Dogs true identity

Domestication of dogs began nearly 15,000 years ago from gray wolves probably in East Asia. This process evolved as humans shared their space and food with the dogs.

Although when we think of dogs it occurs that majority of them are pets but it is surprising that only 25% of the dogs are pets. While the pet dogs might be more common in the developed countries, developing countries like India has a large population of free-ranging dogs.

Typically, a healthy adult dog requires 7% carbohydrate, 30% protein, and 63% fat in their diet. While dogs are omnivorous like humans since they evolutionarily adapted to humans, free-ranging dogs survive on carbohydrate rich diets since they depend on discards by humans. Further, these dogs face competition for food from other scavengers like cats, cows, crows and others.

So, a group of researchers from Kolkata region, India were particularly interested in studying the food habits of these free-ranging dogs. In their study they tested if free-ranging dogs would have any preference for a particular food given that these dogs face food scarcity and competition. They were interested to know if free-ranging dogs would eat anything available to maximize their caloric intake or select if given a choice. To test their model, they placed three types of food baskets, chicken as protein, chicken and bread as mixed, and bread alone as carbohydrates. 

To their surprise, they found that dogs were selective and more than 50% of the dogs preferred protein, about 25% selected mixed and 15% carbohydrate.

So, this reminds the old saying “Dog and bone go hand in hand”.