Grass eating Dogs - Is it OKay?

[Oreo]

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There are many theories as to why dogs eat grass.

I just wanted to open up a discussion as to why you think dogs eat grass.

I used to think it was because they felt Ill but since I've had Oreo she seems to go through fazes of eating grass.

Does it taste nice to them?

 

[hanneroon]

my dog eats a bit of grass, he also eats cleavers everyday pretty much. He also likes to eat many different kinds of fairly hairy leaved things like pumpkin leaves or that kind of thing... I'm a gardener, so he is out doors a lot, and i get to see what he is eating. This time of year he loves a perennial kind of forget me not, makes a bee-line for it. I have looked up all of the plants he eats to see if they are ok for him. The cleavers, are meant to be an anti-inflammatory, people feed it horses to prevent recurring laminitis or something, so i figure thats fine. Borage, i do try and stop him as it is meant to be a slight toxin. He does eat grass like a sheep though, him and his springer friend, in the summer i am often working to the sounds of two dogs grazing. I think they are just greedy. His little puppy friend copies him and will eat cleavers and grass too if he does, it would make her a bit sick when she was younger, so i'd stop her. I don't think she chewed it properly.

He is rarely sick after eating it tho, maybe once or twice a year... In this case he will have eaten lots of long strands of that quite soft, very green grass, or in the height of summer when the cleavers are very stringy and tough. I think they mostly eat it for the nutrients, and sometimes for a bit of a purge.

i've tried the cleavers, they taste like very hairy, velcroey, peas.

 

[banana]

Mine do occasionally, but not on a huge level!

 

[lurcherman]

i dont mind mine having a wee nibble but dont let them too much, for me it can only be for making themselves sick, why? because if you look a your dogs before you go out they do look wee bit under the weather but thats just my idea

 

[hanneroon]

if they want to make themselves sick tho, then why not let them? Very occassionally maybe once a year or so, i see dude tearing great lumps of grass and swallowing them whole, he will then regurgitate them. There would be no stopping him, and i do keep an eye, and even poke through it a bit to check for parasites or bits of bone or fluff or something. Never found anything, but it does make me check the calender for his wormers. If its their way of solving a poorly tum, then why not let em?

The rest he just eats with no ill effects, he picked some cleavers out of the snow today, he seems to genuinely like it, and it is a bit sweet.

Often i get the impression with all the dogs, that they can't work out what i'm up to in the garden, especially if i'm on my hands and knees. They assume it must have something to do with food, and dude often comes up and sniffs me to see if i'm eating something. I think, left to their own devices, dogs just forage around for food, he spends all day hunting bees and grasshoppers in the summer, fruit in the autumn, and cleavers this time of year, cos theres bugger all else around. A guy i walk with, in the summer, has purple chinned labs from all the blackberries they eat, my dog doesn't like them, though he is curious as to what they are doing.

I only stop him if he's eating somewhere that might have chemicals on or a plant i don't know about, or if he's in the veg patch munching on my clients vegetables!

 

[Steeleye Span]

Both of mine eat grass, especially the nice new shoots. Neither of them are usually sick after they've eaten the new grass so I don't think they only eat it when they feel ill. However, occasionally Gem will eat more than usual and then she is more likely to vomit.

Seems to me they can eat it for enjoyment, aiding digestion and occasionally as as emetic to relieve gastro disturbance of some kind. I don't think there is a definative answer to this question.

 

[lurcherman]

i suppose we all see it differently as all dogs are not the same,

 

[Chiltern Canines]

I think mine like the taste, as they only seem to eat the new spring grass :- )

 

[Oreo]

Yes! Oreo goes for the long grass at the edge with all the dew on it.

Perhaps it just tastes nice?

 

[chelynnah]

Mostly mine graze the fresh grass and rarely throw up - so I call it their 'salad'. Occasionally though they do eat too much and throw up. In my previous breed anytime they ate grass they would throw up. Until whippets I always assumed it was a bit of a poorly tum and their way of making themselves feel better. Since the whippets like to 'graze' I think it's probably individual to each dog and/or breed.