Dogs are remarkably flexible in their eating habits.  As omnivores, they have evolved to eat both meat and vegetables mostly because they are descendant from scavengers.  Still, from dog to dog there is a lot of variability in eating behavior and while one dog may make grass eating a daily routine, others may never touch the stuff.  While grass eating is a relatively normal and apparently harmless activity, many dog owners wonder: Why do dogs eat grass?

Today’s dogs are not exactly like their scavenger ancestors.  After hundreds or even thousands of years of domestication, many species of dog have seen their eating habits change drastically.  In the earlier stages of their evolution, dogs would eat just about anything and would normally consume their prey completely.  This included eating the plant-contents in the stomach of herbivorous animals.  However, dogs today probably eat grass as an alternative food source.  For domesticated dogs, grass is typically the most readily available plant food source, but dogs have also been known to eat wild fruit, berries, and other vegetables.

Indeed, one of the main reasons dogs eat grass is because they have nutritional needs.  Perhaps out of hunger, or some nutritional deficit in their diet, dogs will eat grass.  Your dog may be craving some essential nutrients that are not being delivered in his commercial dog food.  Grass fills that need.  In addition, dogs seem to eat grass when they are gassy or suffering stomach upset.  Grass will in fact stimulate vomiting when dogs swallow it without chewing and this may be a natural remedy to common dog stomach woes.  Presently however, there seems to be a lot of debate about why dogs eat grass.  While nutrition and health seem to be the most likely reasons, dogs may eat grass also because they enjoy its texture or smell.