“Why Do Dogs Eat Their Poop” – it’s an unperceivable question. Imagine retaking the digested food passed out as your body’s waste. Eating poop is not all that uncommon among dogs. It’s called coprophagia, and it’s generally a natural behavior with a few different causes.
Process of Information Gathering
Dr. Alexandra Horowitz – a dog cognition researcher – explains why dogs eat their poop because it is likely a way or dogs to gain information about whatever animal left the droppings.
They have a special organ that humans lack: the vomeronasal organ. This organ determines and detects the chemical makeup of whatever they’re smelling.
When your pup, if it does so, eats its poop, it brings information to the vomeronasal organ. Thus, it helps detect animal pheromones, diet, species, and other data through the feces.
Humans have Google.Com, Dogs have the organ that functions as Google for them!
Keeping things clean
When female dogs breed, they have this attitude of keeping the den clean. This could perhaps mean eating poop.
Keeping their dwelling area free of feces is crucial because in the wild, dogs don’t want to use scent cues to draw predators to their babies. If you own more than one dog, the same thing can occur. The more subordinate dog can end up eating the dominant dog’s excrement.
Another acquired trait is maintaining cleanliness. If you discipline your dog for having an accident in the house and they witness you cleaning up their waste, your dog can begin to understand that the feces are the reason for the punishment. Eating the mess can just be an attempt to hide the evidence and escape punishment.
Puppy development
It’s rather typical for puppies to eat their excrement. For several reasons, it comes naturally to them.
The first is that many pups will put objects in their mouths to explore since they are still learning. All they are attempting to do is explore their surroundings and determine whether or not the object in front of them is food.
When they are too young to begin chewing food on their own, pups may consume dung because it may have a texture similar to the food their mother dog has chewed up for them.
When they are too young to begin chewing food on their own, pups may consume dung because it may have a texture similar to the food their mother dog has chewed up for them.
By the time they are adults, most puppies will have outgrown the tendency, but retraining a dog who hasn’t broken the habit by then might be challenging.
Poor Nutrition
Modern dog food can be difficult for some dogs to fully digest. The reason for this is that they don’t have enough enzymes to digest the plant proteins and carbs in these diets.
Restoring some of the digestive enzymes may be possible through eating excrement.
Coprophagia can also result from overfeeding or vitamin B deficiency. A dog may attempt to recycle their feces in order to obtain more nutrients from their digested food if they are being overfed and are unable to absorb all of the nutrients in their meal.
If you have a cat, you might also find that your dog enjoys eating your cat’s waste. Compared to dog food, cat food has more protein, and cats’ digestive systems are less effective. Because it contains protein, dogs consume cat excrement.
Because cat litter is absorbent and swells in the digestive tract, it can be particularly harmful if your dog ingests it. A blockage may result if your dog consumes as much of it.
Medical Problems
An infection or other medical condition may be more likely to be the cause of a dog’s poor nutrition. Coprophagia may result from your dog’s inability to absorb the right amount of nutrients due to parasites or pancreatic issues.
You should speak with your veterinarian if your dog is consuming excrement.
There is a chance that infections could be spread from dog to dog through feces. When dogs come into contact with another pup’s feces, they can contract a variety of diseases.
Worms are among the majority of these illnesses that are typically preventable by vaccination. That being said, your dog is more likely to transfer diseases if they sniff or consume the feces of other dogs in the neighborhood.
You might feel guilty of seeing that your pup is fed by its poop. It’s rather an inherent behavior of dogs by nature. That’s how they are being evolved. But still, it can be a dangerous habit when it comes to the spread of illnesses. Therefore, be cautious of your pup’s poop-eating habit and try as much as possible to keep your pet away from this unhealthy stuff. Consequently you may need not bother why do dogs eat poop, if your pup has already ruled out the habit.