How Long Does It Take For A Dog To Digest Food?

As dog parents, it helps to know how the digestive system works in dogs, and how long it takes for them to digest food. Monitoring your dog’s eating and waste habits is essential in maintaining a good digestion process and in increasing awareness of changes in your dog’s overall health.

Let us first explore the five main paths involved in your dog’s digestion system:

1. Saliva

Notice how your dog starts salivating when his food is ready? Apart from keeping his mouth in positive condition, saliva plays an important role in your dog’s digestion process by turning his food into a semi-solid form called bolus.

2. Esophagus

The esophagus is a muscle that connects the mouth to the stomach. It functions by moving the bolus along the path of the esophagus and pushing it toward the area of the stomach.

3. Stomach

The stomach acid in dogs is of a much higher content than in humans and is capable of processing bone and other hard food further into an almost liquefied form called chyme.

4. Small Intestine

The chyme then moves along the small intestine, which is the longest part of the digestive system. The small intestine is made up of the Duodenum which further digests the chyme, the Jejunum which allows for better absorption of nutrients, and the Ileum which ensures that all nutrients are well absorbed.

5. Large Intestine

The chyme passes through the large intestine, or colon. The large intestine functions by absorbing water for distribution throughout the body and reconstituting the chyme into the solid form we call poop.

So, how long does it take for dogs to digest food? As a general guideline, canned food takes approximately four to six hours to fully digest, while kibble takes longer at eight to ten hours.

Feature Image Source: Pixabay