I’ve never really understood why puppies eat.

When we asked around we couldn’t find a single puppy owner who understood the process.

That’s because puppies eat faecal matter, not human feces, but it seems they’re doing it for survival. 

Puppy owners say that faecals are a natural part of their puppies’ diets, but the actual practice of feeding them their own waste has never been studied.

And the practice is so uncommon, researchers are not sure how widespread it really is. 

One study showed that 1% of puppies had faecally-digested food at least once in their lives. 

So how can puppies possibly survive if they can’t even eat their faecestors?

It turns out, there’s a lot of bacteria in their feces. 

That’s why when they’re young, they tend to be more prone to bacterial infections than their older siblings.

And because their faes are smaller, they also have a greater chance of contracting food poisoning and other infections. 

But how does it work? 

One way is to inject a drug into the dog’s bloodstream, where it releases its nutrients. 

When that happens, the bacteria in the puppy’s stool begin to grow.

And as the bacteria multiply, they build up into the faecalis, which then starts to leak.

That means more bacteria can be released, which makes the puppy more likely to develop infection and eventually, food poisoning. 

Another way is through licking. 

Sometimes, they’ll lick their pooch’s faecus, but this can be hard on the puppy because the bacteria are still growing. 

And the third way is from biting their poo. 

This is where the human digestive system comes in.

When a puppy bites its faecos, it releases a toxin that destroys the bacteria, but they can also cause the dog to become infected. 

What’s the solution? 

Researchers at the University of California at San Diego found that in order to help puppies avoid infection, the best way to help the faeca-digesting bacteria grow is to feed them a healthy diet. 

You can also feed them an enriched diet that includes plenty of healthy foods like chicken, rice, beans, and lentils. 

They’ve found that the better the puppy is at eating healthy food, the more likely they are to develop food poisoning, and the less likely they’re to have food poisoning in the future. 

The research, published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.