Other protective element:
"Hip dysplasia has not been reported in the wild undomesticated carnivorous animals, such as wolves and foxes. A study of their pattern of growth found that the pups were slow-growing and late maturing. The young pups were whelped in dens. As newborns, they received their nourishment by nursing during the first few weeks. When more food was required, the mother killed rodents and either brought them to the den or ate the animal where it was killed and then returned to the den where the ingested rodents were regurgitated for the young to eat.(61) Young carnivores were quite mature and 6 to 10 months old before they began to hunt. The amount of food available for the growing members of a litter was limited. This caused the young to mature slowly and remain thin and light for their body size. Such an environment favored the completion of ossification and developmental maturity of the joint before the hips could be subjected to possible injury, incongruity, or subluxation from excessive extrinsic forces (e.g., excessive body weight) (65,69)"
|