Dogs and human will eat themselves to death

[snopes]

Comment: Is it true that dogs and humans are the only two animals that
will eat themselves to death?

[Arriah]

Nope. We have a guppy that we have to watch closely. If we overfeed at all, he eats everything and then gets bloated and constipated. Doesn't sound bad but constipation can easily kill guppies.

Maybe they meantogs & humans are the only animals that WON'T eat themselves to death-it is BS either way,though.

[mouse goddess]

Saw it happen to a deer at the Wildlife Center I worked at. Just so you know, in the importance of significant digits, .5lbs of food is much different from 5lbs.

(You can be damn sure we wrote it 0.5 from then on.)

[inkrose115]

Horses will also eat themselves to death. We kept the food locked up carefully, just in case one busted out of the stalls.

[franjava]

I had a rabbit that I guarantee would've eaten herself to death had we let her. Adorable thing, but not too bright.

[Izzy Quigley]

For some reason, when I read the thread title I parsed it as "eat themselves/to death" - as in, dogs and humans are the only animals that will commit autocannibalism until they die. Did anyone else read it this way, or should I start looking into mental hospitals?

When my mom taught grade school, she had a sheep farmer visit the class (I think he was the grandfather of a student). He told them that sheep will eat themselves to death, and sometimes have to be given a shot which prevents them from doing it. Are there any shepherd snopesters who have heard of this?

[Little Pink Pill]

Do they mean in one sitting? Because in that case, it seems physically impossible for humans and dogs and anything that can throw up.

Can any of the animals listed here, horses, deer, rabbits, or guppies, toss their cookies, so to speak?

[Spookshow Baby]

Well, I know that horses and rabbits are incapapble of vomiting. Not sure about any of the others.

[greenfrog78]

Originally Posted by Izzy Quigley

For some reason, when I read the thread title I parsed it as "eat themselves/to death" - as in, dogs and humans are the only animals that will commit autocannibalism until they die. Did anyone else read it this way, or should I start looking into mental hospitals?

You arn't crazy(or if you are it's the same way I'm crazy). That was my first thought and then I thought of the only Stephan King story that has scarred me for life, Survivor Type shudder

Green "think happy thoughts" frog

[Blatherskite]

Originally Posted by franjava

I had a rabbit that I guarantee would've eaten herself to death had we let her. Adorable thing, but not too bright.

I had a rabbit that would have eaten plenty other things to death. I was young and fed him too many dandelion leaves, as was befitting to his name, Dandelion. But he grew from a flopsy Easter bunner into a lapine psychopath and would make the steroid addled villain of a next door neighbour cower in terror, as Dandelion would growl at his suspected attackers. It was a fox that did Dandelion in at the end. It took a bloody long time too, 'til we only found the rabbit's head. I still suspect we treated Dandelion wrongly and he grew into a massive, unstoppable killing machine. I only hope he took some pleasure in granting a fox a hard time of so much as nabbing a rabbit inside it's run.

[Cervus]

Originally Posted by greenfrog78

You arn't crazy(or if you are it's the same way I'm crazy). That was my first thought and then I thought of the only Stephan King story that has scarred me for life, Survivor Type shudder

That was exactly my thought.

[CenTex]

Sheep can get a disease called enterotoxemia, that is commonly referred to as "overeating disease" but it is actually an infectious disease that ranchers vaccinate against. Sheep will, overeat to the point of gastric distress or bloat, but it is not related to overeating disease.

AFAIK certain animals have a receptor in their brain that tells them when they are full. Many ruminants such as sheep do not have this receptor because they usually can't overeat on grass.

Also, AFAIK, horses do not have this receptor and will eat to the point of colic and/or founder. Mules and burros, OTOH do have the receptor and are very good at self regulation. Pigs also have this receptor and can be raised on a self feeder.

Cen--I was raised on a farm--tex

[llewtrah]

Pigs will gorge themselves into morbid obesity - there have been news stories in China about hugely obese pigs. Some captive exotics (usually ones rescued from incompetent/ignorant owners) develop neuroses and overeat, probably to death if the keepers didn't limit the food.

Given the wrong sort of food i.e. overfed on formulated foods with more usable calories than they'd find in natural/better balanced food sources, cats, dogs, pigs etc can all die of obesity.

[inkrose115]

Originally Posted by llewtrah

Given the wrong sort of food i.e. overfed on formulated foods with more usable calories than they'd find in natural/better balanced food sources, cats, dogs, pigs etc can all die of obesity.

Domestic parrots, even though who are free-flighted, can become morbidly obese if fed a diet too rich in seeds. Certain parrots do need more fat then others, though. And a pellet-only diet still isn't healthy either, though feeding mostly pellets with a supplement of vegetables is still way better than a mostly seed diet. A seed only diet will take a while to kill your bird, but it will greatly shorten their life.

I knew someone who fed their Cockatiel nothing but corn twists (like cheetos) and it would only eat Troyer Farms brand. Oh, and it ate some popcorn. 'Tweety' the cockatiel lived less than a year, dying of malnutrition. And the person who owned it had their PhD and was in every way quite intelligent, except when it came to bird care, apparently.

[franjava]

I knew someone who fed their Cockatiel nothing but corn twists (like cheetos) and it would only eat Troyer Farms brand. Oh, and it ate some popcorn. 'Tweety' the cockatiel lived less than a year, dying of malnutrition. And the person who owned it had their PhD and was in every way quite intelligent, except when it came to bird care, apparently.

When taking my rabbit to the vet, they were nursing a rabbit back to health for the Humane Society. Poor thing was given nothing but Froot Loops. Poor bunny had soft bones, rotting teeth that had to be pulled... The vet wanted to kill the former owners. I joined in on the sentiment.

That was my first thought and then I thought of the only Stephan King story that has scarred me for life, Survivor Type shudder

I completely forgot about that story! I'll have to read it again. The story from Skeleton Crew that scarred me was "The Jaunt." - at the end when the little boy goes crazy. EESH!

fran "hijack" java

[Cervus]

Originally Posted by franjava

When taking my rabbit to the vet, they were nursing a rabbit back to health for the Humane Society. Poor thing was given nothing but Froot Loops.

Although I've already secured my place in hell, I'll still refrain from a "Silly rabbit..." joke here.

[inkrose115]

Originally Posted by franjava

When taking my rabbit to the vet, they were nursing a rabbit back to health for the Humane Society. Poor thing was given nothing but Froot Loops. Poor bunny had soft bones, rotting teeth that had to be pulled... The vet wanted to kill the former owners. I joined in on the sentiment.

I know a rabbit that died because of malnutrition because the owner refused to listen to the pet store's advice to feed it pellets. The owner's apparently got their advice on rabbit care from Bugs Bunny cartoons. The pet store took the literally dying rabbit back and then fed it to a large python; the owner came in a few minutes after the bunny was gone and wanted it back.

[CenTex]

Originally Posted by llewtrah

Pigs will gorge themselves into morbid obesity - there have been news stories in China about hugely obese pigs. Some captive exotics (usually ones rescued from incompetent/ignorant owners) develop neuroses and overeat, probably to death if the keepers didn't limit the food.

Given the wrong sort of food i.e. overfed on formulated foods with more usable calories than they'd find in natural/better balanced food sources, cats, dogs, pigs etc can all die of obesity.

That is a good point, I was more referring to commercially raised pigs being fed a grower ration--ground grain and soybean meal. Given that, growing pigs will not generally eat to the point of illness or toxicity. Many animals will eat to and die of obesity, but some animals will overeat at a single feed to the point of illness.

[franjava]

Originally Posted by Cervus

Although I've already secured my place in hell, I'll still refrain from a "Silly rabbit..." joke here.

*SNORT* If they had fed the rabbit Trix instead of Froot Loops you would SOOOOO OMANK!!