There are so many sayings that describe several interesting phenomena, such as describing the persistent dog can't change and eat shit, for example, describing the inexorable nature of Wolf travels a thousand miles to eat meat, and dogs travel a thousand miles to eat shit . Since a slightly uncomfortable word will appear a lot throughout this article, we'll use poo instead. (Hey, is there no discomfort in this way?)

The first question to discuss is, of course, do dogs eat poop? The answer is yes , I believe that many of my friends have also witnessed the process of dogs enjoying food with relish. Dogs eat poop, some eat their own, some eat other dogs, some eat people and other animals, and some are open to all who come and eat hard and soft. (Yes, it's the soft and hard you think!)

Why do dogs eat poop? There are many reasons.

In general, it is a normal physiological behavior for dogs to eat poop. For example, a mother dog who has just given birth will lick the anus for her children after they have excreted, and eat the poo, so as to prevent other animals from hunting unweaned puppies by smell. Adult dogs may also eat poop to clear their marks if they feel threatened. Some owners blame or corporally punish their dogs after they defecate everywhere, so dogs eat their own poo to avoid being discovered by their owners.

In addition, when people see dogs eating poop, they often exclaim and call others to see, which makes the dog have a feeling of being watched, so when it wants to attract the attention of the owner, it may be will choose this way. Some dogs are used to eating two or three meals a day, but suddenly change to one meal a day for reasons such as changing owners, then the dog will eat poop to relieve hunger.

The undigested and fully absorbed nutrients in poop are also a great temptation for dogs. For example, the poop of herbivores often contains some vitamins and trace elements that dogs lack, and dogs will supplement their nutrition by swallowing poop. If there is no big fecal odor, where will the fragrance of rice come from? Animal feces are composed of food residues, digestive juices, intestinal exfoliated cells, microorganisms, etc., and contain various nutrients. They have been used as valuable farmland fertilizers for thousands of years. The saying that fertilizer water does not flow to outsiders' fields. The feces of common animals such as chickens, cows, pigs, and rabbits contain protein, cellulose, fat, calcium, phosphorus and various amino acids, as well as essential nutrients for animals such as vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin K, and linoleic acid. Element.

In the animal room of our laboratory, dogs eat only the poop of themselves and other dogs, or rabbit, and are not interested in rats. Although the nutritional ratio of dog food has become more balanced and reasonable, eating poop is no longer necessary for survival, but many pet dogs still retain the thrifty habits of their ancestors .

In addition, some diseases can exacerbate the dog's craving for poop. For example, pancreatitis, parasites in the gastrointestinal tract, imbalance of intestinal flora, diabetes, etc., the application of certain drugs such as barbiturates, progesterone, and steroids can also cause such results. But judging from discussions in pet forums at home and abroad, lack of nutrients and being punished for defecation in childhood should be the main reasons why domestic dogs eat poop.

It's not just dogs who eat poop~

Wolf travels a thousand miles to eat meat, dogs travel a thousand miles to eat shit, this statement is actually wrong . Not only wolves, but foxes, coyotes, jackals, etc., members of the canid family, eat small amounts of poop. Even when the wolves hunt in groups, they will attack the buttocks of large herbivores, and even grab and bite to take out the intestines of the prey from the anus, and eat the feces in the intestines together.

In fact, there are many animals in nature that eat poop. Needless to say, insects such as dung beetles (dung beetles) and flies that feed on the feces of large mammals all year round. Termites eat the feces of their queens to maintain the balance of the intestinal flora. Similarly, animals such as elephants, pandas, koalas, and hippos eat their mother's poop to replenish their gut microbes in their infancy.

Animals that make full use of the unabsorbed nutrients in poop are not only the canine family. Pigs will eat their own and other animals' poop to absorb the incompletely digested nutrients. Protein and cheap chicken manure to feed cattle, South American capybaras, hamsters, chinchillas, guinea pigs, gorillas, chimpanzees will hunt by eating their own poo Nutrients that slip through the net during the first digestion and absorption process.

Many people who have raised rabbits have also noticed that rabbits excrete a squishy ball of feces that most rabbits eat right away. This is because rabbits are monogastric herbivores and do not have a rumen like a cow to raise microorganisms to help digestion. After a long-term evolution process, rabbits have a developed cecum, which functions like a rumen, where food is decomposed by microorganisms in the cecum , after being converted into absorbable nutrients, it is excreted in the form of cecal stool, and the rabbit obtains the nutrients by eating the cecal stool. As a result, most hares and house rabbits are coprophagous from an early age.

Therefore, eating poop is not only a natural instinct of dogs, but also a nature shared by many animals, and even humans are not without eating poop. Mochizuki sand, to white cloves, Wulingzhi, and Jiyabai, all of them. (The article comes from the fruit shell network, the picture comes from the network)