It's probably a gut microbe thing that aids in processing food more efficiently, right? Koalas eat their own shit as well - I think their mothers even feed them shit, iirc. I think it's not uncommon among herbivores.
this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2025
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Yup. Guinea pigs also need to eat their own poop for normal digestion.
The koala thing is slightly different, at birth they can't digest eucalyptus leaves. The necessary gut bacteria is passed down from mother to child through coprophagy.
Bunnies and guinea pigs just eat their poop to ensure complete digestion.
They have two kinds of poop: the little cocoa pebble ones, and soft wet ones that look like grape clusters, called cecotropes. The cecotropes are partly digested, and they eat them to extract more nutrients the second go round.
Ah, fascinating! We had a bunny growing up and I always remember her eating the little pebbly poop, but I'm probably just remembering wrong.
Some can't get enough and want it all
So it's like chewing cud, except it's multiple passes of the same stomach instead of different stomachs.
They don't have the mass to have multiple stomachs like a proper cow
I always knew shit eating grins were misunderstood. They were just happy about being efficient.
Yes and no. Chewing cud only involves the first stomach for cows, since they just need to regurgitate it. It doesn't pass to the later stomachs until the grass is sufficiently broken down
A fact well known to everyone who read Watership Down as a child.
No shit, they eat grass and only have one stomach. They have to eat their cecotropes to actually digest the grass
This is the kind of thing a rabbit that eats its own faeces would say
Umm, what if we were to hypothetically convince the manosphere that this is the most manly thing that can be possibly achieved
Nesquik cereal looks too real ~fuck~ ~Nestle~
You may not like the format, that's fine, but I would like to point out it was used correctly in this meme.
Fun fact: at birth koalas can't actually digest eucalyptus leaves on their own. They eat their mum's faeces to gain the necessary gut bacteria.
In case anyone else was wondering too.
Even though it’s a fact that rabbits can eat their own poop, that really shouldn’t be a sign that you should follow suit (even if it was for your survival). Eating rabbit droppings has no nutritional value for humans.
Thanks, I've been eating rabbit poop for years, glad to hear I can stop
One time we were babysitting my little cousin. We had a rabbit roaming in the kitchen, and cousin was eating breakfast. Next thing, I hear him saying "that's not a raisin!"
Poor kid. Hope he learned not to eat stuff off the ground.
Who am I kidding, he probably learned that raisins can't be trusted.
It doesn't say we have to stop, coward.
Well, duh. The rabbit isn't eating another animals poop, but their own. Sooo...
My beagles make up for it (…yuck)
My chihuahuas also love rabbit poop
They are more similar to us than many anticipate
I look forward to never having to read about these kinds of studies again once all of the funding disappears.
I hope I don't need the /s