Why does my dog eat dandelions?

Asked by elliottcable (141

) June 19th, 2007

I have a shetland sheepdog (http://flickr.com/photos/elliottcable/tags/josh/) who just LOVES to eat dandelions. He'll always snap them up when he thinks i'm not looking on walks, and he'll usually try to get 20 or 30 in during a single 30 minute walk.

Lately he's even taken to ignoring the heads and just eating the stems. I'm starting to think there's something addictive in that glue sap stuff in the stems - does anybody know anything about this?

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5 Answers

weird... my dog, a chinook, will eat pretty much anything he finds growing in a field. i believe that he simply likes the taste of grass. it's possible that you dog just likes dandelions. didn't you ever sip the milk out of a dandelion stem as a kid? tasty!

samkusnetz (1210

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@samkusnetz: Can't say I did ^^/ lol I was wondering if it is addictive or something to the dog physiology

elliottcable (141

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I imagine dogs eat grass and flowers for the same reason we eat iceberg lettuce: it has no nutritional value, and the cellulose is indigestible by people or dogs, but it all makes great fiber which keeps everything else moving.

dahlfred (1

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