Eating her poop???

[Zoey's Mommy]

Hello everyone,
Miss Zoey is doing well. She has gotten quite use to her kitchen area now. She is 14 weeks and has undergone all shots so we are taking her to the parks, etc. She loves it. Anyways, enough with the good stuff. She has been caught on three seperate occasions taking her poop off her pee-pad and carrying it into the living room and what appears to be eating it. She may just be digging around in it with no intention of eating, but we don't let her get far enough to tell. HHHHHHEEEEEEELLLLLPPPPPPP!!! This is nasty seeing that she loves licking everyone on the mouth.

[OwnedByChaucer]

Like everything else, a firm "No", maybe a squirt with the water bottle, and quickly picking up the poop are the best solutions I've found for this problem.

Chaucer now responds to "Leave it" and walks away and won't eat it...but, if he's out on the deck playing, and not being supervised, and someone does a poop--he'll probably try to go after it.

It is pretty nasty..I've heard of a fair number of doxies doing it, and it's very common among terrier breeds as well (and virtually ALL the terriers I know do it)

[Krista]

Well neither of mine would even pick up dog poop, but rabbit pellets are a delicacy to them.....

There is a school of thought on this issue however that links the problem to diet.

Some people theorize that if a dog is not digesting his food very well (which would be common with many kibbles on the market due to inferior ingredients) that they will eat their stools to try and get the nutrients that are left in it. Apparently wolves and wild dogs would do this as a survival tactic too.

Out of curiosity, what are you feeding her??

I have heard some people say that sprinkling tabasco sauce on stools will deter them from eating poop after they try it once. Others buy products to sprinkle on the food that makes the poop disgusting to the dog (can you imagine that it needs to be MADE disgusting<IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm32.gif" border=0> ).

[Zoey's Mommy]

Thanks for the advice. We feed her IAMS puppy food. Is that ok?

[Krista]

Okay here's my feelings on Iams (now remember this is my personal opinion, but a Lot of people agree feel this way).

Iams is not something I would want my dogs eating. It is chock Full of By-products, corn, animal digest (really gross stuff), and other things I don't want my dogs eating. The quality also seems to have gone down since Proctor and Gamble bought Iams back in 1999. Its not as bad as Old Roy, but I still wouldn't feed it when there are much better foods out there.

Byproducts and corn are not as easily digested as other sources of protein and corn is a common allergen among dogs too.

I look for foods with No byproducts, No chemical Preservatives (BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin or EQ), No animal/poultry digest (sometimes called natural chicken flavoring), and No Corn, or no corn products in the top 4 ingredients.

Before I researched all this I fed my Rudy Eukanuba since both the breeder and the vet suggested it. He was gassy and his skin was dry, all that stopped when I switched him to a food meeting those guidelines. I can feed him less too since he's digesting more of it and he poops less too.

You might want to try a food switch and see if that helps.

[Mark]

I agree with Krista and recommend the change be done gradually. Use the new product in a 50/50 mix with the IAMS at first, then decrease the total amount and the amount of IAMS over the course of a week or 10 days until IAMS is history. Like Krista says . . . less of a better, more completely digestable food is needed. http://dachsie.org/ubb/smilies/smile.gif

Mark

[Mandy]

I know Fosters and Smith has some type of something (I really don't remember what it is...just what it does...I didn't pay much attention to it)....that you put on their food. It doesn't taste bad going in...but coming out it tastes horrible to them.....so they won't eat their little "presents"

[Augie Dog]

Krista is right about Iams (I Ate Moldy S**t) read the lable!

I feed Innova. Aug does well on it but, rabbit turds are like jelly beans.<IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm25.gif" border=0> He can't get enough of the black ones<IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm43.gif" border=0>

If you have rabbits around, chances are you will have a doxie that will sneek a few of Ronny Reagan's favorates for an extra treat.


D S & A