Gross Things Animals Eat by Dr Claire Stevens & Adele K Thomas

Children love a book where there may be a hint of grossness happening! Gross Things Animals Eat will delight readers young and old with its fascinating facts about the eating habits of the animal kingdom. Written by vet Dr Claire Stevens, this colourfully presented book, packed with entertaining gross facts and delivered with plenty of humour, including all the farts, poo and vomit young readers desire, is sure to be enjoyed again and again.

Beginning with how often animals eat, this page provides some surprising facts. For example, humpback whales eat every six months, Galapagos turtles eat once a year and cows every four hours. Following on from this, the next few pages let readers know that eating dirt is very common. Many animals do it including birds, gorillas, wallabies, deer, tapirs and zebras. Dirt is full of nutrients that animals need to stay healthy.

And now comes section that is sure to be discussed with great mirth. Poo! Many animals eat poo including kangaroos, rabbits and elephants who actually eat their own poo. Baby koalas eat their mother’s poo. Household pets like rabbits, dogs and guinea pigs eat their own poo too. Poo provides many nutrients just like dirt and also gets rid of toxins in their bodies.

This fascinating book goes on to discuss decomposing animals like vultures, garbage guzzlers such as bin chickens, blood sucking monsters like leeches, bone chewers such as giraffes, skin eaters like leopard geckos, vomit eaters like skua seabirds, wood eaters such as termites and perhaps the most unusual tear eaters - moths and butterflies suck the tears of various animals straight from their eyes!

The bold, glossy illustrations in full colour work brilliantly with the accessible, well-spaced text, speech bubbles and Fun facts with the tiny page corner warnings adding a fun touch children will love. This is a great read that will capture children’s interest.

Teacher Notes: drclairestevens.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Gross-Things-Animals-Eat-Resources.pdf

Themes: Animals, Food, Eating Habits, Gross Facts.

Kathryn Beilby