poop eating

okay, this is like the second time this has happened. it seems that whenever brady has pooed in the house, he will eat it. maybe he knows what he did was bad and he's trying to make it seem like he did nothing wrong. both times i have caught him doing it. the first time it was my fault for not watching him, but this time, he was in the same room as my boyfriend while i was getting ready for bed, i came towards the room just as i saw him putting the turd in his mouth. he ate it up really fast and it was too late. that is just nasty. at least he didn't get all of it. last time it was a whole lot more. the thing i don't understand is that he had already gone for the night after his dinner, he usually only goes twice in a day, and my boyfriend had just let him outside....strange. the last time my boyfriend had let him out to poo, he ran up the stairs by me and peed right in front of me. he's doing pretty well with the training, i just don't like the set backs that i keep having. maybe i shouldn't let my boyfriend take him outside anymore...any thoughts anyone? thanks. oh, and when i let him out he's on a leash so i can direct him away from his poo so i can pick it up when he's done so i don't have a problem with him eating it outiside....strange boy.

Gus ate his poo twice when he was about 12 weeks... the vet told me that it smells like their food to them so they want to eat it. He told me just to make sure to pick it up right away so that he learns that he is not to eat it... apparently the more they eat, the more they can get in the habit of doing it. Gus is 10 months now and I recently started letting him have the run of the kitchen/ living room while I am gone and I was afraid if he had an accident, he would eat it, but I got home the other day to a little surprise, so I guess thats good and bad!
Also, when my boyfriend takes Gus out, I think Gus is too distracted b/c he is not used to being out with someone else, he doesn't pee b/c the whole time he is trying to get back to me.

There's a product called DETER that's supposed to help with this problem. It's a pill that you add to your pup's food and it's supposed to make it smell and taste less appealing...which is hard to imagine anything less appealing than poop! Anyway, it's available at regular pet product shops.

They actually learn this due to their Mum cleaning up after them, when they are first born she will lick to make them wee and poo and clean them, and when they are on solid food will also clean this up, you have to make sure you clean it up as soon as possible - honestly they will grow out of it...... icon_whistling

:lol: :lol: I was told its just a nasty habit from the vet. I thought it might have been some sort of mineral deficiency, but no ,just a bad habit. :grnyuk:

what claire said.
reading about this changed my outlook on poo eating. It's actually kind of sweet.

:flwr: :yuk: icon_whistling :yikes

i've seen mother dogs cleaning their puppies. They do it so lovingly. and if they didn't do it, the pups would wallow in a mess. It's actually a habit of cleanliness, poo eating. But it's so foreign from our culture and infant care practices, to us it's nasty. but to them, it's a healthy cleanly thing, and it truly is.



seriously. I'm not sure if zack ever did this. There was one time when i didn't see any poo in the backyard for me to clean up and i thought it might be some kind of health problem. i mentioned it to the vet and she said he might be eating it. that was shocking to hear. putting two and two together, i remembered that just recently his breath had smelled foul and it never had before. It smelled just like poop as a matter of fact.

:yikes

it grossed me out to remember all those kisses i was getting when he smelled that way.

but it never happened again. He was 7 months old.

I remember Nicki said don't let him see you cleaning it up. He'll want it all the more if you give the impression that it's something YOU want. :lol:

Poor Lauren, seeing something like that can give you nightmares. :yuk:

My dogs don't want anything to do with their own poop, but they will actually FIGHT over cat poop! Howie is usually pretty good about going in his little box (which I have had to rig to where only he can get in it...it has a locking lid and the opening faces the wall...the only way Howie can get in it is to crawl around the bottom back of the toilet :roll: ) but if I have neglected his box he will let me know by leaving me a "present" somewhere. Unfortunately I never get the message being that the dogs have already lapped it up :grnyuk:

Ah!!!!! :yuk: i'd die if lily started that... she wouldnt do it for long i can tell you ah!! thats gross... :x

ewww yuck!! I am sorry.. I had a dog that did that for an entire YEAR before she stopped.. :yuk:

When your boyfriend lets him out does he stay outside with him until he actually goes? That's something avi and i fight about. Avi will open the door and then watch outside and open the door like 2 minutes later. I ask "did he go?" "Uhh I don't know.." ugh.. Men are sometimes hopeless.. *sorry if I have offended any men out there! icon_whistling*

So....how long does it take for them to grow out of it?! :roll: Shelby is 3 years old and still eats her poop whenever she can. I have to pick up immediately after she poops or she will start in on it. She doesn't care for Jake's or anyone else's...just her own

Cathy:
Have you tried DETER? It works for my guys...but only deters them from their own poop, not the cat's, horse's or goats'!

i haven't tried that deter stuff. he only eats it when he goes in the house and that doesn't happen often at all. to think of it, when i frist got him he would go off into the kitchen and poop and then walk away...he didn't eat it then, but he eats it now. i wonder what changed. i never have to fight with him and his poop when he goes outside, i just pick it up right away and he could care less... don't understand them sometimes.

I've used the Deter product and it works really well. I had to use it on Wesley when he was a pup because he did the same thing. If the dog eats just anyone's poop, you have to treat all the dogs in the house. It works pretty quickly.

Another thing that my vet told me was that "poop eating" was a sign that they weren't getting enough protein in their diet. He said that lamb often doesn't give enough protien. Sure enough when I switch Wesley from Eukanuba lamb and rice to Wellness, he stopped. I'm sure it was a combination between the Deter and the food change, I really don't care as long as he doesn't do it anymore!!

As with cats, they don't digest their food all the way, so too dogs who have a great sense of smell, they think they are eating cat food :yuk:

Lauren, if it was me, I'd probably make sure I'm the one to take Brady out for his poo in order to make sure he poops outside. This will prevent the indoor accidents and poo eating, which he will eventually grow out of. Maybe Brady feels more comfortable with you and is more likely to do his business outside when he's with you.

I would not feed him Deter at this point, since it is safer, easier in the long run, and better for Brady to manage the problem by accompanying him outside.

Funny this should come up---Mia has started eating Wrigley's poo. No interest in hers, though. Seeing Mia's interest, now Wrigley has started at it himself. :roll: Mia literally tries to sit under Wrigley as he does his business...guess it's better warm. :yikes Sorry, that was gross... :yuk:

Yup, it's a puppy thing... and some grow out of it faster than others. Like Sara, my last dog did it for a whole year before she finally decided it was gross. Yuck. Our vet gave us this stuff called 'Forbid'. It might be the same as the stuff in they call Deter. It basically just makes their poop unpalatable.

I've done some extensive reading on this, and there's actually a technical term for it called Coprophagia (that almost sounds dignified, doesn't it)

There's a lot of theories.. ranging anywhere from boredom, deficiencies in the diet, a diet too rich in carbohydrates, psychological issues; fear of punishment, overfeeding, underfeeding. I think I've concluded they just do it because they can! Puppies are all about discovering new things.. and will put just about anything in their mouths. Beyond puppyhood I think it's just habitual, so as other suggested, cleaning it up right away will help in breaking the habit.

I know Bella's done it a couple times, also inside. We left the room for a few minutes and came back to find a conspicuous brown smudge on the rug, and some pretty foul-smelling breath, blech! She also seems to think rabbit turds is puppy caviar!

Anyway, it's all gross no matter which way you slice it, but just know you're not alone

my 2 havnt eaten their own poo before..theyve eaten rat and duck poo :yikes ..ducks come to our pool and whenever they are out there they litterally siddle over grab a piece and run! its disgustinG!!! ive caught them licking up their vomit a couple of times and twice they licked up their....when they had the runs... :yuk: :yuk: :yuk: THAT was disgusting..

Not Eating

I'm new to all this so bare with me.
I'm not sure if this is where I'm suppose to post this question but here is goes..

I started giving Sophia (7months) Beneful Puppy food. She loved it! Then for a treat when she was good I would give her Beneful Soft food. I did it twice and SHE LOVED IT. I haven't given her the soft food again only the hard food. In the past two days she hasn't eaten. She just picks at the hard food and then walks again. I'm concerned. I don't want to get her used to the soft food. What do I do?