# The Eating of Poop!



## Nana52 (Apr 28, 2012)

Is there anything more disgusting? I've always had a problem with Kody eating poop, but I honestly thought it was better, maybe even stopped altogether since starting raw. I hadn't seen him do it, and I wasn't smelling it on him, and believe me I can tell by his breath when he's indulged. Yuck! Unfortunately I was mistaken. At least in the past couple of weeks, he's back at it again, or maybe I was just deluding myself that he had ever stopped. It's certainly not because he's not being well fed. What could possibly be missing in his diet that he's getting from poop? I am without a clue and completely grossed out  Not really asking a question. Just expressing my frustration and disgustedness!


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

Its not that he's missing something in his diet. Its most likely a behavioral issue.

I would keep his poo cleaned up as best as you can because taking away the opportunity to eat his own feces is the first step in battling this issue.


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## Nana52 (Apr 28, 2012)

DaneMama said:


> Its not that he's missing something in his diet. Its most likely a behavioral issue.
> 
> I would keep his poo cleaned up as best as you can because taking away the opportunity to eat his own feces is the first step in battling this issue.


Yeah, I do try to keep it picked it. Sometimes I miss some though (I've neglected my grass cutting this past week .... my bad .... harder to find not mowed grass), and when I miss it, he will surely find it and have a nosh! I've read literally dozens of theories on why they do it and equally as many "solutions" but I don't think anyone really knows (kind of like why he has pancreatitis but that's another subject). I just can't bring myself to put stuff in his food or on his poop, like cayenne pepper for example, to try and discourage him (I would feel horrible if he ate that hot stuff on it .... that just seems mean to me). Besides, if I can find it to put pepper on it, I can just pick it up. 

I think you're probably right about it being behavorial. I'll just have to try harder to find it before he does. At least there's one thing, during the 30 days he was on the Rx food from vet while he was recovering from pancreatitis (you know, the canned corn that maybe had a piece of chicken waved over it during processing?), he would eat, go poop, then turn around and start eating it as soon as it hit the ground. OMG!


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

Yikes! He must have liked it....fresh uke: 

Well, you could put pepper on it but it wouldn't teach him not to eat it. It would just discourage him if it was even successful. 

I'd just keep it cleaned up as soon as you possibly can!


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## xchairity_casex (Oct 8, 2011)

add pineapple chunks to his food or give as treats, pineapple will make his poop taste icky to him but most dogs enjoy eating the pineapple. if not add some pineapple juice to his water.


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## Nana52 (Apr 28, 2012)

I think I tried pineapple a while back and didn't help. Maybe I'll try again. Or maybe I'll just have to be more vigilent about picking up. I've nothing better to do than follow the dogs around 24/7, picking up poop, right?


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## Little Brown Jug (Dec 7, 2010)

Boone is the master of poop eating. He does it in times of high stress. I try to avoid stressing him out too much(not easy when life in general does it to him) and I clean up once a day. He's been pretty good as of late. There are chewables you can by that make poo taste awful (as if it could taste anymore awful).


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## kathylcsw (Jul 31, 2011)

Mine aren't too bad about eating dog poop but they graze all evening long in my litterbox. I try to stay on top of scooping but they beat me to it most of the time. This morning when I scooped there was no poop at all in there. I have never had a dog who didn't think that the litter box was their personal snack buffett.


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## naturalfeddogs (Jan 6, 2011)

Theres a powdered supplement called forbid that you can put in the dogs food that will make it taste awful. It works REALLY well. I used it in our horses feed to help get the dogs to quit eating the horse poop. They would smell the poop being "off" even and would avoid it. It works the same with dogs who eat their own poop.


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## Nana52 (Apr 28, 2012)

At least it's not just me, not that I'm happy others have this problem. I hadn't really thought about the "stress factor." I've been having some very frustrating work issues the past few weeks, more stressful than usual, and maybe he's "picking up" on that? I was so sure he wasn't doing it, at least not nearly so much, since starting raw. So those of you who are having similar issues, are these raw-fed dogs as well? Raw-fed, kibble/canned-fed, not really a significant factor? I guess not, since both dogs eat exactly the same, and Kacy has never shown the slightest in poop eating. I haven't heard of "forbid." I'll check it out.


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## Little Brown Jug (Dec 7, 2010)

He could very well be picking up on your stress. When my were on full kibble, full raw and even now on half and half it didn't matter, whenever stress hits Boone turns to poop everytime. I read that it can be an OCD trait as well?


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## Nana52 (Apr 28, 2012)

Little Brown Jug said:


> He could very well be picking up on your stress. When my were on full kibble, full raw and even now on half and half it didn't matter, whenever stress hits Boone turns to poop everytime. I read that it can be an OCD trait as well?


Interesting. I'm a "tad" OCD myself. Could explain a lot :suspicious: Thanks for input. I'll be watching in the future to see if this seems to be what's happening.


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## naturalfeddogs (Jan 6, 2011)

Little Brown Jug said:


> He could very well be picking up on your stress. When my were on full kibble, full raw and even now on half and half it didn't matter, whenever stress hits Boone turns to poop everytime. I read that it can be an OCD trait as well?


I have always heard that is a behavior/OCD type issue, and I have no doubt that it can turn into that. But for us, they stopped eating it when we went full raw. So, I feel like it has nutriotional problems as well. Now, ours just roll in it. :twitch:


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## kathylcsw (Jul 31, 2011)

Both of mine are raw fed. Buster has been on raw since 8 weeks and Lola partial raw from 4 months and full raw from 6 1/2 months. It is just cat poop that is the issue. I have seen Buster nibble dog poop once or twice but it is not a big issue.


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## InkedMarie (Sep 9, 2011)

My brittany is a horrible poop eater. We do pick it up as soon as they go but sometimes, they're in the yard and she goes and I have to literally run. Not to be gross but she prefers it fresh and she has a way of twisting her body and....well, you get the point.
Pineapple did not work.


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## Nana52 (Apr 28, 2012)

InkedMarie said:


> My brittany is a horrible poop eater. We do pick it up as soon as they go but sometimes, they're in the yard and she goes and I have to literally run. Not to be gross but she prefers it fresh and she has a way of twisting her body and....well, you get the point.
> Pineapple did not work.


That's exactly what Kody would do when he was on the awful Rx food. Gag me with a spoon! He's not that bad now. There are times that I actually find poop a day or so old, so I know he's not eating ALL of it like he did before (his and Kacy's .... he did not discriminate at all). I'm almost convinced he had stopped for the first few weeks on raw. Or he had gotten very, very good at hiding what he was doing, which he certainly never bothered to hide it before. I just can't figure out what's going on now. Oh, well, if dogs could talk .....


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## Chocx2 (Nov 16, 2009)

My dogs love to eat cat poo, which they find sometimes in the fields or when I'm walking they find wild animal scat they gobble it up oh and horse poo too but not dog poo they have an image to keep up

:becky:


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