Busting the Omnivore Myth: Dogs Are Carnivores!

Just because dogs can survive on plant-based foods or human leftovers doesn’t mean that’s what they were built to thrive on. The idea that dogs are omnivores has been pushed heavily by commercial pet food companies — but it’s misleading.

Yes, dogs can eat a wide variety of things, even plant matter. So can their wild ancestor, the wolf. But here’s the key point: wolves don’t eat plants by choice — they do it to survive when food is scarce.

Survival Mode, Not Preference

In parts of the world where prey is hard to find, wolves are incredibly adaptable. For example, in Western Iran, where wild prey is limited and waste isn’t well-managed, wolves have been known to survive on human garbage and scraps. This ability to “make do” is called trophic plasticity — and it helps them survive in tough, human-dominated environments.

In other regions, like parts of North America, wolves will eat berries during summer months — not because they’re fruit lovers, but because berries are easy to find and require very little energy to gather. During this same time, prey like deer fawns become harder to catch, so wolves turn to berries as a low-risk, low-reward backup option.

But make no mistake — meat is still their preferred food. Mammalian prey like deer and beavers offer more than triple the caloric value of berries. When prey is available, wolves will always go for the meat.

Do Wolves Eat the Stomach Contents of Their Prey?

This is another common myth — and it turns out, it’s not true.

Studies show that wolves do not intentionally eat the stomach contents (known as the rumen) of plant-eating animals. Sometimes, they puncture the stomach while eating, and a small amount spills and gets consumed accidentally. But overall, vegetation makes up a tiny, negligible part of a wolf’s diet.

As researchers Bosch, Hagen-Plantinga, and Hendriks put it:

“Wolves can be considered true carnivores in their nature, with vegetal matter being a minor to negligible component of their overall diet.”

So What About Dogs?

Just like the wolf, dogs are facultative carnivores — which means they’re meat-eaters by nature, but can survive on other foods if they absolutely have to. It’s a survival skill, not a dietary preference.

Over the course of domestication, dogs have gained a greater ability to digest starch and absorb glucose. This doesn’t mean they became omnivores — it simply means their bodies adapted to deal with famine by being able to extract energy from scraps when needed.

In fact, recent research from Wageningen University and Utrecht University confirms that it’s the wolf’s “feast or famine” lifestyle that most closely reflects the dog’s biology — not an ancestral omnivorous diet.

Dogs Are Closer to Cats Than You Think

Even with this slight adaptation to starch digestion, dogs still have far more in common with cats (which are strict carnivores) than they do with omnivores like humans or pigs. They share many key traits with cats, including:

• Their teeth and jaw structure, made for slicing and tearing meat
• A short GI tract, designed for quick digestion of animal foods
• A highly acidic stomach, perfect for breaking down raw meat and bone
• And a natural drive to hunt, chew, and eat like a predator

Bottom Line?

Dogs might look like they can eat just about anything — and in tough times, they sometimes do. But when given the choice, their biology tells a clear story:

They are meat-eaters, first and foremost.

Just like their wolf ancestors, dogs were designed to thrive on meat, organs, and bones — not cereal grains, fillers, or plant-based kibble.

Step 1?  Get some organs in their diet…