Do Dogs Have Belly Buttons?

Spoiler alert: Yep, all placental mammals have belly buttons, but dogs' and cats' look a little different than ours. Learn how belly buttons work in this episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
brain Stuff, Lauren vogel Bomb. Here here's a question we
know has been keeping you up at night. Do dogs
have belly buttons? Of course they do, I mean they
do right well. The short answer is yes, dogs and
cats have belly buttons. All placental mammals do. Placental mammals

(00:24):
are those that give birth to live babies, as opposed
to oviparous animals, which lay eggs, and marsupials, whose babies
develop in their mother's pouch. While in the womb. Placental
mammals depend on their mothers to deliver nutrition and oxygen
and remove waste through the umbilical cord that goes for
puppies as well as humans. Each puppy in a litter
has its own umbilical cord that connects its mother's placenta

(00:47):
to the puppy's stomach. After giving birth, a mama dog
will chew through the umbilical cord, leaving a wound where
the puppy and cord were connected. The tiny wound on
the pup heals quickly into a small thin line, also
known as a navel or belly button, so essentially, belly
buttons are just scars. But where are these belly buttons

(01:07):
on our four legged friends? You certainly don't notice them
like you do on humans. The navel on a dog
it's often difficult to locate because of its size and
the fur that quickly grows over it. If you feel
compelled to find your dog's belly button, look for it
under the fur where the tufts meet around the base
of your dog's ribs. Sometimes there will be a noticeable
patch of darker fur in the area. And unlike human navels,

(01:30):
canine belly buttons are between their nipples, which are located
at the base of the rib cage. So yes, dogs
and cats have belly buttons, they just look different than
human belly buttons. In fact, humans are the ones with
the unusual belly buttons. They're relatively large compared to those
of other mammals. The majority of human navels about are
concave and are often referred to as innies. A much

(01:52):
smaller number of people the remaining ten percent, have oudies
that protrude like a lump under the skin, and many
people incur actually believe that audies are caused by a
doctor's less than stellar umbilical cord cutting skills, but the
lumps are totally normal. It's just the way a person's
skin an abdominal wall come together. While the umbilical scars healing.
All placental mammals can get them. However, some audies are

(02:16):
caused by umbilical hernias. Hernias occur when muscles don't heal properly.
Instead of growing together, the muscles leave a hole where
tissue or a bit of intestine can poke through. Most
of these heal on their own without treatment and don't
cause any pain or other symptoms. But if a puppy
or kitten or a human baby has an audie that
becomes swollen or painful, take them to a vet or

(02:38):
you know, a doctor to get checked out and prevent complications.
So dogs and humans have belly buttons for the same reason,
but unlike humans, dogs don't have the extra convenience of
a built in lint catcher, and their belly buttons aren't
really good candidates for piercing either. Today's episode was written

(03:00):
by mix bar with and produced by Tyler clayg. Brain
Stuff is a production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works.
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