why does dogs eat their own shit ???

[saxonmaster 74]

i agree about the raw mate and also you will get a lot less crap feeding the raw. My lurcher used to eat his when i first got him and i fed him on complete james well beloved so i used to cover the crap with curry powder or anything that he wouldnt like the smell or taste and it worked fast. I feed raw now mate which i always did before hand but wanted to give the complete a go. But if you change over to raw mate do some research first as you will need to get the percentages right and what your going to give throughout the week. I work on around 70% meat and bone mainly chicken wings, chicken carcases, lamb and beef bones the rest is veg, offal and off cuts mince from the butchers, fish, egg, tin tomatoes, rice, game when i have it and left overs. I have white boards in the feeding shed and i try to chart there weight and adjust the diet if needed according to there work load. Im no expert mate but it works for me and good luck

[sandymere 8,261]

It’s not an issue for dogs as it is with us and our somewhat un natural sensibilities, rather a natural behaviour. There are nutrients available in shite then so why waste them. Its likely that one reason we have dogs today was that they followed and ate our shite in the beginning.

Its thought wolf puppies utilise this food source when prey is scarce to survive until the next meal arrives. So puppies will do so if even a little bit peckish. Feed regular small meals and be ready to increase as demanded, requirements vary more than most realise. Boredom doesn’t help because if there’s nothing happening then dogs like humans will eat through boredom. Most grow out so good kennel management, ie picking up asap, small regular meals for pups and reducing boredom are the best way to avoid or deal with it.

 

[Dean Isnt A Tindle 20]

my lab pup is doing this, also when he gets the chance eats the cats sh**e and litter,

i tryed to tell the my lass that it would make him ill so we would have to get shot of her cat but she wasnt buying it like!

ive been told the same as what everyones saying on here

[Casso 1,256]

dogs relieve internal tension through oral ingestion, internal tension can be cause by internal parasites or its own external environment, so i would also be looking more closely at the pups environment , it can also be the canine equivalent of nail biting,

[Moll. 1,769]

All dogs LOVE cat poo

[skycat 6,172]

skycat when dogs

I sometimes think that anything which irritates the gut is likely to make a dog eat all sorts of things it wouldn't normally eat: so if the gut is irritated by a heavy worm burden, that follows. I've also noticed that my dogs are more likely to eat masses of grass, even chew on wood, when they have worms.

skycat when dogs have worms is it possable for them to look bloted, in the stomach

 

Young puppies can look horrible if they have a heavy round worm burden: bloated in the abdomen (stomach), with skinny legs and bulgy eyes and scrawny necks. Pups up to 4 months of age should be wormed every three weeks for round worm with a good multiwormer which also does other worms.

 

I've sometimes found that adult dogs can look sort of 'podgy' if they have bad tapeworms. Their coats sometimes go a bit dull and stary, and they just don't appear 'quite right'. I often see my adult dogs actually looking more streamlined and sleek once they've been wormed.

[PUP lurcher 32]

skycat when dogs

I sometimes think that anything which irritates the gut is likely to make a dog eat all sorts of things it wouldn't normally eat: so if the gut is irritated by a heavy worm burden, that follows. I've also noticed that my dogs are more likely to eat masses of grass, even chew on wood, when they have worms.

skycat when dogs have worms is it possable for them to look bloted, in the stomach

 

Young puppies can look horrible if they have a heavy round worm burden: bloated in the abdomen (stomach), with skinny legs and bulgy eyes and scrawny necks. Pups up to 4 months of age should be wormed every three weeks for round worm with a good multiwormer which also does other worms.

 

I've sometimes found that adult dogs can look sort of 'podgy' if they have bad tapeworms. Their coats sometimes go a bit dull and stary, and they just don't appear 'quite right'. I often see my adult dogs actually looking more streamlined and sleek once they've been wormed.

Thank you

[Dean Isnt A Tindle 20]

been told today off a vet if the pup keeps eating poo wait untill its poo'd and put red hot pepper sause on the poo and let it eat it after a few go's it will stop eating it!?!?

[ferret features 289]

let them eataway at it.saves you cleaning the yard.

[rocky1 942]

been told today off a vet if the pup keeps eating poo wait untill its poo'd and put red hot pepper sause on the poo and let it eat it after a few go's it will stop eating it!?!?

tried that when the dogs were eating the spars on the dog run ,it did,nt work thinked they liked it more haha

[Dean Isnt A Tindle 20]

haha aye thats what i thought! id eat anything with loads of chilli on!

been told today off a vet if the pup keeps eating poo wait untill its poo'd and put red hot pepper sause on the poo and let it eat it after a few go's it will stop eating it!?!?

tried that when the dogs were eating the spars on the dog run ,it did,nt work thinked they liked it more haha

aye thats what i thought, id eat anything dowsed in chiili sauce!

[hutch6 550]

Ahhh caprophagia or the eating of feces, the age old "Why?"

 

There are loads of reasons given for why dogs do this as has been outlined here so you reallyh need to look at various factors to determine a more obvious underlying cause:

 

Age: Mum cleans the mess up from the pups with a behaviour that goes back to when they used den in the wild and didn't want to alert other predators or rivals to the existence of the den. As pups learn through association very early then thsi behaviour can be quickly picked up and carried on as "the norm".

 

Diet: It is said thast we smell casseole where as a dog smells 3 onions finely sliced, two large sun blessed capsicum peppers, 200g of grade a chicken - corn fed etc etc etc. Take this into account and they can smell nutrients almost. Do we know this? NO because there is no true measure of how good a dog's is but rest assured they can smell everything. Our senses go sight, hear, touch and smell - I'll believe it when i see it. A dog's goes smell, hear, sight then touch. If you feed your dog a low grade quailty food full of cereals and processed fillers then their physiology is not equipped to deal with it. If you feed your dog 1Kg fo this then the chances are that they will only get 30-40% complete nurishment from that meaning that 60%+ goes through unprocessed. Starved of the nutrients it requires your dog will seek to locate those nutrients anywhere it can be it within it's own feces or in an unattended cat litter tray. Cat litter trays are like a delux Thornton's Continentals to dogs. Cat food is so high in protein (most of which is so low quality it passes striaght through) so those stink bombs we see are like Honeycomb encrusted merignues to dogs.

Herbivour feces are a welcomed change as dogs are not equipped to get the micro nutrients out of grass, their organs just can't handel it so partly digested rufage is sometimes required but adding parboiled veg to their diet can reduce or eliminate their requirement to seek out horse pebbles.

 

Behaviour: If a dog is scolded for being in the same room as their feces when young or when they have accidents then they soon learn that a) you're a flippin nutter and obsessed with poo and being in the same room as poo or having poo in the open is not a good idea. This results in either your dog resorting to eating it or hiding it.