Will pigs eat feces

Answer 1

Pigs will only eat their own faeces if given ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE to eat. They're very intelligent animals and now the difference between faeces and food. They are often thought of as 'unclean' (and hence some religions ban the eating of pork) because they like to roll in mud which the naive take as being 'dirty'. This is in fact to keep cool in hot weather as they have no sweat glands. When they are absolutely starving they will eat their faeces rather than starve to death.

Whether you can and whether its good for you are two totally different issues.

Coprophagia is very common in the animal kingdom - gorillas and rabbits just as a for instance If rabbits did not eat everything twice, they would not be able to eat enough to survive - digesting everything twice is essential to them. This is not the case in humans and human faeces are largely devoid of nutritionally beneficial material.

It is believed that if you'll only be eating your own faeces, there is no problem, since you're only eating bacteria you already have, and if you do have a disease, it is too late anyway. But even with this theory there is a flaw. Most of the bacteria in faeces come from the large intestine, and while they are not always strictly confined to this portion of the gut, overgrowth in other parts of the gut and anywhere else in the body CAN cause disease.

In addition to the bacteria and parasites, faeces contain waste matter which, in their original form or metabolized form (after being acted upon by bacteria), are certainly not useful to the body and may be harmful.

Coprophagia is also associated with psychological disorders such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

This is also observed as a defense mechanism against predators in the wild. In the wild, if you poo where you sleep, the bears and wolves find and eat YOU. Adult pigs know better, and defecate on the opposite side of their pen from where they eat and sleep. Piglets don't know better, and since Mom and Dad don't have hands and pooper-scoopers to move the feces, they eat it and eventually it gets to the other side of the pen where it belongs.

Wolves are known to do the same thing in their dens.
Yes it's natural don't discourage this behavior.

Answer 2

Sometimes Guinea Pigs do eat their poop, and that can be because they are trying to refill something in their stomach that needs to filled.This can cause orange liquid or brown liquid in their cage. And they might be hiccuping because Guinea Pigs cant throw Up.

Thanks!!

Answer 3

Yes. Pigs will eat their own feces and that of other vertebrates which leave significant amounts of nutrients in their waste. In fact, that is partly why there are so many disease outbreaks in some parts of the world. Poor families, in some cultures, will collect horse manure and feed it to the hogs they raise. The ancient Chinese used what is known as a pig toilet, and that is an outhouse over a pig sty, and the human waste drops into the sty, and the pigs will eat it.

Answer 4

Yes, especially if they are not getting etiquette nutrition.

Answer 5

they do. they go to the bathroom in their sty, then they take mud or dust baths in the same sty.

Answer 6

guinea pigs usually dont eat their poop.

Answer 7

No.

Answer 8

yes

Answer 9

no

Answer 10

Sometimes only dumb guinea pigs do