Friday, September 21, 2012

Reasons why your pet dog eats mud

By Jerry Welsh


You know that your pet dog would eat just about anything because they have such great appetites but you would still ensure that the beloved pet is given nutritious foods. Dogs are well loved pets and some owners would even go to the extent of providing the pet with home cooked meals. An owner though would get exasperated with the pet's bizarre habits. Even well fed ones would still eat non-edible things. As if it is not enough for dogs to eat spoiled food human's best friends would eat grasses and leaves, their own and other dog's feces Did you know that dogs eat mud too?

All dogs have the propensity to dig. Dogs are renowned for their excellent scenting abilities. Apart from having a high level of intelligence dogs are noted to have retentive memories too. Days after burying their "treasures" a dog will still know where to dig. Pet dogs don't go hungry but once they have dug a bone, the dirt and the mud will be ingested as well. Puppies are curious of their environment and in the process of investigating their world, puppies would use their mouth. It is believed that dogs have acquired a taste for eating mud and other non-edible objects and substances. A dog's mud eating habit can be due to other reasons too.

Dogs have the ability to self medicate and mud can be the dog's cure for parasite infestation and upset stomach. Stomach upset is common in dogs given their propensity to be indiscriminate eaters. Worm infestation is a common concern of dog owners because of the pet's inclination to eat feces. Eating mud is as well attributed to the dog's effort to fill up a nutritional deficiency that is caused when dog owners feed the pet with low quality commercial food that contains more cereal fillers.

Mud eating can be due to a medical concern. Your efforts to give the dog nutritious food may not benefit the pet because of a maldigestion and malabsorption syndrome. The dog will still suffer from nutrient deficiency in spite of the nutritious food provided by the owner. Dogs eat mud to correct the nutrient deficiency in the diet.

Dogs would always want to have the attention of the family because these are social animals. Dogs would always want to have the attention of the family. The bored dog can be destructive or it can also eat feces, grass and mud to gain the attention of the human friends.




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