There's a reason pet stores sell treats in so many different sizes: dogs come in different sizes. While a Bullmastiff can handle a big bite, a tiny Chihuahua might choke. Shopping treats that work best for you specific breed will be better than just buying whatever and making it work.
However, that doesn't mean your big dog can't have little treats, and vice versa. They can eat them, though the amount of actual eating that goes on is debatable. For one Bullmastiff on Tuesday, July 16th, taking down the tiny treats mom offered him was easy, but chewing them was basically out of the question:
Big Meech did his best to chew them. I'm sure he would love to have chewed these treats thoroughly, but he is just not built like that. That's okay; it's one of the things we all love about him!
Related: Bullmastiff Crying 'Mama' While She's in the Garage Is Eerily Human-Like
Meech may be a literal giant, but he's only two years old. Don't let his age fool you: a two-year-old Bullmastiff can be as big as 2ft. tall at the shoulder, with males weighing as much as 140lbs. on average. Standing on their hind legs, they can easily be the size of a grown woman, and it's a little bit terrifying.
As you can imagine, it takes a lot of food to maintain a dog like this. Full-grown male Bullmastiffs need about 8 cups of dry food per day, give or take a bit depending on their actual size. Though the actual caloric value depends on the type of food you feed, that amount of food ranges from about 2,000-2,800 calories per day. A couple tiny treats definitely won't spoil this boy's dinner!
Dogs Don't Chew Like Humans
When we watch dogs chew, it makes most of us nervous; if you've watched for a minute, you know that there's typically very little actual chewing involved. Dogs may be sweet little friends who have all the time in the world to eat their food now, but they still don't. They eat as quickly as they can to ensure that nothing has the chance to take their food from them, and eating fast doesn't leave much room for chewing.
Even when dogs do chew, all of their teeth are pointy, as opposed to a human's flat molars that help us grind our food. Their teeth are more for tearing food up into smaller chunks for swallowing rather than grinding into a swallowable paste. They're perfect for big bites, but small treats like these don't really need to be chewed at all.
Meech definitely has chewing down to a science, and he can swallow some pretty big bites, so treats are no match for him. If he ever has to take medication, though, there's no doubt in my mind that he'll manage to spit out the tiny pill!
Most Popular
Comments / 0