The digestive system of a coyote. I’ve no idea why anyone would come to my blog searching for the digestive system of a coyote, but there are worse places to look: I’ve probably got one under one of these piles of laundry…

The digestive systems of all canids are remarkably alike and they all function in the same way. The overall length of the canid digestive tract is short although it remains relative to the size of the dog. This aids in rapid digestion of raw meat. Their simple monogastric stomach is a storage organ capable of holding large amounts of nutrient dense meat and fat. The other function of the stomach is to secrete concentrated solutions of hydrochloric acid, which create the highly acidic environment necessary for initiating digestion of protein in meat and bones as well as destroying pathogenic bacteria that may be ingested.The small intestine is responsible for digestion and for the absorption of nutrients. The carnivore’s gut is extremely efficient at digesting protein and fat, as long as there is little or no carbohydrate (grain-starch) present. Experiments which have measured the amounts of various nutrients eaten and compared these with the amounts passed in canine feces have shown that a healthy animal loses no more than four percent of its fat intake and only a trace of protein. The digestive efficiency of raw meat is 95% and takes place in 2 to 3 hours.The small intestine joins with the large intestine through a small appendage called the cecum. While this has no real purpose in a carnivore, it should be acknowledged as this is a key difference between a carnivore and an herbivore. By the time the food has passed through the animal’s small intestine, the process of digestion and absorption of the nutrients in the food is complete. The large intestine has only one function, which is to extract fluids and form waste material where it is stored in the rectum until it is expelled. The gastrointestinal tract of a carnivore is virtually sterile as most bacteria and other micro-organisms are destroyed by hydrochloric acid in the stomach. Those bacteria that are not eliminated are seldom able to survive the digestive processes. The colon is the exception, as it houses a variety of organisms which form vitamins such as pyridoxine, vitamin B-12, biotin, vitamin K and folic acid.

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