Comments
Chillay_90 OP t1_j2a71pt wrote
As I'm laying here, with a tooth recently extracted, I just realized that when I wrote the question I was thinking that majority of animals actually lived til "old age" when in reality that is the rarity not the common.
Lithuim t1_j2a7xvc wrote
Yeah mother nature is more of a Thunderdome kinda woman. More social animals do sometimes get some help past their prime from their younger kin, solitary carnivores are pure kill or be killed.
Various_Succotash_79 t1_j2ac08l wrote
I have a lot of cats.
They get a lot of (expensive) dental problems.
I assume wild animals just starve to death or get by with a painful mouth.
Although the carbs in commercial cat food probably means their teeth last longer in the wild.
A_Garbage_Truck t1_j2ab8ab wrote
they do but the thing is that animals that experience these sort of problems end up starving or die by sickness, so in effect their teeth last their whole life. :V
the other major difference is that their diets in the wild are majorly different than human diets, the main reason we need ot take care of our teeth asm uchas we do is because ourdiets evolved ot have way too much sugars, which while a major source of energy are also weffectively "toxic" to the existence of Teeth.
pickles55 t1_j2adzsy wrote
They do, but not for the reason you're thinking. When their teeth wear down to much or get broken they can't get them fixed. If they can't eat enough food to maintain their health they will die. On the flip side sugar is relatively rare in nature, so they don't get cavities like we do. They can get them, but not like we would with our diets and no dental care. Pets that eat human food often have cavities just like us, not to mention all the other health problems that can cause.
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Lithuim t1_j2a5uss wrote
Animal teeth last their entire lifetime, because they starve and die as soon as there’s a problem.
They don’t eat much acidic or sugary foods so rapid decay isn’t all that likely, but they definitely do have problems as they age. It’s a significant cause of mortality among aging carnivores since their teeth are also their primary survival mechanism.