Two Cents Tuesday Topic: Dogs Eating Grass?

I could not help but notice that when I take my dog Ellie out for her daily walks, she manages to find a patch of grass and take to a good munching. I pause for a moment and watch her each time because I see how much her tail gets to wagging. I then think to myself how grass isn’t a necessarily common ingredient in dog food so I question its effects on my pooch and call her back to continue our walk.

To find out the facts about grass I decided to investigate!

So WHY do dogs LIKE to eat GRASS?

After my crafty google searching, I found dogs have a history of being veggie lovers for tens of thousands of years. Dogs then resort to plants as a supplemental food source because of its abundance. Medicine Net explains that sometimes dogs who resort to eating unconventional foods have a disorder called Pica, as a result of a nutritional deficiency, but their vets say when it comes to grass this is usually not the case.

“most veterinarians consider it a normal dog behavior. One small-scale study of 49 dog owners whose dogs had regular access to grass and other plants found that 79% of the dogs had eaten plants at some time. Another survey about plant-eating dogs found that grass was the most commonly eaten plant.” -Medicine Net

Another guess as to why dogs may eat grass is that they may have an upset stomach and want to throw up as we see many of our dogs regurgitate the grass after intake. Medicine Net says otherwise, however.

“In fact, fewer than 10% of dogs seem to be sick before eating grass, according to their owners. And grass-eating doesn’t usually lead to throwing up — less than 25% of dogs that eat grass vomit regularly after grazing.”- Medicine Net

And of course there is always that dogs have peculiar taste buds and may just like the taste and feel of grass.

So is it harmful?

Most occasional grazing is not a particular harm to most dogs, but do not forget that many lawns consist of pesticides and herbicides, which can be quite toxic. In addition, some plants in your garden along your grass might interest your dog and could be potential poisonous. To checkout a list of poisonous plants see ASPCA’s Animal Poison Control Center web site, which maintains a list of toxic and non-toxic plants.

It is also very possible that your dog is just bored or has a low percentage of fiber. Review how often you’re taking your pup out for walks and what nutrition they’re getting from their daily food. PetMD also recommends perhaps creating a herbal home garden to provide your pooch with healthy alternative food sources.

-Bionic

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