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  • Bunny kisses might sound really cute until you find out that rabbits eat their own poop.

  • Hey dedicated defecators, Jules here for DNews!

  • If you own a dog, or a rabbit, or a dung beetle (no judgment),

  • then you might have noticed that unlike most humans, they love to eat poop.

  • Their own poop, the poop of other animals, it's like the world is their poop buffet.

  • And as a responsible pet owner, you may be inclined to put a stop to this behavior,

  • but it turns out: that would make YOU the poopy-head.

  • The term for when animals eat excrement isCoprophagia”,

  • koproscoming from the greek term forpoop’,

  • andphagiabeing the greek suffix foreating’.

  • Poop-eating.

  • And plenty of animals do this, the most common being rodents, and lagomorphs,

  • which are rabbits, hares, and pika.

  • Interestingly, both rodents and lagomorphs share a common ancestor,

  • which may explain their similar habits.

  • In fact, this poop-eating habit is necessary for these animals to survive.

  • See, rodents and lagomorphs have really inefficient digestive systems;

  • the absorption of food happens in the lower gastrointestinal tract, and very little is actually absorbed.

  • So, to make sure the necessary nutrients get into their system,

  • these animals simply run them through the digestive system again,

  • by eating what they excrete.

  • Interestingly, lagomorphs produce two different types of poop, one that is hard and inedible (they leave that alone),

  • and the other is soft and nutrient rich, calledcecotropes

  • ornight feces”.

  • Cecotropes are produced in a different part of the digestive tract,

  • and are coated with mucus so they survive the trip.

  • And even though it still exits the anus, it is not technically consideredfeces”,

  • and so technically it's not coprophagia.

  • Either way, these animals are eating something that came out of their butt.

  • But rabbits, rodents, and hares are not the only ones ordering poop for pickup.

  • The dung beetle, as you can probably imagine, also eat, well, dung.

  • They actually extract nutrients, specifically nitrogen, from animal excrement,

  • and sometimes use the pile as a nest for their offspring.

  • Piglets, foals, nonhuman primates and dogs also eat poop, although less regularly.

  • The young of some of these mammals, foals and dogs for example, eat their mother's poop

  • in order to populate their gut bacteria, which is necessary for breaking down food in the stomach.

  • Moreover, mother dogs will often lick their puppies anus and genitals to stimulate defecation.

  • Then, for quick cleanup, the mother dog will just eat whatever comes out.

  • I mean, it's faster than carrying one of those poop bag dispensers.

  • This habit of eating mom's poop, or having mom eat your poop tends to end after the animal is weaned,

  • but some animals seems to acquire a taste for it, and they keep up the habit.

  • According to veterinarians, dogs eating poop, whether it is their own, or a stranger's,

  • is natural and generally not harmful.

  • In rare cases, it can potentially transmit a disease or cause vomiting and diarrhea.

  • And, if they jump up to give you a kiss, it's a definitely gross.

  • Now, as for humans, eating poop isn't quite so carefree.

  • Coprophagia is usually associated with mental illness, and human poop, especially someone else's,

  • can contain bacteria such as shigella, campylobacter, salmonella and E.coli.

  • Those can make you VERY sick.

  • Long story short: rabbits, rats, and dogs eating poop: usually fine and healthy.

  • Humans eating poop: Nope.

  • Nope nope nope.

  • If you're into animal poop or just animals that start with P, you might like the show Panda Republic.

  • Now you can watch that and all the other Animal Planet shows on Animal Planet Go.

  • Check out the link in the description or download it from your app store.

  • So if your dog eats poop, should you let your dog lick your face?

  • Or will you get a whole bunch of weird diseases?

  • You can find out right here.

  • And what other weird animal habits do you want to know about?

  • Let us know in the comments, don't forget to subscribe,

  • and make sure to come back here for more DNews everyday!

Bunny kisses might sound really cute until you find out that rabbits eat their own poop.

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