Animals know (sometimes) what’s good to eat?

So I hear over and over that animals (goats, cows, ect) know which plants to eat when they need them. At the same time I also hear that there are some plants that need to be removed from your property so the animals don’t eat them. So what gives? Do they know what’s good for them or not?

Sepp Holzer has spoken about intentionally letting poisonous plants stay on his property and that his animals know what to and what not to eat.  More on that can be read about here.

I don't want to speak for the intent and assumptions of Sepp, but I believe one of the cruxs of the system for success involved having an abundance of plants available all the time for the livestock. When availability becomes limited, then risk of illness increases that might require intervention on the part of the farmer.

Granted, dogs aren't livestock, but they'll eat all sorts of things they're not supposed to eat.

I think we overestimate domesticated animals. I had horses and cows that ate all sorts of things they 'aren't supposed to' eat, dogs and cats too. Yet I know that wild/feral horses and dogs are said to be a bit smarter (although their lives may be shorter and tougher), but as Timothy mentions, they have plenty of other good food options.
I suppose like anything else, to a certain extent it makes sense but not as an ironclad rule. I don't expect my dog or rabbits to not eat things that will make them ill, and try to keep those things out of their reach.

I do my best to allow this to be my practice. If an animal overeats and dies or eats something it should not and dies, it is increasing the quality of the heard and I do not have to cull as much. My experience, so far, is that these things are inherited and the sooner any negative trait is culled or eliminated, the better.

If you read my historic posts though, you can see I am not always consistent in the application of this. My behavior may even be hypocritic at times. I have a breeder rabbit doe right now that I should probably cull (not the best mother) but I can get two more litters out of her before it gets too hot to breed. I am postponing my decision on that.

Like everything else, it is not always black and white. Context is king.

I suspect this is one of those, "not just black and white, but many shades of grey" situations. I have observed chickens being very wary of a new food and only eating small samples Day 1, and then hoovering it Day 2 now that they've decided it didn't kill them.

I'm also aware of some plants having a degree of toxicity, but having medicinal effects that animals will seek out when needed.

Then there are plants where even small quantities can kill certain animals which I think humans have a degree of responsibility to manage. Using my friend's dogs as an example, hers were raised by mother dogs, but in an extremely safe environment, so they never got the opportunity to learn that dark chocolate and small pills in pill bottles could kill them. They didn't even get the opportunity to learn how to determine if a food was safe to eat.

One needs to remember that in the wild, many animals don't survive long enough to reproduce. Most humans aren't wanting that outcome in their domestic animals, so need to balance letting them learn survival instincts vs protecting them.

All the times I have seen or heard animals eat something they should not... it was because of human interference.

Humans keeping animals in once place too long without proper variety of food. Humans leaving non-food items in the animals area. Humans not allowing the animals to learn from their parents.

My dog eats sheep poop, goat poop, chicken poop, donkey poop, duck poop, cat poop, probably any other kind of poop he encounters, olives, apples, figs, oranges, persimmon, grapes, prickly pears (very carefully), wild mushrooms of all kinds, fish heads, ants, any small critter he finds before I do, bones, bits of wood, blankets, rubber, shoes, sleeping bags, the middle bits out of corn cobs, strawberries, the insides of some poor deceased critter he found in the forest a week or so after the fire when he ran off after a lightning strike (I know because he pooped the intestines out the next day, and he also stunk of dead-critter as he must have rolled in it first to soften it). He seems to cope fine with all of those!

Does he ever have digestive issues? Oh yes. But only if we are foolish enough to buy him anything other than the cheapest available dry dog food.

Go figure...

Also, don't kiss him. He's terribly fond of cat poop and knows all their favourite pooping places...

Burra Maluca wrote:My dog eats sheep poop, goat poop, chicken poop, donkey poop, duck poop, cat poop, probably any other kind of poop he encounters...

Most domestic animals are fed well enough that their poop contains all sorts of slightly digested fibers, and a whole lot of good nutrition that the host animal didn't absorb.

There are a few foods, and a pile of seeds, that are only digestible, or capable of germinating, after going through a digestive tract. Unfortunately, this practice is also a great way to pick up things one doesn't want, such as internal parasites!

I went wwoofing at a farm a bunch of years ago, which had goats. I'm a plant nerd, and the area was new to me, so I paid attention to what grew there, and what the goats ate. As far as I could see, they ate everything... with one exception. They wouldn't touch the local species of hellebore. Go figure. Hellebore is very toxic. They did eat English ivy, which is supposed to be toxic to mammals. Obviously, it's not toxic enough to goats to harm them, if eaten in moderation (it wasn't their favourite food, as I recall, just an occasional snack), while the hellebore would most likely have killed them. So it looks like they knew.

On the other hand, I have heard that certain poisonous plants, water hemlock for example, don't taste bad, so animals (including humans) will sometimes eat it without sensing the danger, and then drop dead. Water hemlock is also called cowbane... All in all, I guess the answer might be, as usual, "it depends".

Out of the animals I know personally, I trust only the chickens to self police their diet.
They have one known blind spot, they think styrofoam is good to eat.
My dog is so domesticated that she won't eat raw meat, only cooked!
The rabbit is from a line of show bunnies, so his diet is the most closely scrutinized.
My wife won't even give him veggies that have blemishes!