why does my cat eat its own feces

my kitten started eating its own poop out of the litter box.

It appears to be fairly rare to find a cat doing this. It is much more common in dogs. Here's an article to describe the medical term known as autocoprophagia. The article relates to dogs, but may be helpful for your cat as well. Don't get discouraged!

This is one of those great doggy dilemmas that everyone has a suggestion for and everyone knows a dog that the suggestion did not work for. It seems to be more common in puppies than adults--and some really do outgrow it, though not all (unfortunately)--and more common in small dogs than large.

Besides being seriously gross, it's not healthy, as your dog may pick up worms or other parasites, as well as contagious diseases, by eating the stool of an infected animal.

The technical term for this is coprophagia. Autocoprophagia is a dog (or any animal) eating its own feces. Intraspecific coprophagia involves a dog eating other dogs' poop. Interspecific coprophagia occurs when a dog eats feces from cats or another species. Now you have some great conversation starters for cocktail parties!

There is no scientific evidence that it is caused by the dog missing some nutrient in its diet, though that explanation has been around for a very long time. Apparently some dogs with medical problems which result in their inability to absorb certain nutrients may have this problem, but there are other symptoms also. It is true that very hungry dogs will eat poop, but just because your dog eats it does not mean he is hungry.