Owners who have the first appearance in the housethe dog is often asked why dogs eat grass. It seems strange to them that their pet chooses vegetarian food for itself, although all sources claim that the best diet for a dog is meat. And they choose the most tough and tasteless, from the point of view of a person, grass - wheat grass, avoiding the well-known vitamin herbs - dandelion or woodlouse. Let's see why dogs eat grass.
Indeed, the ancestors of dogs are meat eaters.Their digestive tract is adapted for digesting meat food, but along with it dogs often get wool, feathers, and bone residues that could not be digested into the stomach of a dog. Some of these items self-irritate the dog's stomach, causing vomiting, and thus are removed from it, and some are able to stay there for a long time. Feathers and bristles are annoying.
Finding indigestible residues in the stomachdogs disrupts normal digestion and may also cause mucosal damage. Therefore, for dogs it is useful to periodically regurgitate, getting rid of them. Here lies the answer to the question of why dogs eat grass. Grass is needed as a means to induce vomiting. And that is why dogs choose wheat grass - it is tough and perfectly performs its main function - irritation of the walls of the digestive tract and stimulation of the gag reflex.
Gag reflex - a protective reaction of the body togetting into the stomach not only solid foreign bodies. It is essentially designed to quickly remove from the digestive system of any potentially hazardous substances - including poisons. Therefore, it is very important for the dog, and the drugs that quench it are used for dogs only as a last resort - with exhausting vomiting.
The main reason why a dog eats grass andburping is the presence in her stomach of indigestible objects, from which you need to get rid of. Surprisingly, the dog is able to replace the grass with other options available for eating - for example, plastic bags or coarse threads. However, all substitutes are very dangerous for your pet's stomach, because they can cause bloat or other mechanical damage to the intestines. Therefore, it is better to let the dog find herbs on its own, rather than wait until it begins to look for a way to solve the problem in ways.
Some breeds of dogs not spoiled by longfactory breeding, they know a lot about medicinal herbs. Such individuals are found among the gilding wolfhounds, Yakut huskies, working Samoyeds, Malamutes and other breeds. They find valerian roots, dig up and eat Jerusalem artichoke, pick clover heads and eat them. These dogs deliberately avoid poisonous plants, identifying them by smell. They also know a lot about the fruits of trees, berries and nuts - the genes of free ancestors tell them useful plants.
However, while walking your puppy shouldknow that there are poisonous plants that should not fall into his mouth. These are all types of buttercups: kalyuzhnitsa, anemone, crow's feet, stonecrop. And from houseplants: Monsters, Dieffenbachia, oleanders. Eating these plants can also cause vomiting in a puppy, however, such vomiting is a symptom of poisoning and is not associated with cleaning the stomach and intestines. Why young dogs eat grass that is harmful to their health is not an easy question. Most likely the usual puppy curiosity works.
Not always destroyed plants are eatenby dogs. So before you ask why the dog eats grass, make sure that the torn tops are not lying around. Often, dogs, having fun, tear off the tops of tulips and daffodils, break ornamental shrubs with their paws, dig out what the owners have recently planted, and gnaw.
This is the case when the dog itself is looking forentertainment, and plants replace her toys. The habit of destroying a landing is often the cause of a summer dog in an aviary or in a fenced area. Accidentally hitting the coveted territory, the dog selflessly drags carrots from baskets, cuts off tomatoes and valerian heads, gnaws zucchini. This case, strictly speaking, does not quite relate to the answer to the question of why the dog eats grass, but it is important to understand that in this case your pet has a different motivation.
So, there are several reasons why a dog eats grass.
