Fasting is an important part of our lives, and while humans can fast on purpose, is it safe for our canine companions to do so? We often don’t think about it, but our dogs’ diets are also something that needs to be taken seriously. Many dog owners have found themselves asking the question, “Can a dog fast for 24 hours?”. While it’s a valid question, the answer is not so straightforward. It requires looking at a dog’s individual health, age and activity levels, as well as the underlying reason for fasting in the first place. This blog post is designed to take a deep dive into fasting for dogs, and to help you understand the benefits and risks so you can make a well-informed decision. We’ll also provide some tips on how to properly fast your dog safely and effectively. So, if you’re curious about fasting for your canine companion, read on to learn more!
The Health Benefits of Fasting for Dogs
Your dog’s body is free from the toxins that food contains when they don’t eat. The output of toxins can then be increased through the body’s normal organs for elimination, including the bowel, skin, eyes, ears, nose, vagina, penis, urine, and breath.
If you fast long enough, your body’s overall toxicity will be brought down to a manageable level, allowing healing to begin. These are the main benefits of fasting. The quickest way for the body to focus its energy and effort to promote healing is through periodic intermittent fasting.
Here is what happens when we use intermittent fasting as a method of body healing: Your dog’s body can divert its attention from digestion and focus on allowing the immune system to heal by:
How fasting in dogs might be good for them
In a nutshell, digesting food is hard work. It takes a lot of energy. This is the reason why, at Christmas, you doze off after stuffing your face. The gut receives all available energy from the body’s mainframe in order to digest and absorb the meal. It is believed that if you go without food for a while, your body will have more energy to perform tasks like repair, toxin removal, and general regeneration. Basic housekeeping really. That is the key, and science strongly supports it (albeit mostly in rodents and humans).
A fascinating mouse study found that mice that are starved every other day but given free reign to eat whenever they please on the days in between are not only healthier but also live longer. The researchers weren’t quite sure what to believe. After giving a toxin known to affect brain cells to both the starving and non-starving groups of mice, they later discovered that the fasting mice had less brain damage!
And it might not necessarily as rigorous as fasting every other day before benefits are seen. Another study, again in mice, reveals that feeding them in line with their diurnal rhythm has positive net effects on their general health. This too makes sense. Fasting, at least the idea of feast and famine, is a very natural part of the process for all animals, though not so much humans anymore. Your internal computer has adapted to this and has developed mechanisms to switch off the apps it’s not using and instead divert it’s power to things it can do while eating is not top of the list. This would naturally be nighttime when we’re at rest and possibly midday when we’re supposed to be lying around relaxing! Eating is for dawn and dusk.
With regard to energy and general replenishment, fasting in dogs is thought to trigger a toxin-removal process. The body has two fuel options for daily activity: glucose, which is preferred in times of abundance, and ketones (from fat), which are used in times of scarcity. You constantly hear this in the gym: you want to go without food for a while (so that all the available glucose is consumed), then exercise while in a ketosis state (the process of burning fat) to lose some of those extra pounds.
Without addressing the ebbing of unwelcome love handles, it so happens that all the extra toxic waste products that you ingest, inhale, and generally produce as a result of metabolic reactions and which are not eliminated in your wee, poo, or sweat are stored in your fat cells. That’s where it lives. Therefore, by using these fat cells as fuel, you are assisting the body in getting rid of the bad stuff it had been storing. So allowing the body to burn ketones naturally has turned out to be a great healing technique. Leading medical professionals now advocate fasting as one of the healthiest (and most affordable!) things we can do for our well-being. The world leader in canine cancer recovery, KetoPet Sanctuary, is actually so named because of the amazing health benefits of burning ketones. Read more about cancer in dogs here.
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The body continuously produces new cells while also destroying old ones. It’s a process that needs constant attention. However, the process is ongoing even within the cell itself as organelles degrade and develop. Autophagy is essentially the process of cellular cleansing. The word comes from the Greek words autos (oneself) and phagein (to eat). So the word literally means to eat oneself. Yoshinori Ohsumi was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine in 2016 for his discovery that nutrient deprivation activates autophagy. During this time, macrophage activity increases. Macrophages consume worn-out or abnormal body cells in addition to engulfing and destroying bacteria, viruses, and other foreign substances.
When you’re sick, your body turns off the hunger sensors because energy is needed at the front lines, which is one of the reasons you and almost every other animal on the planet avoid eating.
Medzhitov was speaking to the college radio station following the publication of his research. He investigated the old wives tale which postulates “feed a cold, starve a fever”. Turns out there’s something to it. The difference is down to whether you have a virus (cold) or a bacterial infection (fever). It seems in humans while we stop eating when infected either, we get back to eating quicker if it’s a virus. To investigate this, he injected mice with either a bacterial or viral infection and divided the mice into eating or fasting groups. Mice that ate with viral infections recovered faster. When they did their science thing and convinced the mice to eat with a bacterial infection they all died.
The amount of insulin in your blood decreases when you fast, which is beneficial because insulin, despite being essential as a hormone that transports sugar to cells, also acts as an inflammatory hormone. If you constantly eat, you maintain a constant level of insulin in your blood, which causes systemic inflammation to rise and may eventually cause your insulin sensitivity to decline. The immune system is given a temporary break from this activity when fasting, allowing it to focus on other, more beneficial tasks.
Even more impressive, recent studies suggest that such fasting may also promote recovery after acute spinal cord injury. Compared to controls, fasting rats with damaged spinal chords showed they recovered better, had smaller injury-site lesions and increased neuronal regeneration over rats fed more liberally.
There are literally hundreds of excellent articles about fasting available online today. Numerous studies that demonstrate the advantages of this practice in people can be found on Google Scholar, including:
So it’s safe to conclude that dogs may benefit from fasting in some way. 20% off for new customers to our store. Use code NEWCUSTOMER20.
Is it okay to let your dog fast?
When there are no more reserves in the body and insufficient nutrients are consumed, starvation happens, causing the body’s vital tissues to break down. A wild dog’s diet naturally includes complete or modified fasting, and their health is also benefited by fasting or other forms of calorie restriction.
FAQ
Is fasting good for a dog?
A stronger immune system, more energy, healthier cells, and better health are just a few advantages that therapeutic fasting brings to the table. Fasting is an Excellent Way for a Dog to Stay Healthy.
Can my dog go one day without eating?
Dogs can go for a few days without eating anything. Just be sure they are drinking water. Every now and then, a dog will typically refuse one meal. Dogs, just like people, aren’t always hungry.
What happens when a dog doesn’t eat for 24 hours?
Healthy, adult dogs can go three days without food. Call your veterinarian after 24 hours if they haven’t eaten if they are very young, old, or have an underlying health condition. Puppies that are still very young shouldn’t go without food for more than 12 hours. They can become dangerously hypoglycemic, especially small-breed puppies.
Can dogs go 12 hours without eating?
A dog’s daily meal schedule is entirely dependent on the family’s schedule. Dogs should have two meals at least once a day, spaced about 12 hours apart. But a schedule with meals at breakfast, lunch, and dinner is also a fantastic choice. When meals are missed for longer than 12 hours, the stomach can become hyperacidic and cause nausea.