Just because life isn’t interesting enough, we have to have for dogs that all have A major scat fetish. By scat fetish I mean they like, no scratch that, they LOVE eating poop. I realize this is normal behavior, but Gunner the Great Dane lives to give kisses and it’s hard to be on the receiving end if one if these licks when you know he’s been downing poop like a fat kid fiends Cheetos.
But here’s what I don’t get, they are eating Horse and Donkey poop and that doesn’t make sense to me. I have read that dogs love cat poop because of the high messy content in cat food. This I can understand, but the horse and donkeys eat only grass and the occasional carrot or apple. What could possibly be the flavor attraction in their poop? As I’ve mentioned, this behavior isn’t confined to one of our dogs, they all love crap for dessert. What’s going on here?
Rabbits eat their own poop to get the nutrients that were missed on the first pass. There’s stuff left over. If I had to eat poop, it would be cat poop.
Dogs also like rolling in poop and vomit. There are advantages of smelling bad.
My Beagle does the same with her poop. When I observed this, I jumped for joy in realizing I no longer had to buy any more dog food since my Beagle is now self sufficient. Garbage in . . . garbage out ad nauseum.
I have once read that eating poop might be related to malnutrition.You could try to change their diet a bit. Also, if you catch them feasting on poo, don’t say their names - just a loud, strong NO!!. Good luck!
Vets and places like Walmart sell anti-coprophagic pills or powders. You feed them to the dog and they are supposed to make the poo taste bad to the dog. It seemed to work for a while with my last chihuahua, who seemed to like to poo just for an immediate snack.
Cats, and rabbits, have short-gut syndrome. Normal for THEM, but it means their poop contains much more protein than that of other beasts. This makes their poop quite attractive for predatory animals, like wolves and dogs. Eating cat poop won’t harm your dogs, even thought it grosses you out.
This is true. However, the OP’s issue is the dogs eating horse and donkey poop, not just their own. So the OP would somehow have to figure out how to get the horse and donkeys to eat enough of the stuff to deter the dogs. I suppose she can check with her vet.
It’s a battle I’m not going to win, I just try and limit the gorging. As many times as I call them off or scold, or even go to the citronella collar, it’s as though they can’t help themselves.
It certainly makes me wonder why I stress over what kind of dog food to feed them!
The only real issue here is when dogs eat their OWN poop; that is either caused by a nutrient deficiency or the development of a weird habit, either of which should be addressed. I’ve never had a dog do this myself but it does happen, especially in bored dogs in a confined space.
Dogs are not obligate carnivores, like cats. They are more scavengers than predators, despite being a wolf descendant. In their original role as commensal animals to humans, they ate vermin and cleaned up food garbage and human feces. They eat most things that are even marginally digestible – rotten fruit, carrion, garbage, feces of almost anything, are all perfectly acceptable to most dogs. Cat poop is a particular favorite because, as already noted, there is a lot of undigested meatishness in it.
For some reason my extended family always has spirited discussions of the gross things dogs eat, at festive holiday mealtimes. It’s sort of contest, won one year by someone who stood up at the Thanksgiving table and declared, “Well, my dog would eat the shit out of a corpse!”
Sorry about the breath. They sell breath-mint dog chewies in pet stores, I’ve seen them.