Why would a horse eat another's feces?

Answer 1

Manure is just processed grass or hay. Horses will do this for a few reasons. They are bored, hungry, need some sort of mineral and are trying to satisfy the need. It may just smell appetizing to the horse. Mostly horses eat manure because they are lacking nutrients somewhere in their body. If you are asking this because your horse does it try giving him or her a salt block.

Answer 2

Digestion occurring in the hind gut is less efficient than digestion in the rumen hence and, consequently, horse feces contain a lot of undigested fiber. To increase the efficiency the horse will practice coprophagy (feces eating) so that additional digestion of the cellulose is possible.

Answer 3

It sounds gross but trust me it is 100% natural. By doing so a horse gains nutrients and other things its body needs. A foal will nibble on its mothers feces after it is born because it helps it to build up its immune system.

Answer 4

Most of what horses eat (unless they are on pasture) is dry matter and in order to process it it must be rehydrated. Their feces weigh more than the hay and concentrates that they eat because of the addition of water.

Answer 5

The eating of feces is called Coprophagia, this can be caused form a lack of nutrients, boredom, Territorial issues,and mating behaviour to name a few. Your horse may be bored and not have hay or grass available so it begins to eat poop to satisfy it's need to graze and eat. There could also be undigested feeds in the poop and the horse is trying to get to those bits of food. There could also be a mineral or vitamin deficiency and he's attempting to remedy it. If the horse is in a herd situation, it may be doing to show dominance or submission, depending on the situation. You should have an equine veterinarian do a test to figure out if the horse is deficient in anything. Once this is done, have you hay or pasture tested and either amend the quality of the grass, buy better hay, or possibly buy a ration balancer or supplement. this should help for nutritional problems. If the horse is simply bored provide a companion, toys, or more hay. If it is a herd behaviour it may continue no matter what you do.

Answer 6

Horses eat manure if they are not fed enough, there is hay in poop and if theydon't have any food, they will most likely eat their poop or other horses poop.

Answer 7

horses would only eat their own faeces if they were starving and had nothing else to eat! xx

Answer 8

Because they may get irritated or may like the taste of it or they may be hungry or lonely.

Answer 9

It can be because the horse is lacking in minerals and vitamins or just from boredom