Why do dogs (and other animals) eat p**p?

Question

Why do dogs (and other animals) eat p**p?

Answer 1

To humans, its a natural tendency to think eating p**p is nasty and disgusting.  You have been constantly pounded into your heads that eating p**p is bad lol i know that sounds weird but its true.  Think of the most disgusting food in the world that you absolutely hate.  

For some people its tomatoes or yogurt or vegetables or something along those lines.  However, to other people in the world, those might be a delcasy.  

Now i'm not saying that its a delcasy for an animal to eat its p**p.  I just don't think they have it set in their minds that thats disgusting.  They just see it as a smelly peice of food lol

Answer 2

Many animals eat p**p on a regular basis. These include rabbits, rodents, gorillas, many insects such as dung beetles and flies, and yes, dogs. (Keep that in mind the next time a dog wants to l**k you!) Herbivores such as rabbits and rodents eat their own p**p because their diet of plants is hard to digest efficiently, and they have to make two passes at it to get everything out of the meal. This is equivalent to a cow chewing its cud, only cows are able to re-eat their food without having to p**p it out first. Another reason why animals eat p**p is that p**p contains vitamins produced by their intestinal bacteria. The animal is unable to absorb the vitamins through the intestinal wall, but can get at them by eating the p**p. Another reason that animals such as dogs and flies eat p**p is that p**p contains a certain amount of protein. Dogs are particularly fond of cat p**p because cat p**p is high in protein. I had a friend with a dog and a cat, and he never had to clean the kitty litter. The dog took care of it.  

Answer 3

Some puppies need to do this to acquire normal flora in their gut for proper digestion.