posted 9 years ago
Can dogs get nutrition from eating poop?
So my dog is obsessed with a few things, one of them is killing voles and other rodents, and one of them is (sadly) rolling in rotten animals she may find on her adventures, and one of them is eating poop, all sorts of poop. Horse poop, cow poop, chicken and peacock poop, deer poop, raccoon poop, human poop, and many other poo’s.
She is a very healthy, happy dog. I do not feed her “dog food”, she eats a pretty natural diet. She rarely gets an upset stomach but it does happen (occasional diarrhea), but it never persists.
So it seems to me her favorite poop to eat is horse poop, we have a horse and donkey and she accompanies me when I feed and water them. She gorges on horse poop while I take care of the equine, and for a long time I punished her for eating it, but she does not stop. I have found her many times alone in the horse pen (she can fit through the fence) eating poop.
So, I know you can feed chickens many kinds of poop, as well as pigs, so my question is, because dogs are omnivores like chickens and pigs, shouldn’t she be able to eat and digest the poop also?
Is she getting nutritional value from it?
And does anyone else allow their dogs to eat poop whenever they want?
I am thinking it could really cut down on food cost (she mostly eats scraps as it is), and since she rarely gets sick I just think it’s something she knows she needs.
So let’s hear some stories of other dogs eating poop.