Err “I hear the nation cry” (well maybe my younger subscribers) I don’t really want to know about that, and anyway my little pooch (the Massive Rottweiler you keep in the back garden to intimidate the neighbours) would never do such a thing But I guess you wouldn’t really like to discus the feeding habit of you pet down the local Polo club would you. But believe it or not, they do.. And here the explanations why.. First off, lets look at it for a child point of view.
Children will often do crazy things because they saw their friends do them first. But once is usually enough. They won’t jump out of a tree or put their fingers in a candle flame after the first painful experience. Dogs, however, will return to eating dung again and again.
Most experts have had to conclude that there’s more at work than simple imitation. There are times when that includes imitating their least desirable behavior eating dung. But they do, so there has to be something about it that they like, agreed,
This isn’t all that surprising. Dogs have always been scavengers. They’ll eat road kill as readily as their suppers. Old trash, pond muck, and dead sparrows on the lawn are no less appetizing. Dogs start getting hungry whenever they sniff something with a pungent smell, and dung certainly does smell.
Not all dung tastes the same, of course. Dogs seem to have different preferences. Some are attracted to the stools of deer, cows, or horses. Others will eat the stools of other dogs. And a great many dogs are attracted to cat droppings, possibly because cat foods are very high in protein and the dogs are going after undigested nutrients.
The Attention Factor
Dogs, no less than children, crave attention. And they do whatever it takes to get it, including things they know you hate. This probably explains why some dogs only eat dung when their owners are around to watch. It’s probably the equivalent of a 6-year-old saying a dirty word and then watching for his parents’ reaction. “Look at me,” the dog is saying.
Boredom has something to do with it too. Dogs entertain themselves by putting things in their mouths. When not much is happening, they often nose around the yard, picking up sticks and putting them down, even mouthing rocks on occasion. Since they aren’t offended by the smell or taste of dung, it’s just another thing for them to pick up, play with, and explore.
Dogs occasionally eat so much dung that they get sick to their stomachs. For the most part, however, it’s not likely to make them sick – although they may get worms from eating the stools of an infected animal. Their digestive tracts are very forgiving.
The people who live with dogs, however, are less forgiving. For one thing, it’s an ugly sight that no one wants to watch. There’s also the fact that dogs who eat dung have heart-stopping bad breath. It takes some serious devotion to get past that! Poop-Eating Tip: Veterinarians sometimes recommend adding, canned pumpkin, or Accent meat tenderizer to a dung-eating dog’s food. Assuming that it’s his own dung that he’s attracted do, these ingredients may give it a taste he dislikes – although it’s hard to imagine that anything could make it taste worse than it already does. This isn’t a perfect solution, but it does work for some dogs.
Coprophagia
Coprophagia is the proper name for stool eating, which is actually a normal canine behavior. In the wild momma canines keeps her den clean by eating the poop of her young pups, and as the pups grow, they copy the behavior to help mom clean house. But, once weaned out of the nest, so to speak, most puppies typically stop eating poop. Generally, it takes a few weeks for pups to grow out of the phase of eating his own poop, but in some cases it can be a long-lasting problem.
Although, coprophagia is a nasty habit that isn’t desirable, it isn’t a behavior that is dangerous as long as your dog is just eating his own poop. Now, if he tries to eat the cat’s poop, that’s a whole other issue that can become hazardous to his health. Or, if your dog eats another dog’s poop, he may contract an illness, as most contagious canine illnesses are transmitted through feces, so if your dog ingests poop from a sick dog, he could become ill.
Worms and other parasites can also be transmitted through ingesting poops, so ideally, it’s just not something that you want your dog to do.
What Causes My Dog to Eat His Poop?
There is not 100% direct cause as to why dog’s will eat their poop on occasion or at every instance, but the most popular suggestion is due to a dietary deficiency. The flaw with this theory is that in an entire litter of pups feeding on the same diet, how does one explain the one puppy who eats his poop? But, in some cases, it really is a nutritional imbalance, as studies have shown that dogs who are low in vitamin B1 are prone to eating their own stool.
Another theory is pure boredom. Being cooped up in a kennel or outside alone all day long, can cause dogs to do some pretty weird things, so why not sniff around a bit and potentially detect some undigested food in his own poop and just start chowing down.
Sometimes, it’s from stress, as dogs with different fears will react different in times of stress when encountering their fear, and some may result to eating their own stool.
And in some cases, dogs will eat their poop during house training. If you punish your dog when he makes a mistake on the floor, he will try to find ways to hide it because you’re not really training him what to do just what not to do without any real alternative. So, when he poops on the floor, there’s nothing he can do but eat it, and in some cases it becomes habit.
For the most part, the exact cause as to why your dog is eating his own poop is going to be something that you’re going to have to figure out from your own dog and his actions. Has he always eaten his poop, ever since you brought him home? Or is the behavior a new behavior that just started.
Well there you go I hope that this have given you a small insight to why your pet eats dung.
**IF IN DOUBT Consult Your Vet**
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