Dogs eat grass for self-medication, so with parrots eat clay.

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Dogs eat grass – it sounds strange. But they do once in a while to get rid of toxins from their body.  Thus we see them browsing on grass and herbs which induce vomiting. These also act as expectorant and laxative. Many birds, like the parrot, eat clay after eating poisonous fruits.  

 Photo credit Live Science Internet 

Today we are looking into this hindsight of science – self-medication among animals, which early man and his predecessors must have shared. Why do we crave for something bitter (ampalaya, papait), hot (pepper, ginger), sour (calamansi, vinegar), acrid (santol, puso ng saging), and even food with unpleasant odor (durian, bagoong)? Is this indirect self-medication?  Is craving engrained in our genes, a built-in survival mechanism? 

Trivia: Why do dogs howl?

Dogs have keen senses of seeing, smelling and hearing, many times more sensitive than ours. Many animals such as members of the cat family - lions, tigers, and the domesticated cat – are equally, if not more sensitive, in the dark.
Niko, a dobbermann on the watch
Dogs also have infrared vision that enhances their predatory habits. Dogs also have an acute sense of smell. The nose of a German shepherd dog has 25,000 sensory cells as compared with the human nose that has only 5,000 cells. That is why dogs are used in sniffing concealed illegal drugs and in tracking down criminals.



The limitation of our senses is the mother of many of our beliefs or superstitions.~