Why do horses eat manure?
Manure eating (coprophagia) can be normal behavior in horses. In young foals, eating the mothers manure is a normal developmental stage. Through this behavior the foal learns to explore his environment and use his senses to make choices about what is palatable and what is not. He is also getting some dietary fiber and the beneficial intestinal microbes needed to support his own digestive processes once he begins eating solid food. In addition, the healthy intestinal microbes are an effective barrier to pathogenic bacteria which could adversely affect the foals health. In older foals and adult horses, manure eating may be a way of supplementing intestinal microbes, dietary fiber, and perhaps other nutrients that are lacking in the horses own diet. Coprophagia is normal and nutritionally necessary behavior in rabbits, a species whose intestinal tract is very similar to that of the horse. Many nutrients released or produced by microbial breakdown of dietary fiber, as well as the microbes
