Puppy Eating Its Own Faeces

[Lilyput]

My puppy eats her own faeces from time to time. I have heard it is due to her lacking something in her diet, is this correct and what can i do to stop her?

[krankypuss]

From memory there is a thread covering this topic in the health section..

[Bindie]

This can be caused by deficiencies in your dog's diet. Does your dog eat mainly dog food or your leftovers? Try praising your dog when it deficates and then shows no interest in its excrement. When you see your dog eating its faeces, firmly say "no", but only if you catch it in the act. Make sure that your dog is properly wormed otherwise this may cause reinfection. Does your dog only eat its own faeces? If not, make sure you keep it on a lead when you walk it and try teaching it a "leave it" command so that it knows what it can and can't touch. This can be taught by gently tugging on your dog's lead and saying "leave it" when it sniffs something you don't want it to.

If you can't get your dog to stop doing this, ask your vet for a product that you can mix with your dog's food that makes its faeces taste horrible. This will stop your dog from eating them.

[Dog_Horse_Girl]

Many dogs and pups eat their own waste...there are many theories as to why this happens. I have had plenty of dogs doing this and I think it's pretty horrible. Lilly is my greyhound that I adopted in nearly 4 yrs ago, and when she came home, we fed her processed foods as per the advice from her breeder. She had an upset stomach almost every day, no matter which foods we tried, and we tried a huge variety over time. When this was going on, she was eating the poo from our other dogs...poo which was solid and well-formed - and Lilly was obviouly missing out on something in her diet even though all dogs were fed the same food.

In desperation, I bought some raw minced beef (I bought blade steak and asked the butcher to mince it for me), fed it to Lilly and guess what? She loved it and for the first time in months, had no further upsets. But once we went back to kibble, the loose stools came back. I did some research and discovered raw feeding ala Billinghurst (the BARF diet). After careful consideration, I switched all the dogs to raw, whole foods, and Lilly's problem resolved itself literally overnight.

All our dogs have been on raw foods now for 3.5 yrs and with no real problems and no more poo eating. It works for us! But more importantly, it works for Lilly. :D

[Teebs]

Atlas is healthy, vet checked, and still eats his own poo from time to time

i just dont let him lick me anymore

[Clyde]

Try adding Pineapple in his diet - apparently it makes the faeces taste like sh!t.

[Teebs]

;)

[poochall]

my male dog does this alot he also roles in his own or the other dogs if i dont pick it up in time some say it means something is missing from their diet but my dog is completely healthy and he also still does it.

[ravensmyst00]

Atlas is healthy, vet checked, and still eats his own poo from time to time

i just dont let him lick me anymore

Dogs that eat faeces are usually searching for essential vitamins and minerals either missing from their diet or they are unable to process what is available in their current dog food.

Can you tell us what you are currently feeding your dog as this may provide a clue as to why your dog does this. Another question for you - do you find that your dog eats dirt and rocks as well?

[c m danes]

Dont know if you have a tablet called Deter in oz..these work well..can be found in most pet shops..etc;

[Debbi]

The majority of times that a dog eats its own faeces (search Coprophagia) is because the metabolism of the food it is getting is not being metabolised correctly and the faeces is actually (ok I dont want to be jumped on here, I am saying majority of times) is because the food is actually coming out not as waste but as still some content of FOOD, and it smells enticing.

That is why if you put pineapple (crushed including juice) it stops usually the practice, a better method however is to work out have you changed the feeding practice, and thus this is why?

In the meantime, use pineapple, and over a period of time it will work.

We have found that on the odd occassions that we have encountered this that it is always a certain feed product, and removing that feed product stops the problem, but we have always found that pineapple stops in the interim, (when we have fed that particular product and had the problem).

Regards

Debbi