Puppy Behavior—Does Your Dog Eat Its Poop?
Coprophagia is the technical term for poop eating. Whatever you call it doesn’t matter; it’s still disgusting. And, it’s more common than you might think.
Dogs and cats sometimes do this instinctively. They will deliberately consume the feces of their puppies or kittens as a way to hide their scent while in their den and could be discovered by predators.
Your pet will eat its poop for different reasons. It’s more common for dogs to do develop this disgusting practice. Usually, it can be a medical issue like an enzyme deficiency known as pancreatic insufficiency. A dog’s pancreas excretes digestive enzymes to help the digestive process but, sometimes, the pancreas doesn’t excrete enough and the dog will be enzyme deficient. The poop of other animals are a source of the enzyme so a dog will eat that to try and get back into balance.
Other medical reasons are gastrointestinal parasites and intestinal malabsorption. They can get the parasites from eating the feces. This is a good reason to have the dog’s stool checked by a vet every six months.
If you don’t already have good reasons to reduce the rabbit population (they do carry fleas that like to latch onto dogs) their poop is a very rich source of digestive enzymes and B vitamins. Dogs will eat them like candy—can you picture that? One way to reduce that urge to eat poop is to feed your dog some human-grade protein, some supplements with digestive enzymes and probiotics.
There’s also a behavioral reason that dogs may eat their own poop. Dogs that feel stressed or anxious and dogs that are kept in a kennel for a long period of time are more likely to eat their poop. When they feel they don’t get enough to eat they may also resort to eating their own feces as well. Sometimes one dog can learn this from another dog that’s been doing it for quite a while.
This can also be a trait of dogs from puppy mills. If they are allowed to often go hungry, constantly have to fight to get food at the dish, are weaned when they are too young, or sit in a crate for a long period of time with nothing to do are more likely to develop this negative habit that you may never be able to get rid of.
Not all dogs have the same poop preferences or patterns. Some may only eat the poop from one certain animal (like rabbits), or only do it at certain times of the year. In winter, for instance, they may only eat frozen poop. (if it has a stick in it you can call it a popsicle—just kidding).
You can do certain things to try and stop this gross behavior:
First, clean up your dog’s poop immediately if you can.
Second, make sure your dog has a complete diet. You may have to add probiotics and digestive enzymes to his meal.
Third, keep them active; walk and play with them often to relieve boredom. Make sure they get enough exercise.
Fourth, there are some products you can buy at the pet store that you either sprinkle on the food or even on the poop if you can’t clean it up right away.
If that behavior doesn’t change you should talk to your vet to get their perspective. You don’t want to ignore any medical conditions that could be the cause of the problem.
Unfortunately, this can be a common behavior among dogs. Keep your eye on them as often as possible to nip this in the bud by using some of the strategies mentioned.
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