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JUST red meat?

Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2015 3:46 am
by JoshuaMadoc
What exactly is it that red meat has that wolves need, to the point where it's essentially the only thing a werewolf can really have? What is to stop the idea that, say, having retained the human dietary needs, the real thing that would feed and nourish a freshly converted/changed and hungry werewolf would be anything with the most "energy" to intake?

Re: JUST red meat?

Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2015 3:56 am
by Volkodlak
Well people go for that wolfs are carnivores so werewolfs should be too and red meat is basically raw meat, but in my personal view they are omnivores and can eat all foods human and wolfs can so werewolf can be vegeterian.

Re: JUST red meat?

Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2015 6:07 am
by Uniform Two Six
Especially since wolves actually aren't strictly carnivorous. They technically are, in point of fact, omnivores -- just like we humans. They are still categorized as carnivores, as they are designed to eat primarily meat, but it is not an exclusive thing. That's actually one of the reasons that dogs even exist in the first place. Wolves essentially domesticated themselves by scavenging through human cast-off leavings. So they can very well eat precisely the same stuff as we do.

In fact, there's a region of southern France bordering the Pyrenees, in which French farmers need guard dogs to protect against wolves -- from raiding their vineyards. Wolves in that part of the world find wine-grapes to be a delicacy. Wolves also apparently have a particular fondness for yams.

Re: JUST red meat?

Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2015 7:59 am
by JoshuaMadoc
What still stumps me is why people write werewolves as almost exclusively craving for meat, like for when their bodies are going through somewhat drastic changes after their first transformation. Just what is it that red meat has that would give such cravings? Protein? If it's protein, then considering they're still partly human, there's so many other sources of such. Is it just instinct of a primitive design?

Re: JUST red meat?

Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2015 8:51 am
by Volkodlak
They write them like this becouse they know wolfs eat meat plus others did it before and they mimic them, but in other side most media potrays werewolfs as animals or monsters killing and eating humans,vampires and animals so they get inspiration from them.

Re: JUST red meat?

Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2015 9:35 pm
by Fabricator
JoshuaMadoc wrote:...then considering they're still partly human...
That's just it. The majority of werewolf stories depict the "cursed" as losing their humanity once changed. In losing that humanity, it appears that most writers toss away the "partly human" aspect as well. A werewolf, in the majority, is a bloodthirsty monster, and is classified as its own species. I've noticed, quite frequently, that when someone talks about a werewolf, they consider the human form to be a human and the shifted form to be the werewolf. In other words, the human turns into a werewolf, or the human shifts into a werewolf; the infected is only a werewolf when changed. So, with the loss of all human traits (except physically, depending on the story) the shifted form is reduced to the characteristics of a rabid wolf.

To further along Lovec's comments- a wolf is classified as carnivorous and as such is depicted as eating only meat. That is where the idea of craving only meat comes from. I suppose most writers do not think about the greater need for carbohydrates and proteins, and quite possibly don't care. Your typical werewolf story describes the pain and agony of the change, and the need to consume large quantities of food, but keeps to the rabid wolf characteristic of craving only meat. I'm sure there are others out there, but to my knowledge, Kelley Armstrong's werewolves are the only ones written about needing a much larger diet that simply involves larger portions of the average meal to compensate for the energy required to change.

Does that help?

Re: JUST red meat?

Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2015 11:40 pm
by JoshuaMadoc
A friend of mine actually said something to similar effect, but it did help me make my decision on what I need. I just can't think of any other logical explanation other than the fact that changing would be a physically demanding activity, and that even the experienced would find it wise to chow down on some jerky and dried vegetable rice balls to replenish the energy put into changing.

Re: JUST red meat?

Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 4:38 am
by Meeper
Fabricator wrote:To further along Lovec's comments- a wolf is classified as carnivorous and as such is depicted as eating only meat. That is where the idea of craving only meat comes from. I suppose most writers do not think about the greater need for carbohydrates and proteins, and quite possibly don't care. Your typical werewolf story describes the pain and agony of the change, and the need to consume large quantities of food, but keeps to the rabid wolf characteristic of craving only meat. I'm sure there are others out there, but to my knowledge, Kelley Armstrong's werewolves are the only ones written about needing a much larger diet that simply involves larger portions of the average meal to compensate for the energy required to change.
I think it has a lot to do with the circumstances of where the story is set. As a natural consequence of firstly, satisfying animal hunger, but specifically the story inevitably being set for dramatic purposes in proximity to civilization. There's two abundant food sources, humans (I don't know if that qualifies as "red meat", but what better source of everything your body needs than exactly what your body is made of, a human being). Then we have live stock, cattle and so forth which is predominantly red meat and in line with the wolf's usual prey. I'm sure if circumstances were right I doubt a werewolf would turn down a flock of chickens, or the stocks of a fish farm, but I'm not sure that a fish farm raid by a creature of the night would quite have the same impact for the audience :P .

Making some scientific argument for red meat, I suppose iron content and related things might be something, being variously more nutritious because of the type of muscle it is, it's been a long time since I studied it though. All told when it comes to meat wolves prize internal organs like the liver and kidneys, which is fabulously rich pickings nutritionally speaking and about as red as it gets (it's also the wolf answer to getting "the lion's share", you show dominance by taking the best organs), it also makes for scarier stories because to eat the organs is about the most brutal thing that can be done to a body.

The Meeper.