Why do Guinea Pigs eat their own poo?

[Piggie Life]

My girls both eat their own poo! They don't do it often but sometimes when they're on my lap they reach back and just eat their poo's as they come out of their bums! rolleyes Maybe they're just being polite and choosing not to poo on my lap ! |) They never eat the poo's on the floor just the occasional the ones that come out. I know it's normal for Guinea Pigs to do that but why do they do it?

 

[piglet_and_rogers_mama]

from what i understand, is that their digestive tracts move so quickly, that they don't have a chance to absorb all the nutrients from the food. so, they basically "recycle," so they have a second chance to get more of the nutrients they eat.

 

[Lilly]

piglet_and_rogers_mama is correct. Also they don't just eat any old poop. They produce two types. There is the normal prodigious pellet type stuff dropped everywhere. Then there is the type they eat, a smaller and softer poop that they usually pull out of their behinds, sometimes dropping it and picking it up again. It is this edible poop that has the B vitamins piggies don't get from the first digestive cycle.

 

[Username]

LOL. Interesting!
This answers a question i had in a thread i started. Haha.

 

[Freela]

It's part of their digestive process- the food they eat is difficult to digest, so this gives them a 'second chance' to redigest the long fibres in hays/grasses. It's similar to a cow chewing its ***, but achieved somewhat differently!

 

[Elitah]

And here I was thinking my piggies were just weird!

 

[Amysmom]

I don't think we should think of it as 'poo' they mainly consist of hay so I don't think of it as poo-makes it not so disgusting after all.

 

[Lilly]

I don't think we should think of it as 'poo' they mainly consist of hay so I don't think of it as poo-makes it not so disgusting after all.

One of my friends would agree with you! When she visits she just picks up the poops with her bare hands. I must say I do tend to use disposable gloves myself.

 

[Claire W]

One of my friends would agree with you! When she visits she just picks up the poops with her bare hands. I must say I do tend to use disposable gloves myself.

I pick poo up with my bare hands :red

My girls also eat each others poo :red Classy ladies

 

[The Source of Cucumber]

They do two types of poo:

True Poos, and

Chew Poos.

They do the Chew Poos because they eat mostly grass (either fresh or in the form of hay), which is mostly made up of cellulose, that they cannot completely digest, because they aren't ruminants (four stomached) like cows, and their digestion happens quickly.

By eating Chew Poos, the guinea pig gets to digest the grass twice.

 

[Lilly]

They do two types of poo:

True Poos, and

Chew Poos.

They do the Chew Poos because they eat mostly grass (either fresh or in the form of hay), which is mostly made up of cellulose, that they cannot completely digest, because they aren't ruminants (four stomached) like cows, and their digestion happens quickly.

By eating Chew Poos, the guinea pig gets to digest the grass twice.

I love those names - true poos and chew poos! I will be calling them that from now on.

 

[Amanda1801]

They eat food that is of very low nutritional value to them, as their digestive system lacks the enzyme required to break down the tough cellulose cell walls of the plant matter that they eat. Their aim is to break down the cell walls and release the contents which contain goodies like carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Part of this happens in the hind gut (the caecum and bowel to some extent) where the plant matter is fermented. Nutrients can only be absorbed by the foregut (the stomach, liver and initial part of the small intestine), so in order to benefit from the products of the fermentation process (largely B vitamins and volatile fatty acids), they need to eat their poo!

Eating some of their poo (it's not the liquorice torpedo type that we see as poo, they're softer and a less well formed shape) is a bit like you drinking a probiotic yoghurt drink in the morning, only not quite as socially acceptable


If this kind of thing really excites you (it does for me!) then things to google are "hindgut fermenters".

Pub quiz trivia: guinea pigs, rabbits, elephants and odd Toed ungulates e.g horses and rhinos are all hind gut fermenters

 

[The Source of Cucumber]

(it's not the liquorice torpedo type that we see as poo, they're softer and a less well formed shape)

I call them "chocolate bananas".