carnivore diets (was Purnes & high carb diets- More)

[Guest guest]

>Do any carnivores only eat lean meat?

----->there's no such thing as a carnivore that only eats *meat* whether

lean or not, to my knowedge. carnivores eat the whole_prey - organs, bones,

entrails - the whole shebang.

>>>>I can't get a clear answer on that one. Coyotes CAN live off just

rabbits, and humans can't ( " Rabbit starvation " )

----->i haven't heard of coyotes being able to live off just rabbits...they

tend to scavenge a lot, too. if they've been observed eating only rabbits

for a spell when times are lean, i could understand that, but *just*

rabbits? where did you read or hear that?

>>>>and cats

can live off just mice. Both animals are pretty lean,

------->according to this zoo prey pdf

(http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/zoo/WholePreyFinal02May29.pdf) it looks like

mice *can* have a significantly higher fat content than rabbits or hare. one

fieldmouse sample here had about 9x the fat content of a snowshoe hare

sample. but another field mouse sample had only about 3x as much fat as the

snowshoe hare sample. it probably depends a lot on the prey's access to

food. i think a diet really low in fat would be bad for any carnivore, they

not only need the fat but also all the fat-soluble vitamins contained in the

fat. i don't know how carnivore's requirements for fat-soluble vitamins

differs among species or as compared to humans, but they use them for the

same things we do, so i'd guess a low-fat diet wouldn't provide adequate

amounts of these vits...(just speculating here).

i think beaver tends to be *really* high in fat. this was/is a common prey

for the dog's ancestor the grey wolf, although they typically hunt large

game.

Suze Fisher

Lapdog Design, Inc.

Web Design & Development

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3shjg

Weston A. Price Foundation Chapter Leader, Mid Coast Maine

http://www.westonaprice.org

----------------------------

" The diet-heart idea (the idea that saturated fats and cholesterol cause

heart disease) is the greatest scientific deception of our times. " --

Mann, MD, former Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry at Vanderbilt

University, Tennessee; heart disease researcher.

The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics

<http://www.thincs.org>

----------------------------

[Guest guest]

>>>>>I can't get a clear answer on that one. Coyotes CAN live off just

>rabbits, and humans can't ( " Rabbit starvation " )

>

>----->i haven't heard of coyotes being able to live off just rabbits...they

>tend to scavenge a lot, too. if they've been observed eating only rabbits

>for a spell when times are lean, i could understand that, but *just*

>rabbits? where did you read or hear that?

Really, I don't know the exact composition of fat/carb in a

coyote diet. Just that it seems lower than the average humans (ditto

for tigers). Coyotes tend to live in symbiosis with rabbits ... when

there are a lot of rabbits, coyotes multiply, the rabbits die out,

and coyotes die out. Or so I heard about population cycling. When

I see coyote scat around here, it is full of feathers, claws, and other

items that are obviously from whole animals. When I see possum

scat, it is full of seeds and fiber and obviously contains a lot of

carb/fruit/fiber kinds of things. Possums do eat meat, and coyotes

do eat carbs, but coyotes mainly eat meat and possums mainly

get vegetable matter. Humans are somewhere inbetween, usually.

Anyway, the coyotes around here are noted for eating cats and

rabbits, rodents, and my chickens it seems. They would likely eat our

garbage if we left it out, but otherwise the only things there

are around here are some berries for a couple of months,

worms, and greens. A pretty low carb low fat diet! If a coyote

lives in the desert, not around people, pretty much all there IS

is rabbits, rodents, and bugs. On the Discover channel they

are really skinny, but they seem to survive ok. I'm sure with the

bugs etc. it isn't 100% protein diet and I wasn't trying to imply

that, but it looks like it would be a lot higher than the 30% max

for humans.

-- Heidi