Do the ponies eat grass?

[GuyNamedEarl 1,332]

Ponies are more sophisticated than eating grass.

[Cwanky 17,554]

Well we do know enough to know that they eat hay and that they don't eat meat.

That's actually proven false. True they don't eat meat that's been killed, but they do eat some meat products, notably eggs.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i_LwevxJYs

 

According to the ladylike Rarity anyways, sunny side up eggs are considered a proper breakfast (for a pony). 

[The Wubstep Brony 13]

I don't think so... 'cause y'know...

[DerpyFanatic 114]

It helps if you think of grass as a raw food at the most basic level. My Little Ponies eating grass straight off the ground would be like humans eating insects: it's physiologically sound (insects are a good source of protein), but not considered to be socially normal. If a pony were to eat raw grass, there would have to be exceptional reasons for doing so, as touched on in this thread: they may be desperately poor and starving (in which case Celestia and Luna need a stern talking-to about social welfare), or they could be lost and trying to survive. Every time we see ponies eating grass-based foodstuffs, it's in some heavily processed form and combined with animal products, eg. hay burgers, hay fries, oat smoothies, vanilla oat swirl icecream.

 

To answer the OP: My Little Ponies definitely do not eat grass, at least not in the sense that we expect equines to do.

[----------------------- 171]

I'm betting when nopony is looking, they just go ahead and do it. I doubt that the posh ponies up in Canterlot would ever see themselves doing it, but in Ponyville and such, perhaps!

[DeadAccount 4,603]

Maybe they do but just a don't find it to be very civilized

[manic 121]

It's probably considered a very "hick" thing to do.... and Big Mac chews on a straw

 

Or it could be a hippie thing. Maybe Treehugger does.

Edited July 15, 2015 by manic

[SasQ 1,356]

Well, I never saw any pony eating grass straight from the ground in the series, nor even talking about some pony doing it off-camera, so I'd go with the assumption that they don't.
But of course I wouldn't be me if I didn't look for any reasonable explanation and reasons for why they don't do that.

As @Batbrony correctly noticed (emphasis mine):

On 2015-07-13 at 3:49 PM, Batbrony said:

I think there's two different answers/questions here: can they eat grass, and do they eat grass (and if they can AND do, how do they eat grass {←that's three – SasQ} ).

Being ponies, they most likely can eat grass, especially if they can eat hay (which has been canonically confirmed multiple times). I.e. they stomachs are capable of digesting it.

So do they eat grass? Well, not in the series, and most likely not off-camera either (as I mentioned already).

So the question that remains is: WHY?
Here's my attempt at answering it:

Notice that ponies are the most sentient beings in Equestria. Sentience probably allows them to connect the dots: they poop on grass :q so the thought of eating raw grass straight from the ground might remind them of this fact and… well, let's say that it doesn't bring very tasty perceptions to their minds :J
Also, there's usually some dust and other dirt on it, which adds to the picture.

Humans have a similar sort-of taboo about eating food straight from the ground, or when it has fallen to the ground. They consider it "dirty" and usually don't attempt eating it. Probably because it's one of the first thing parents teach toddlers: to not put in their mouths the things that they grab from the floor. Although it usually wouldn't kill them nor make them sick that easily, it's still considered bad, because the floor is where they put their feet. So it's like putting your foot (or someone else's foot) in your mouth :J  When people are poor and out of other options, and very hungry, they're more willing to eat food that fell to the ground, or even go through people's dumpsters :q  But it's not something that a Human would do unless having no other options.
So I can imagine that similar reasons might work for ponies: they don't want to get their food from the same place on which they put their hooves, and at which they (or other creatures) poop, and where there's dust & other badly-tasting stuff, unless they really have no other choice because of poverty, hunger etc. Because of that, eating raw grass straight from the ground might be considered brute and uncivilized. Ponies would rather not do that, to avoid getting shunned or ridiculed by other ponies.

Another factor adding to the picture might be that, contrary to ponies & horses in Human World, Equestrian ponies do have access to other types of food, because they are sentient enough to have agriculture. They can grow their own food that might taste better than raw grass, or even unprocessed hay. They have vegetables (like carrots, turnips, potatoes, etc.), they have fruits (in particular: apples), they have grains (and with that, they can make bread & cakes), and they have eggs & milk. Having the choice, they may prefer food that tastes better than raw grass. Especially fruits & sweets. They definitely can process their food, and there's quite a lot of evidence of that in the show.

There's of course a possibility that they eat processed grass, or even raw grass, but after they cut it and properly clean it from all the dust and other bad-tasting things. Even in the wild, with no other sources of food, I can imagine them taking the grass and putting it in a cauldron with water and heat it over a bonfire to make a grass soup instead of just eating raw grass directly from the ground. This would kill the bacteria and parasite eggs for sure, so it's healthier that way. But if they had to, having no other options, they would probably eat grass in the wild, having no other sources of food. (BTW even in the wild, there's not always grass out there :q  In the rocky mountains, or on the beach, or a desert, or during the winter, there's good chances that there's no grass around. So it would be rather risky and unwise to depend only on wild grass when going on a trip.)

So yeah, I think that answer the question rather thoroughly.

On 2015-07-13 at 10:34 PM, Cwanky said:

True they don't eat meat that's been killed, but they do eat some meat products, notably eggs.

Eggs are meat products? Where's the meat then?

Edited February 1, 2022 by SasQ

[They call me Loyalty 1,948]

Given their level of intelligence, I think their diet is more sophisticated than munching grass off the ground.

[Astralshy 26,250]

Ummm ... I also have a hard time to imagine Ponies eating gras right from the ground. Maybe they put it on Sandwiches like they do with Flowers

Spoiler

Considering we have never seen Ponies eating directly grass, I would assume that this is not socially accepted

There is also a slight possibility that this is the evil way to eat hay?

[Starforce 26,587]

Probably capable of it, but I would think not, unless they were in a situation to where they absolutely had to.

[Splashee 28,559]

Absolutely not. Only farm animals in the MLP universe eat grass, and of course, the MLP ponies eat the farm animals

[North Star 5,061]

multiple references to hay in the canon so yes, they eat grasses  

incidentally, do you eat corn, bamboo, rice, wheat, barley etc... then you too, like a pony, eat grass 

 

if you mean do ponies eat low quality rye grasses like our ponies and cattle then the answer is still yes because of the hay and because they must have multiple rye grass chewing stomachs.

[O-78 28,605]

Hay is a type of grass, so technically yes.

I doubt they eat grass off the ground, though.

[Silly Druid 6,780]

6 minutes ago, lyrabetes3939 said:

Hay is a type of grass, so technically yes.

I doubt they eat grass off the ground, though.

I think they do when they are off camera.

[O-78 28,605]

5 minutes ago, PawelS said:

I think they do when they are off camera.

Maybe!  The question is, who would have the funniest reaction to getting caught? My money's on Rarity.

[Orchid_Fiore 200]

Probably the first inhabitant ponies did.

[Theautisticrebel 304]

They probably don't eat it straight off the ground, they probably eat it in things like sandwiches.

[ZiggWheelsManning 9,619]

These ponies are fully civilized, I don't think they would.