Why Don't Dogs Chew Their Food?

The candles are lit, and the table is set. The lights are turned down low, and ambient music flows through your home. You’ve slaved away in the kitchen, and now it’s finally time to enjoy the fruits of your labor: a yummy homemade dinner!

As you lift your fork, ready to enjoy your first bite, you’re distracted by a less than savory sight. Your dog is appreciating the doggy meal you set down for him, alright, but in quite a different way.

He’s literally wolfing it down! Is he even chewing it at all?

Ugh! The serene mood is officially destroyed. So, you hop on the internet eager to search and get to the bottom of Fido’s less than elegant meal-time habits.

It’s normal for dogs not to chew their food. This is because dogs’ teeth are sharper, their digestive tract is shorter, and their stomach acidity is much higher than humans’. These factors work together to help dogs digest their food more quickly and efficiently than we do, without the need for excessive chewing.

In this article, I will go into more detail to go about how dogs eat and explain why your dog may not chew their food.

Let’s get to the truth of why your pup seems to inhale his meals and what this all means.

Ready? Here we go!

Is It Normal for Dogs to Not Chew Food?

Strange as it may sound, it is totally normal for a dog not to chew their food.

And it’s actually completely unnecessary for them to do so!

As a person, not chewing food is a blasphemous concept. But for a dog, there is no reason for them to chew their food.

For a human, digestion begins in the mouth. Your saliva is an essential part of the process to help break food down to prepare it for digestion once it hits your stomach. A dog’s digestive system doesn’t work this way. Their digestion doesn’t begin until their food makes it all the way to their stomach.

So, the middle-man process of chewing is 100 percent optional for your pup!

Why Dogs Don’t Chew Their Food

Despite years of domestication, dogs still eat very similarly to the way their wolfpack ancestors probably did. Their sharp, pointy teeth are useful for simply snatching their food and gulping it down. This is in stark contrast to human teeth, which are flatter and made to help us chew throughout our meals.

Dogs’ digestive tracts are also shorter and much more acidic than ours, which helps them break down food better without chewing.

Dogs in the wild didn’t sit down, set the table, and slowly savor each bite of their food. Far from it! They had way more pressing matters to worry about…like another animal ambushing them and stealing their lunch!

To this very day, your precious pup’s eating habits are still very much rooted in their primal survival instincts.

Together, all of these factors mean that your dog may actually do themselves a favor by not chewing, and not the other way around!

So…it’s Totally Fine That My Dog Is Basically Swallowing His Food Whole?

It probably seems inconceivable that your pup could just literally wolf his food down in a couple of bites. This is so different from the way you eat! Tasting, analyzing, and raving about how amazing your meal feels like an essential part of the dining process.

Heck, portions of your social media are likely shrines chronicling your culinary adventures!

But your pup is not this way. Your dog simply eats! The differences in their digestive system make it to where chewing is mostly unnecessary.

Despite your dining differences, you and your pup can certainly enjoy a meal side by side. Of course, they may finish way quicker than you, but hey…that’s totally okay!