# What happens if you literally eat shit? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 21, 2017, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-literally-eat-shit/804977 "2017-12-21T03:40:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2017, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-literally-eat-shit/804977/41 "2017-12-22T23:01:47Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Traditionally, camel dung was used as fuel for cooking fires in the MidEast. Presumably, the food cooking above such a fire would include some small part from the fire. Our ancestors would have used cow chips for the same reason, and with the same results. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2017, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-literally-eat-shit/804977/42 "2017-12-22T23:16:18Z")
> [@anomalous1](#): > > In seriousness, how come other animals eat each others’ and their own shit ALL THE TIME and it seems like it doesn’t affect them, but if humans do, it can and will likely kill them or make them seriously ill… > > I see it with dogs all the time, my sisters dogs, an old lab, is like a vacuum outside when it comes to rabbit shit, she never gets sick. The other, a terrier-poodle terrorist does the same, but eats cat dumps out of litterboxes, rabbit shit and will steal and fully clean up a dirty diaper… if he throws up a belly full of assorted shit (if he has been outside, and near a diaper, he’s had two different kinds, guaranteed), he’d lap it up again. I get the feeling if a human did any one of those things a handful of times, they’d be dead. You vastly overestimate the danger of eating feces. While eating feces of others can spread disease, even humans don’t typically die from this. Feces, especially of carnivores and omnivores, contain a considerable amount of food value that passed through the digestive tract without being absorbed. For many scavenging animals, including dogs, pigs, and vultures, feces of other animals are a regular part of the diet. Rabbits _have_ to eat their own feces in order to obtain enough nutrition from their food. Unlike ruminants, rabbits ferment their food in the hind gut, after the part of digestive tract that absorbs most nutrients. After the first pass-through, they produce soft feces that they then re-ingest. On the second pass-through, they absorb the nutrients and then produce hard feces that they do not eat. ---
**Author:** ![anomalous1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e56c9b/32.png) [@anomalous1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anomalous1)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2017, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-literally-eat-shit/804977/43 "2017-12-22T23:45:46Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > You vastly overestimate the danger of eating feces. While eating feces of others can spread disease, even humans don’t typically die from this. > > Feces, especially of carnivores and omnivores, contain a considerable amount of food value that passed through the digestive tract without being absorbed. For many scavenging animals, including dogs, pigs, and vultures, feces of other animals are a regular part of the diet. > > Rabbits _have_ to eat their own feces in order to obtain enough nutrition from their food. Unlike ruminants, rabbits ferment their food in the hind gut, after the part of digestive tract that absorbs most nutrients. After the first pass-through, they produce soft feces that they then re-ingest. On the second pass-through, they absorb the nutrients and then produce hard feces that they do not eat. Thanks! I really was curious about why. Possibly just the (well placed) stigma surrounding it and lack of studies in humans. We are just other animals though, so it makes sense. On another note, so my sisters dog just likes the taste of rabbit shit? If they digest it twice, what’s left for the dog :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-literally-eat-shit/804977/44 "2017-12-23T02:03:20Z")
On one survival show the guy ate rabbit poop because rabbits digest food poorly and since they eat a mostly vegetable diet, their poop contains lots of vitamins. Rabbits sometimes eat their poop several times to get all the nutrients out of it. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-literally-eat-shit/804977/45 "2017-12-23T02:29:05Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > You vastly overestimate the danger of eating feces. While eating feces of others can spread disease, even humans don’t typically die from this. > > Feces, especially of carnivores and omnivores, contain a considerable amount of food value that passed through the digestive tract without being absorbed. For many scavenging animals, including dogs, pigs, and vultures, feces of other animals are a regular part of the diet. > > Rabbits _have_ to eat their own feces in order to obtain enough nutrition from their food. Unlike ruminants, rabbits ferment their food in the hind gut, after the part of digestive tract that absorbs most nutrients. After the first pass-through, they produce soft feces that they then re-ingest. On the second pass-through, they absorb the nutrients and then produce hard feces that they do not eat. Wow. THIS is why rabbits are so delicious. Especially their kidneys. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-literally-eat-shit/804977/46 "2017-12-23T03:28:40Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > On one survival show the guy ate rabbit poop because rabbits digest food poorly and since they eat a mostly vegetable diet, their poop contains lots of vitamins. Rabbits sometimes eat their poop several times to get all the nutrients out of it. See above. It’s only the soft feces produced on the first pass-through that are nutritious. Eating the hard feces produced on the second pass-through wouldn’t get you much. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-literally-eat-shit/804977/47 "2017-12-23T06:41:59Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > To weigh in on this, here’s former Winnipeg grinders [Swallowing Shit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdLutKxwRG8) That ranks up there with My Penis Is Made Of Dogshit in the “who cares what the band sounds like - did you see their name” award. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-literally-eat-shit/804977/48 "2017-12-23T06:54:09Z")
What… In the everloving fuck… happened to this thread? I leave for one day… ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-literally-eat-shit/804977/49 "2017-12-23T06:55:11Z")
I recommend the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Prayer 189; _For not being made to eat faeces._ Yes, that is an actual thing. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-literally-eat-shit/804977/50 "2017-12-23T06:58:13Z")
Oh sorry, wrong thread! ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-literally-eat-shit/804977/51 "2017-12-23T10:05:23Z")
Well, now I wanna know what thread? ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-literally-eat-shit/804977/52 "2017-12-23T15:40:06Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > Well, now I wanna know what thread? I thought this was Trolls R US. Talk about the wrong thread to accidentally wander into… ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-literally-eat-shit/804977/53 "2017-12-23T16:04:57Z")
I would have guessed that **Spice Weasel** thought it was either the “Getting Nutrition On The Least Amount Of Money Possible” or “Did Princess (Now Queen) Elizabeth Actually _Do_ Anything In Her WWII Service?” thread. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-literally-eat-shit/804977/54 "2017-12-23T16:08:26Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#): > > I would have guessed that **Spice Weasel** thought it was either the “Getting Nutrition On The Least Amount Of Money Possible” or “Did Princess (Now Queen) Elizabeth Actually _Do_ Anything In Her WWII Service?” thread. Well done. ---
**Author:** ![Ace309](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ace309/32/1050_2.png) [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-literally-eat-shit/804977/55 "2017-12-23T23:13:10Z")
> [@UCBearcats](#): > > Then it doesn’t sound like there is any real problem with doing ass to mouth to a woman or having her toss salad. Well, unless she doesn’t want to. That’d be a pretty real problem. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2018, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-literally-eat-shit/804977/56 "2018-01-07T11:56:22Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > Fecal freak? Critical Bill? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-literally-eat-shit/804977.md?page=2)