I like to lick the face of many dog owners, and dog owners are kissing their beloved dogs. But if you hear the results of recent surveys, your thoughts may change. That is, 16% of dogs eat other dog's feces.
A survey of thousands of dog owners found that they witnessed their dogs eating stools six or more times. Most dogs preferred 'fresh', or a stool that was less than two days old.
Reluctance to dog food
Puppy owners who know or expect a puppy to eat feces can not stand the dog licking himself. According to a study by Benjamin Hart of the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, USA, dog owners showed a greater resistance to dogs that had more diarrhea than aggressive dogs.
However, there are different reasons for dogs showing food. And even though most opinions come from experts such as veterinarians and animal activists, they are all speculation.
To find answers to the diet, Hart and colleagues conducted two surveys of about 3,000 dog owners. As a result, dietary habits were not associated with obsessive behaviors such as the age of the puppy, dietary differences, or tail - chasing. In addition, dogs that had food were able to acquire the same level of training as dogs that did not. In other words, it means that there is no 'problem', so the dog does not show dieting.
|▲ Source = Max Pixel|
The descendants of wolves
Hart explains that the dog is a fool because he is a descendant of a wolf. The wolf also has a stool to remove parasite eggs in the intestines. It takes several days for the parasite eggs to hatch into larvae. Therefore, not all wolves have parasites in their feces.
When a wolf eats its feces immediately after excretion, it is not worried about infections with parasites. Some dogs have wolf instincts and eat feces. But today, most dogs are vaccinated, so there is no parasite eggs in the stool.
It is instinctive and completely normal behavior for a dog to eat in a certain situation. For example, a mother dog eats a litter of young to protect her young from an intruder or predator. It is because the smell of the stool of the young lures the predator.
Some dogs can eat their feces after they learn that the owner should take the stool out of his stool and see it clear. And if there are several dogs in the house and one is infected with disease, it is easy for food intake to occur. Dogs live in flocks and eat off the feces of weak individuals so that weak individuals do not stand out from predators.
Dogs also eat feces to supplement digestive enzymes. If a dog does not eat enough food or is deprived of vitamin B, it will have a diet.
In other words, eating dog feces is an evolutionary way of survival to cope with hunger and adversity.
|Source: Pixar Bay|
Professor James Surfer of the Pennsylvania Department of Veterinary Medicine said dog stools could motivate eating. Modern puppies eat a diet rich in fat and protein, and not all food is digested. Therefore, the food that is released into the feces is attracted to the dog.
Clive Wine at Arizona State University explained that the diet is very strange from a human point of view, but very natural from a dog's perspective.
Diet is a behavior related to the instincts of dogs, but it is not encouraging. So many dog owners are trying to fix the food. For example, when you sprinkle pepper on a dog's stool or dog does not eat feces, it is a way to compensate for a snack. Snacks and medications are being sold on the market, but the success rate is about 2%.