Dog obsessively grazing grass when it's playtime

[Poppy]

Hello guys, I'm trying to figure out if this is nutritional or behavioral thing.. He has always grazed grass and I figured it was down to not getting something in his diet (he was on orijen).

So Bunk is in his 3rd month of raw feeding.. We are on chicken/turkey/beef, some canned sardines, some organs, some tripe. A normal day would be:

Morning - chicken back and drumstick, dollop of probiotic yog
Evening - Chicken neck, tripe (the canned stuff, never getting the fresh stuff again!!), beef heart, small piece of beef liver

His has had no reaction, no runny poos, thriving on the food and is a bouncy happy boy. About 1.5 months into the raw I noticed no difference in the grazing so started adding a veggie mince into his food. It's very simple stuff, I take spinach, some carrots, apple slices, parsley, and blueberries, and put it through a mincer that turns it into ground veg. I add a spoonful to each meal, again no reactions, he loves the stuff, and his poops are fine.

And yet every time I take him to the off leash area by our home to throw a ball around, he neurotically eats the grass and goes in and out of paying attention to me, he does not eat the grass in the backyard. It's super obsessive and almost like a game for him! Does this sound like something is missing in his diet or a behavior he's learned to do at off leash playtime?! It's driving me nuts !

[RCTRIPLEFRESH5]

out of curiosity what's wrong with fresh tripe

Hello guys, I'm trying to figure out if this is nutritional or behavioral thing.. He has always grazed grass and I figured it was down to not getting something in his diet (he was on orijen).

So Bunk is in his 3rd month of raw feeding.. We are on chicken/turkey/beef, some canned sardines, some organs, some tripe. A normal day would be:

Morning - chicken back and drumstick, dollop of probiotic yog
Evening - Chicken neck, tripe (the canned stuff, never getting the fresh stuff again!!), beef heart, small piece of beef liver

His has had no reaction, no runny poos, thriving on the food and is a bouncy happy boy. About 1.5 months into the raw I noticed no difference in the grazing so started adding a veggie mince into his food. It's very simple stuff, I take spinach, some carrots, apple slices, parsley, and blueberries, and put it through a mincer that turns it into ground veg. I add a spoonful to each meal, again no reactions, he loves the stuff, and his poops are fine.

And yet every time I take him to the off leash area by our home to throw a ball around, he neurotically eats the grass and goes in and out of paying attention to me, he does not eat the grass in the backyard. It's super obsessive and almost like a game for him! Does this sound like something is missing in his diet or a behavior he's learned to do at off leash playtime?! It's driving me nuts !

[Poppy]

Just the handling involved and the smell, boy does it linger and stick everywhere! I know the canned stuff isn't as fresh or cheap but for the time being it suits our household.

[xchairity_casex]

i suspect its somthing he does out of habit ive heard of severl people who like yourself were worried it was a nutritional thing on another forum im on one person took her dog to the vet repetedly to have everything tested and she was a raw feeder also. My boy Cesar obsessivly eats dead wet leaves sometimes i think its due to him being thristy+taste of it if your dog really enjoys the taste of grass he will eat it obsessivly much like other foods like people food to dogs my bf has told me a story about when he was a kid he owned a beagle who LOVED speggetti and one night his mom left a whole pan of burnt speggetti in the pan on the stove and the dog ate all of it till she became sick and they took her to the vets where they basically induced vomitting to make her puke it all back up he told me while she was vomitting she caught a wiff of the speggetti in the vomit and was still trying to eat it obviously she wasnt hungry and obviously she wasnt lacking pasta in her diet she just really liked the taste.
but thats just MO

[DaneMama]

Sounds purely behavioral to me. The fact that you've gone from kibble, to raw, to BARF, plus you feed tripe (I assumed its canned green tripe...) and you still see him eating grass tells me that its a habit now. Usually dogs that graze on grass stop or at least decrease this when tripe is added in (even canned tripe).

I wouldn't worry about him doing it unless you don't want him eating grass for fear of ingesting chemicals etc on grasses.

[Jacksons Mom]

Soooooo odd. Jackson has sort of an OCD thing with grass.

When he's at my dads house and there is a LOT going on (four wheelers flying around outside the fence, kids running around, other dogs, swimming in the pool, LOTS of energy) and he will go on running sprees where he just flies around "chasing" the four wheelers and in between he eats grass SUPER fast. It's almost like a nervous habit, or an OCD thing, I don't even know. lol. But it's never caused him any harm, or throwing up, or anything. He likes to graze occasionally too.

[Poppy]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I agree it's probably something he's learned to do to cope, he's generally a nervous little bugger, so when our other bulldog zips around the field chasing a ball, he'll run after her but intermittently stop to grab a mouthful of grass. I'm trying the whole calm energy thing because I noticed it happens when the energy level goes up, even a little bit. It's just hard to see him so obsessive sometimes, every dog owner knows that face a pup gets when running happily in a field, it's pure joy for them (and us).

Anyhow I will carry on working on him and will increase my dosage of tripe (the canned green kind)

[eternalstudent]

When I was out the other day with my pup I met up with a friend with 3 labs and a horse. One of her labs I swear thinks that she is a horse as she grazes on the grass just as the horse did. It's really cute to watch and I would say purely behavioural act.

I know my pup likes fresh shoots and is enjoying the winter grasses which are just shoots in the farmers fields at the moment.

So yes I think the grass grazing is behavioural and to some extent relaxing to them :-)

[DaViking]

If he have access to eat fresh green grass other places but pass I suspect this is behavioral.

[magicre]

my dogs eat grass whether they were prey model, barf, tripe or not.

they neither throw it up nor does it come out the other end.

malia is very particular. she eats the new shoots, especially in the spring.

bubba, not so much.

they don't eat so much grass that it worries me.

when i was a kid, i used to eat grass.

i will say, the longer they are being fed raw, the less grass they eat.