I can confirm what Ginny, Brenda, Hanni and others have said re: dogs not
requiring vegetables. Why some companies include vegetables in dog foods
they claim to be biologically appropriate I don't know.
I'm not nearly as expert on dogs as the aforementioned people are, but I
assume the biggest difficulty with trying to feed dogs biologically
appropriate raw food (BARF) would be trying to give them the same proportion
of organs they would eat in the wild. Perhaps supplements like fish oil,
which Ginny suggested, could help offset insufficient organ foods as well as
poor diet of the prey animals? Even if you can't easily get a variety of
organs, a raw meat diet would still be far superior to kibble.
I had come across the claim that wolves and wild dogs eat the contents of
the rumen (second stomach) of grazing animals. Thanks to Ginny I now know
that is a falsehood. It apparently is spread by vegetarians, vegans and
others who want people to think that dogs are omnivores rather than
carnivores. There is a refutation of it here:
Myth: WOLVES INGEST THE STOMACH CONTENTS OF THEIR PREY,
http://rawfed.com/myths/stomachcontents.html
I had looked into the diet of wild dogs for a friend and found info that
matches what Ginny et al said about wolves. Like wolves, African wild dogs
do not eat vegetables in any significant quantity...
African Wild Dogs feed on:
bushbuck
dulker
eland
elephants
gazelle
hares
impala antelope (the favorite prey)
kudu
nyala
ostriches
rhinos
rodents
scrubhare
warthogs
water bugs
wildebeest
zebras
and other small animals
Sources:
African Wild Dog
http://www.whozoo.org/Intro98/michaelg/michgree.htm
Wild Dogs: Lowveld Wild Dogs Project
http://www.mluri.sari.ac.uk/wilddogs/wddiet.htm
African Wild Dog: Habitat & Diet
http://www.123spot.com/AnimalDirectory/africanwilddogs2.htm
Third Kruger Park Wild Dog Photographic Survey
http://www.parks-sa.co.za/conservation/scientific_services/ss_wild_dog_surve
y.html