Last night we were sitting there eating nuts and my dog Buck came over to see if we had a bite for him. Just to tease him I tossed him a walnut, whole in the shell. I thought he would just roll it around and see that it was nothing he could eat.
Well, he took it in his mouth, crunched it loudly and spit it out. It was broken neatly in half. He rolled it around with his nose, ate the nutmeats and came over an wanted another one. I gave him a pistachio and he did the same thing, as neat as you please. I am sort of afraid to give him too many cause I’m not sure if it will hurt him, but it is sure funny as hell watching him crack open those nuts AND he can get the nut out faster than I can.
Has any one else ever heard of a dog that eats nuts?
One morning shortly after we adopted our first dog, we got up to find that he’d gotten into a bag of individually wrapped sour apple hard candy. I was really worried that he’d swallowed a bunch of cellophane, but on closer inspection I saw that he’d neatly chewed each wrapper in half and spit it out. He must have eaten at least 30 candies, and no, he didn’t get sick.
I’ve mentioned Ben on another thread - he’s a walking stomach. He loves walnuts. My parents have a very large walnut tree in their yard, and every year get 4-5 milk crates full of walnuts. Fortunately it’s in the front yard where Ben can’t go. Unfortunately they have to be careful where they store the nuts so he can’t get at them. They don’t allow him to eat walnuts because they worry about his teeth and gums, but occasionally he is able to steal one.
It’s amazing to watch him roll the nut around in his mouth until he gets it in the right position. Then he bites down, and with a great CRUNCH he cracks the nut, eats the tasty bits and spits out the shell.
I’d never heard of another dog doing this. Maybe they’re long lost brothers.
I once watched a stray dog unfold a paper lunch sack that someone had abandoned, take out a leftover sandwich in a baggie, unwrap it and eat the sandwich. All without leaving a single toothmark on the paper or plastic bags. I half expected him to use the napkin when he was finished.