I live with three dogs. All of whom were recsued. Two of who were definately abused, and all have known hunger from neglect. Now, I feed them plenty, but they ALL seem to love munching on kitty poo.
Has anyone ever had any luck with stopping this disgusting habit? Right now I keep doggie breath mints on hand for them because they smell so nasty after a little "snack" There are several feral cats around my apartment who do their thing and my dogs usually have in in thier mouth before I even realize what they are up to!
A lot of animals practice "coprophagia" or the consumption of feces. One of the reasons that they do this is because a lot of B vitamins are produced in the large intestine, and are then excreted out in the poop.
It's really a normal sort of behaviour, it's just that WE find it repulsive, and try to stop it.
This is a pretty good article about coprophagy:
http://www.methuen-mspca.org/petcare/htm/coprophagy.htm
We had to build the cats a sh!thouse to enclose their litter box and prevent the dog from getting into it. It was either that or keep him in his crate all day. He's such a good dog, besides this little problem.
The sh!thouse is basically a box with a hinged lid and an opening measured from our largest cat. No kidding! The dog would have to put his neck in a 90 degree angle and lengthen it by about a foot to get to the "snacks."
The dog I have now is the ONLY dog I've ever seen who doesn't raid the litterbox. Oh, how I love that she doesn't do that. My old dog would stand outside the bathroom, eagerly waiting the cat to finish so he could eat it up. Yuck.
The B-12 reason sounds very plausible.....
The first thing I ever trained my dog was NOT to LICK ME!
They'll lick their butts one minute, eat cat poop the next, and be all up in your face licking you right after.
My old dog used to do that (eat poop). The vet recommended putting Adolf's Meat Tenderizer on his food for a few days straight. It supposedly does something to dogs taste buds that when the go to eat poop again it doesn't taste so good. I'm not sure if it worked because I never did do it.
Nothing encouraging to report, either. We had to put a baby gate in the bathroom doorway to keep the dogs out of the litterbox. My big dog, Honey, would come bouncing up to me with that huge goofy big-dog grin, and have cat litter caked on her mouth! Nasty!
A friend said his vet gave him something to put in the cat's food to make the poop unappealing to the dog. As if you needed something to make poop taste bad!
But if the poop is outside, I don't know what you could do...
Grammar is the logic of speech, even as logic is the grammar of reason. ~Richard C. Trench
Yeah, my parents former dog (may she rest in peace) would also bury bones in there and later bring them upstairs with cat litter all over them.
Could a vitamin pill help?
www.musingmanya.com "Thalia" is not anyone alive or dead. Any similarities are coincidental.
Sorry to say that I have a cat poop eater too. When walking around the neighborhood she dives her head into the grass and scoops up the stuff like it's a delicacy. Before I can get her head out of it she's grinning at me with a mouth full of sh!t. Pretty gross, I know. My male doesn't seem as interested in it however.
You can't smooth out the surf, but you can learn to ride the waves.
The only way to stop dogs from eating cat poop is if you can make it inaccessible. Most of them love the stuff. Two of mine follow me around when I'm scooping, with this pleading look on their faces, as if to say "You're not really going to throw those delicious treats away, are you?"
Thanks all. At least I can feel a little better knowing mine arent the only dogs who love tasty kitty "snacks"
View Profile
View Forum Posts
View Blog Entries
Reply With Quote
