Why do piggies eat their own poops?

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Shalom

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Can anyone explain why guinea pigs eat there own poops, I have never heard a discussion about it on this forum yet. :x:)>>>
 
I have never seen mine do that but they do eat the newspaper I put in the cage and dont know if this is normal lol!
 
My two do it all the time, shame they didnt do it more, would save a lot of poop scooping ha ha ha ha
 
Double the nutrients, they eat the soft poos (usually early morning and they're called cecal faeces) that don't touch the floor, they eat it straight from their bums! Pigs who get impaction (like one of mine) is because this soft poos clump together into a big ball, the muscles weakened so they struggle to push them out.

Its called coprophagy
 
They do it do get the most nutrition out of their food basically :))

The ones they eat are smaller softer poops, and provide more nutrition and vitamins back into their digestive system. They are called Caecotrophs.

A poorly piggie will often stop eating these, and this adds to the health problems. Its why you hear the phrase "poop soup"....if you feed these back to your poorly pigs either by hand or syringe then it helps them when they are sick.

Some sick piggies will eat their cagemates ones as well when they are sick and need more vitamins.
 
Guinea pigs produce two types of poo (i cant remember the names) Theres the normal poo and smaller, softer poo that they eat. These softer poos contain more vitamins etc that need to be digested a second time.

If they are eating the normal poos, thats just because they like the taste.

HTH :)
 
Digestion
The guinea pig has a large digestive system to process all the food it loves to eat. First the food enters the stomach where it is mixed with digestive juices and any sugars and fat are absorbed by the intestines. Then the rest of the food passes into the caecum, which is a huge fermentation vat which takes up 50-75% of the space inside the guinea pigs abdominal cavity! Guinea pigs then produce two types of droppings, the hard ones which they leave around the cage for you to clear up, and soft ones known as caecotrophs which are full of protein and vitamins and these the guinea pig eats directly from its bottom. It may produce up to 150 of these caecotrophs to eat a day!

Source : http://www.omlet.co.uk/guide/guide.php?view=Guinea Pigs&cat=Guinea Pigs&sub=Anatomy

Suzy x
 
One of mine eats all his poo. We barely ever find it on the floor of his cage. I got quite worried because I thought he had a problem, but then we saw him eating poo from the floor of his cage :)>>>
 
Digestion
The guinea pig has a large digestive system to process all the food it loves to eat. First the food enters the stomach where it is mixed with digestive juices and any sugars and fat are absorbed by the intestines. Then the rest of the food passes into the caecum, which is a huge fermentation vat which takes up 50-75% of the space inside the guinea pigs abdominal cavity! Guinea pigs then produce two types of droppings, the hard ones which they leave around the cage for you to clear up, and soft ones known as caecotrophs which are full of protein and vitamins and these the guinea pig eats directly from its bottom. It may produce up to 150 of these caecotrophs to eat a day!

Source : http://www.omlet.co.uk/guide/guide.php?view=Guinea Pigs&cat=Guinea Pigs&sub=Anatomy

Suzy x
 
It's part of their digestive process- the long fibers in the guinea pig's natural diet are hard to digest, eating caecal pellets (special 'nutritious' poops) helps them to get the most out of what they eat. It's similar to a cow chewing it's *** to break down the grass/hay more efficiently. Totally normal for guinea pigs!
 
does anyone have any information on What happens if the anal impaction isn't cleared out?
 
Hanwombat said:
Double the nutrients, they eat the soft poos (usually early morning and they're called cecal faeces) that don't touch the floor, they eat it straight from their bums! Pigs who get impaction (like one of mine) is because this soft poos clump together into a big ball, the muscles weakened so they struggle to push them out.

Its called coprophagy
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, very informative. Yes, mine reach under their tums and pull out a nice fresh one....... Lovely:)>>>
 
I thought this was discusting at first, but now I know that it´s because of the vitamins and so on. :))

My dog eats poop all the time, why he does it, I dont know. All I know Is, it´s nasty!:{
 
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