Question

Which animal among the following eats its feces?
A) Pig
B) Goat
C) Rabbit
D) Elephant

Answer 1

Hint: The term used for animals who eat excrement or dungs both of their own and also of others is called coprophagia. Most of them eat their feces because it contains undigested food that is rich in nutrients. If ignored these nutrients reached dung would go all into waste. Dung beetles, chimps, and domestic dogs are some examples of coprophagia animals.

Complete answer:
The small guts of animals like the rabbit do not break down everything they eat for the first time so they send those back again for the second time. They possess two kinds of feces. The one which they eat and the other one which they don’t eat. The kind of feces which they eat are called cecotropes also called night feces. These are special kinds of feces that are different from the regular rabbit stools. These are the nutrient-packed pellets that the rabbit-like to eat at night. Cecotropes are softer, sticker in texture, and are not even seen by the rabbit owner because they consume as soon as they are exiting the body.
Thus, option C is the correct answer.

Note: The cecotropes are formed by the fermentation of the foods that the rabbits eat. It is formed in the cecum which is a part of the intestinal tract of the rabbit’s body. These special feces contain more protein and vitamins as compared to their normal poops. It is completely normal behavior for rabbits to eat their cecotropes at night or in the early morning.