Why does my dog eat grass?

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Is it just my dog that eats grass?

Not at all, this behaviour of grazing on a luscious bit of grass every now and then has been observed in owned and wild dogs for quite a while now. A large number of pet owners report seeing this behaviour in their dogs from quite a young age so even if it a little weird, your dog is not alone in it’s weirdness.

So why do they do it? 

We know that it’s more of an innate behaviour in dogs rather than being indicative of a problem or illness, we can see this from the wild dogs that do the same and from the way there never seems to be one single reason. A few reasons though, are:

  • They might just feel a bit peckish.
    • Your dog might just fancy a quick snack and a small dose of nutritional grass is a quick easy fix.
  • Canines in the wild are natural scavengers, it’s only natural their innate behaviours, like the need to scavenge for food, would be visible in our pets. It just happens that they like to scavenge grass.
  • Related to feeling a bit hungry, it could be that your dog is feeling a lack in some essential nutrition, not to say they’re underfed, but they could just feel like they need something that the grass offers.
  • Some experts think grass eating could be related to boredom. Feeling bored? What better to wake you up than munching a bit of grass to pass the time. Again, this isn’t a bad thing and can be seen in young dogs who get bored easily.
  • Stomach distress, probably the least likely cause but experts suggest it can still be a cause is stomach distress. Maybe your dog is feeling queasy and the paletable nature of grass calms their stomach down a bit.

So is grass eating a bad thing? 

Not really. It seemingly comes very naturally to a lot of tame and wild dogs. Unless you notice a sudden uptake in the amountof grass your dog is eating which can be a sign of something more serious, there is nothing to worry about.

One more thing to think about is the quality of the grass the dog is grazing on, is it chemically treated grass that could contain pesticides of fertilizers. This kind of grass is obviously a big no.

But my dog vomits after eating grass!

This unfortunately is common enough. While only less than 25% of dogs seem to vomit after ingesting grass, there’s no proof to say for sure that this is because the grass is making them ill, maybe they were feeling queasy beforehand and vomiting helped them feel better.

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