How much fruit do WILD DOGS eat?

I’ve been teaching dog owners about the important role fruits can play in the diets of domestic dogs for a decade and a half, so I’m fully supportive of feeding fruit to dogs. But lately I’ve seen a few others attempting to oversell the idea of feeding fruit to dogs by making exaggerated claims about the fruit consumption habits of wild dogs. So, I thought it was time to hold everyone to a higher standard.

Despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, one of the claims being made is that the diets of wild dogs are composed of a larger percentage of fruit than other foods. It is never stated whether this claim is based on calories or volume. But it really doesn’t matter, because neither would represent anything approaching a majority percentage.

The ‘Evidence’

People making these claims attempt to support it with videos of captive wolves eating fruit, backyard footage of wild coyotes eating apples, and domestic dogs eating fruit.

There’s a problem with that. It’s absolutely true that omnivores (like coyotes) and carnivores (like wolves) eat plant foods, most of which is fruit. But we must be careful not to invite skepticism by exaggerating the facts.

Firstly, the dietary habits of captive wolves cannot be used as evidence of a wild carnivore’s feeding tendencies. Like our domestic dogs, they eat what they are fed by their human handlers.

Wild coyotes do take advantage of fruit trees for sustenance. They are captured on film going to a lot of trouble to get it. Nevertheless, studies show that fruit does not constitute the majority of their diet. Here’s what one exhaustive study said about the ratio of plant vs. prey foods in the diets of wild coyotes:

“On average, small mammals occurred most frequently in the diets of coyotes (mean %FO ± standard error = 29% ± 1.2%), followed by vegetation (23% ±  .4%), lagomorphs (23% ± 1.1%), ungulates (22% ± 1.3%), invertebrates (14% ± 1.0%), birds (9% ± 0.6%), wild pigs (3% ± 0.5%), livestock (3% ± 0.5%), anthropogenic foods (3% ± 0.5%), carnivores (2% ± 0.5%), reptiles (2% ± 0.5%) and other food items (2% ± 0.5%; Fig. 1).”

The full article is here.

It has been noted in the field literature that the Yellowstone wolves’ consumption of prey drops by 25% during the summer when prey is strong enough to evade them and fruit is available. But this is very far from saying the “majority” of their diet is fruit. It might not even constitute a significant contribution, regardless of how it’s measured.

The Voyageur wolves seem to be at the apex of the fruit-eating spectrum for wolves at 83%. However, that is the peak percentage that is only observed during a single week. Again the researchers have not made it clear how this is measured, but, in any event, this abundant fruit eating only occurs during one 6-week period every year. The remainder of the year these wolves are pure carnivores. In order to arrive at a more meaningful (for us) mean percentage, that 83% would have to be spread over a year’s time. This would greatly dilute the contribution that fruit represents in their overall diet. Even the weekly mean during this 6-week period is 25%.

Applying the Field Research to our Dogs

It needs to be noted, however, that the quantities of fruit eaten by wild dogs should not necessarily or unduly influence how much fruit we feed to our dogs. That wild dogs eat fruit at all gives us license to use it as a displacement food for dogs sickened by the rich fatty excesses they were previously fed. Many dogs can even benefit from a high plant rotation initially, as long as they’ve not been overmedicated.

As long as a dog’s needs for calories, protein, bone, fat and organs are met by sufficient meat feedings in the rotation, the dog can be expected to thrive. Nobody knows what the amount of meat dogs actually require is, and it certainly isn’t prescribed anywhere. However, we’ve seen wolves and other wild dogs survive extended periods with no food at all. So, we have to assume it’s not difficult to meet the protein and mineral requirements of the average adult domestic dog. All we can do once again is experiment within this framework and see what works for each individual dog.

The bottom line is that fruit can represent a very important plank in your feeding platform. Fruit contributes highly usable nutrients, pure water, relative digestive rest and it’s easy on the budget. It also helps prevent disease by offsetting the fatty excesses from daily feedings of agricultural meats or commercial pet foods. There is ample evidence to support this practice, not only in the scientific literature but also in our practical experience. We’ve seen it lead dogs to a very high level of health. It’s not necessary at all to embellish upon the facts and doing so only invites due criticism.