why do dogs enjoy eating cat poop? is it like heading over to the litterbox and chowing down on a renewable supply of almond roca?
i have wondered about this many times, but i made another observation this morning while walking my dog. i noticed that she had found a little snack where a wretched cat had used my freshly prepared planter for a litterbox. revolted, i dragged my pup away before she could eat it all. however, as we walked along, when we passed by dollops of dog dookie (we have a lot of dog owners in my apartment complex), she would sniff enthusiastically, but not consume. what is ever-so-tasty about cat poop? why would a dog eat crap, but be choosy about what kind of crap it is?
Guess #1: out of boredom.
Guess #2: cats eat a high protein diet, and cat poop may have more protein in it. Dogs are scavengers in the wild, after all.
Guess #3: out of boredom.
Guess #4: out of boredom, because Master (you) make such a Big Deal out of it every time it happens.
Guess #5: out of boredom.
Guess #6: for something to do.
Are you starting to catch my drift here?
BTW, I hope that if your dog does make a habit of this, you have his feces tested regularly by a vet for various nasty worms 'n things. My dog gets a combination heartworm/intestinal worm pill once a month, 'cause she eats poop, too. Also pine cones, rhododendron bushes, glue sticks, plastic pop bottles, etc. :rolleyes:
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” - the White Queen
no, really! it’s not boredom. it’s like some kind of unnatural craving. like the way that some dogs eat dirty women’s underwear. I know that’s gross, but it’s also true. :o
it’s not like the dog is walking along and thinks to herself – “oh, look at that. protein. i could eat that supplement to my usual diet.” it’s more like they really seek it out and get happy about it. like they CRAVE it.
i had another dog years ago that did the same thing. i’ve talked to other dog owners who have experienced the same thing. it’s a preference. the discrimination between one type of poop and another is what really puzzles me. i can buy into the protein thing, but i wonder what stops dogs from eating other dogs’ poop. and some cats that live around my apartment are feral, so the poop my dog ate this morning out of my planter probably wasn’t just over-processed cat food.
by the way, my dog doesn’t get the opportunity to consume large amounts of poo, but the vet checkup is a good call. thanks.
How did you know the women were dirty? Just doesn’t seem right there.
A couple I know have three male dogs and were in that early marriage stage of who picks up what?
The gal’s undies on the floor got a few respectable sniffs and at a polite distance. Interest, you know.
But the guy’s! When that was on the floor the dogs sniffed, snorted, moved, snorted and dragged. A real show. Needless to say he started making sure his undies were off the floor before she did.
We decided it was a guy thing.
I have two dogs and whenever they seem too interested in poop I make sure to stuff a little more variety into their diets: fruit juices, not orange juice, apple slices, water from Tuna cans (dilute a little so no one gets the trotts), and might add in some new or different dog food brand (half and half so they don’t get the trotts from the digestive shock).
I do think it is more the love of the stuff than some substance they are missing in their everyday diet combined with the undigested stuff in the leavings of others.
Are you driving with your eyes open or are you using The Force? - A. Foley
hee-hee. i realized as soon as i posted that i had phrased my statement incorrectly…i should’ve said womens’ dirty underwear. sorry.
but that’s interesting that your friends’ male dogs went after the male underwear – my dog that ate nearly every pair of my underwear in the dirty laundry one year (my dog from long ago). i mean she was RELENTLESS. i would put all the laundry away, close the closet doors…finally i ended up having to put it up at the top of the closet. i bet that’s a little too much information there…sorry. but my point was that she was a female dog going after female underwear. YOUR friends’ male dogs were going after male underwear. very interesting.
but i digress. what i was really wondering was why dogs love cat poop. underwear-eating is another subject i’ve wondered about, although it is along the same lines.
my dog that i have now doesn’t actually eat that much cat poop, she doesn’t really get the opportunity because my cats’ litterbox is blocked off. but if i forget to put the barricade in place, i can invariably come home and find the leavings of a snack on the kitchen floor.
my dog eats premium dog food – wysong. plus she gets additives from time to time like cheese or eggs. she also gets a nibble of what we’re having from the dinner table occasionally. plus she gets pig ears, treats, bones, what have you. AND STILL, this morning, she was checking that planter i mentioned before for cat poop. it must be really tasty.
Honest injun, I’ve tormented at least 2 vets and gotten no good answer or solution, or medication, or incantation, or preparation, or nothing. If you go out walking you take a baggie for anything you find before your pal does…
Are you driving with your eyes open or are you using The Force? - A. Foley
Once we dogsat for my inlaws. I did it only out of regard for them, not that overfed, overbred empty-headed git of a dog. When it went after the cat nasties, I knew it was my fault, as I had told it to “eat shit and die.” Stupid dog only got it half right.
Dog crap is generally made up of stuff that is undigestable by dogs. Hence, your dog would not want to eat dog crap as it would not be likely to have any nutritional value.
Similarly, cat crap is generally made up of stuff that is undigestable by cats. However, there may be something that cats don’t digest that has nutritional value to a dog.
Like I said, that’s my theory.
Am I supposed to believe that all this rain was suspended in mid-air until moments ago?
My vet once told me that the food that cats eat have a higher fat content and that’s what the dogs are going after. My dog used to go straight for the litterbox every time I let him in the house. Now I feed him some cat food every now and then. Since my cats are now inside/outside cats and I don’t keep a litterbox in the house, I don’t know if it has helped his cravings at all. I do know that there is a product on the market for dogs that eat their own poo. It evidently makes the poo taste bitter and the dogs should leave it alone. How you could work that into your situation is beyond me? Leave cat food out with the additive in it?
Dog crap is generally made up of stuff that is undigestable by dogs. Hence, your dog would not want to eat dog crap as it would not be likely to have any nutritional value.
Similarly, cat crap is generally made up of stuff that is undigestable by cats. However, there may be something that cats don’t digest that has nutritional value to a dog.
ok, now we’re getting somewhere. i can almost buy that.
My vet once told me that the food that cats eat have a higher fat content and that’s what the dogs are going after.
i can buy that, too. my dog does fancy a bit of cat food from time to time. so much so, in fact, that i had to put the cat food up on top of my kitchen cabinets. which actually works out pretty well, because if my cats get too fat to jump up and eat the food, they can’t eat at all until they shed those unwanted pounds… (just joking – i should try that method myself, though).
ok. so what you guys are trying to say is that the dog’s dog food is like skim milk, and the cat’s food is like half and half. or something of that nature.
it’s amazing to me that with such a highly developed sense of smell, dogs (and cats) have such a tolerance of things so unbelieveably stinky, like “cat nasties.” (see, i used it!)
