A woman who heard buzzing from her dog’s mouth was shocked to discover he had tried to gobble a cicada.
She uploaded the video to TikTok where it has garnered over 12 million views.
The video starts with the woman approaching her dog, Levy, asking “what do you have?” as a low-pitched, loud hum can be heard coming from the dog.
“Why is your mouth making that noise?” she asked as she walked closer to the dog.
The dog doesn’t look pleased, but also doesn’t seem to know what to do.
She prompted the dog to drop it several times and said: “That has got to be uncomfortable.”
Eventually she gets the dog to open their mouth wide enough for a massive cicada to fall out.
“Leave it, leave it,” the owner said as she walked away from the bug.
The dog looked a little perturbed, but not overly horrified by the event.
One of the comments remarks on Levy’s sheepish expression: “I love how guilty he looks.”
Another commenter said his dog also catches cicadas in their mouth, but doesn’t eat them. “Just likes the buzz,” he remarked.
Another TikTok user joked: “He’s caught the snitch! Gryfinddor has won the game!”
It seems Levy is a fan of these bugs, as the two other videos on his owner’s account are based around his adventures in catching them.
Cicadas are a tasty snack for our canine friends, according to Vox.
A deputy editor at Vox, Kenny Torrella, said that watching his dog eat cicadas is like “watching a human eat potato chips, just one after another.”
It’s fine for your dog to eat a few cicadas, Dr. Jerry Klein, American Kennel Club’s chief veterinary officer wrote in a blog.
However, dog owners are advised not to let their pooches gobble too many of the bugs.
Dr Klein said that dogs that gorge on the insects may find the exoskeleton difficult to disgust, leading to “serious consequences.”
Jake won’t stop dive bombing for cicadas. So now the sweetest, friendliest dog on the block looks like Hannibal Lecter. pic.twitter.com/XaVZtFJBCA
— Dr. Vincent Intondi (@VincentIntondi) May 20, 2021
Speaking to USA Today, Elizabeth Barnes, exotic forest pest educator with Purdue University said: “Don’t panic if your dog’s eating cicadas. But at the same time, it’s not something I would necessarily encourage my pet to be eating.
“If people are worried or if they’re just throwing up a lot … we’d suggest that they get in touch with their vet just to make sure everything’s good.”
Like all good things, it seems moderation is key.
