me in “If you need help with that, I’m here for you” rays. I said, “I don’t think you’re gonna want this, buddy,” and put down the bowl with maybe a couple of dozen raisins left in it. He stuck his muzzle in, came up licking his lips and looking like maybe that wasn’t so desirable after all, seemed to think it over, and then…
Guess it shouldn’t surprise me. I’ve read (I don’t know how accurate this is, but it does have logical appeal) that one reason dogs won out over wolves in the “who gets to move in with humans and live long enough to get old” sweepstakes is that dogs can metabolize carbohydrates and wolves can’t*. Hence dogs, though often capable predators, are really adapted to be scavengers – they’re more like omnivores. Whatever humans can eat, dogs can eat.
And if they’re Little Bear, they’ll eat everything offered.
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*Maybe related, I see evidence that coyotes also can’t. You often find scat that looks like a bunch of slimy juniper berries. For my first couple of years here I didn’t know what leaves scat like that. Finally a coyote hunter I know told me that coyotes do that. If they’re on the hunt but really hungry, they’ll eat juniper berries just to ease their empty stomachs. But they can’t digest them, so they shit them out intact.
I’ve always been under the impression that dogs *are* wolves, just wolves that we’ve domesticated and bred for neotenous features (puppy-like behavior) and loyalty to humans. I’ve never heard anything about the carbohydrate tolerance of any canids one way or the other.
Might want to check his enthusiasm for raisins, they can be toxic to dogs…
Or they might result in mushy “raisins” scattered throughout the homestead over the next day…
My across-the-hall neighbor’s dog (RIP, Abby) would walk into our kitchen and make with the begging eyes. I would offer her whatever I was fixing. She would eat: carrots; bananas; peas; pizza (big surprise); cookies; etc.
Yep, not good . . .
https://www.merckvetmanual.com/toxicology/food-hazards/raisins-and-grapes
Many other similar sites.
There was a study done that decided that your average domestic dog digests carbs better than the average wolf. There were arguments looking at both sides of the study, both sides could agree that the study should have been done better, but they disagreed on why. Personally I think dogs just figured out they could manipulate us into giving them edibles…..
Raisins: yup, just watch how much he gets. The mechanism that causes problems in dogs isn’t entirely understood, some dogs will eat large quantities of grapes or raisins and never have a problem, while others end up extremely sick after just a few bites. It may have to do with the variety of grape, or with a predisposition that the dog already has.