Poo eating

tx_cowgirl

Honored Member
Staff member
Sometimes it's because they are missing something in their diet. What food is she eating? (Including treats, table scraps, etc)

There are some pills you can buy at just about any pet supply store. Poo eating is termed coprophagia, so this is what some of the boxes may say. I have no idea how well or terrible these work, so can't help you there. If it's not a dietary problem, then it's just behavior. You can work on this by developing a solid "leave it." This means you'll have to watch her like a hawk when she's out to potty. Clean up more often than usual so she doesn't have as much opportunity to eat it. Good luck, hope this helps!
 

fickla

Experienced Member
like tx_cowgirl said, I would first check to see what she is eating. But more than likely it's probably a behavioral issue. It;s really common in dogs and really hard to fix. i would try the pills, but they don't have te greatest chance of working. yo ucan also try putting pineapple in her food bowl, or pumpkin, yogurt, etc. (look it up online). But i would try just getting a really good "leave it" command and cleaning it up right away. sorry!
 

snooks

Experienced Member
Picking up right away is the best way to stop the habituating behavior. Most of this I see is behavioral and it is difficult to stop. Never letting it start is best, stopping the availability is next best. I would also teach a good leave-it and start using it and rewarding for appropriate behavior. This means leave it has to be sort of fun and has a reward that tastes better than poo.

Some dogs eat the droppings if their food is being incompletely digested. There are some health problems that cause this from allergy to reflux etc. You might check with the vet to be sure no problems exist medically. Change foods to a higher quality more bio-available digestible food. When the food matter is fully digested droppings are much smaller and have very little smell. This makes them much less attractive to eat.

If your dog is clearly thriving on the food and has a healthy glossy coat and is a healthy weight then the food may not be the issue. You just need to assess how things are going and make one change or another. I'm not a big fan of adding chemicals to my dog's food for a quick fix. I don't know anyone that this ever worked for.
 

ozjen

Well-Known Member
I agree with Snooks, you might also try adding some pineapple to the dogs food (canned is fine as is purreed if you need to hide it) as it makes the poo taste yuk. Go figure!! and no I'm not about to test the theory by taste testing it.
 

xena98

Experienced Member
Hi guys
my border collie Inka use to do it as a puppy and I tried the old pineapple test and it didnt work and called told to use the pumpkin seeds that you buy from the supermarket. They were in a small bag and you put it in there food and they just eat it. about 1/2 a dozen in there tea
cheers
Danni and the girls
 

maven

New Member
Patricia McConnell says don't let them see you picking up poop. That dogs that have never had a problem sometimes beging eating it after they see their human picking it up -- "The human's are collecting it, it must be a resource, I should get to it first." Knowing how they play "mine" I can see it being feasible.
 

snooks

Experienced Member
I see sooooo many theories about poop but I've treated all of my dogs pretty much the same over the years and only had one poop vacuum that would eat it as it was exiting other dogs. None of my other dogs ever ate it whether left out or not. The only consistent thing I did was not allow them to be alone with it as puppies. They were walked enough that they didn't go in their crates during the day and it wasn't left in the yard, but neither were they when young.

I keep it picked up generally more now since their potty place is a 8x8 litter area filled with wood pellets. I think they probably develop some of the behavior as puppies when left alone with poo in a crate or pen or yard for hours with it there is bound to be some boredom/eating.

It seems just by my statistics alone to be dog preferential in a very few dogs and more developed boredom behavior if if exposed for periods of time when they were alone. You can stop them being left alone with it esp as puppies and prevent that behavioral risk. The personality preferential dog that truly likes it for some reason I've never found any natural or heard of a chemical food additive that works. I hesitate adding weird chemicals to their diet or changing their body's ph with acidic foods or vinegar and acidic foods since that affects the entire body chemistry/balance.

Many mill dogs eat their feces because the live in it and are never out of their crates or the poo. So there seems to be some connection with early prolonged exposure.

Xena I had not heard of the pumpkin seeds-interesting. Do you know the theory behind why it works??
 
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