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Old March 27th 08, 06:41 PM posted to uk.sci.weather
Darren Prescott[_2_] Darren Prescott[_2_] is offline
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First recorded activity by Weather-Banter: Sep 2007
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Default OT: Why do dogs...

"Will Hand" wrote in message
Dogs do have a natural instinct to eat there own (and possibly other)
turds
as a source of vitamins. Normally well fed domestic dogs don't do this but
if a dog starts doing it, it is a sign of something lacking in their diet.

The wolves I'm involved with aren't coprophagic when it comes to their own
turds, nor is it documented in the wild (at least not from any of the
textbooks I've got here). *Some* captive wolves have been observed to do it,
but ours haven't - at least not while I've been watching!

The only exception to the above is that apparently female wolves will eat
their offspring's poop when they're very young, but the practice stops once
the pups are weaned. Infer from that what you will!

What they *do* seem to enjoy is horse dung in the woods. Along the lines of
what you've said, we suspect it's because in the wild they'd get nutrients
from the stomach contents of their prey, but we don't feed our wolves entire
stomachs.