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Platinum Pet Treats: All-Natural and Drool-Worthy, Inspected and Independently Tested to Ensure Highest Quality [CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR QUALITY ASSURANCES]
A dog’s digestive system is sensitive, and it plays a massive role in its health. The dogs enjoy chewing their favorite foods and dog treats, but how long does it take a dog to digest the food?
The majority of dog owners are skeptical about their dog’s health and want to know everything about their system. Not to mention, a dog’s digestive system demands suitable food to maintain overall health. Understanding how a dog digests the food and how long it takes for a dog to digest the food is important.
It depends on the many factors that impact the digestion system of dogs. But, if you are looking for a rough estimate, it generally takes four to eight hours to digest their food.
List of factors that influence the digestion process of a dog:
The wet food digests faster than the dry food. Moreover, the quality of the food is another factor.
How does a dog’s digestive system work?
The digestion process of a dog starts at the moment when the food enters the mouth. A dog’s digestive system is a tunnel, starting from the mouth to the anus.
There are various stages of a dog’s digestive cycle; entering from the mouth and traveling through the tube, the food breaks into pieces at multiple stages.
Mouth:
The food enters the mouth, and the digestion process begins. The dog tears the food into smaller pieces, and the enzymes present in the dog’s saliva break down the food on a chemical level.
Stomach:
The food swallows down, and the next step is the esophagus. The stomach acid breaks the food and passes on to another level.
Intestine:
The next phase is the intestine; the small intestine absorbs the nutrition from the food. The pancreatic enzymes help to break the food further down; and speeds up the chemical reaction.
The intestinal walls absorb the food nutrients into the blood. Most importantly, the liver is one crucial organ where the food is metabolized. The time when the food reaches the large intestine, the body and blood absorb the vital nutrient. The waste is pushed through the large intestine; the waste then forms into a stool.
Also Read: What is a chicken meal in dog food?
What happens to indigestible food?
A dog’s stool is made out of the water, bacteria, and inorganic matter. Moreover, the undigested food contains nutrients that are not absorbable by the body.
The nutrients that are unbreakable; are passed down as waste. If you have noticed your dog’s stool, you may have noticed fragments of vegetables.
The noticeable fragments are non-digestible but are important for digestive health. Not to mention, dog stool says a lot about the overall health of a dog. If your dog is not doing well, monitor the stool of your dog.
What is the digestibility index of dogs??
The digestibility index is the measurement of food quality. A highly digestible food has more nutrients. Low-quality food does not have nutrients, and it is extracted out in the form of feces. High-quality food is good for the digestive system of dogs.
It is pretty simple to measure the digestibility of the dogs. If you have given 100 grams of food to your dog, and if he is producing 20gm of stool—it means that your dog has absorbed 80% of the food offered. If the digestibility rate is less than 75%, the food is of low quality.
It is essential to have an understanding of your dog’s digestive system. Problems with digestion are a symptom of significant health issues. If your dog is suffering from diarrhea; he may have some gastrointestinal issues. Moreover, understanding digestion also provides you with an understanding of what kind of food is best for your dog.