Help! My dog eats poop
You may have experienced it before; you’re out walking with your dog and he has just done his business. Then your dog turns around and eats his own feces...
It can also happen that your dog eats the feces of other dogs. You probably find this behavior very unappetizing and would rather your dog not do it. Why does a dog actually eat its own feces or the feces of other dogs?
Causes of dogs eating feces
1. A female dog eats her puppies’ feces. The puppies imitate this behavior and do it during puppyhood, although they may also continue to exhibit this behavior as adults.
A female dog with a litter of puppies eats their feces for two reasons:
- To keep the nest clean.
- The second reason is more related to instinct; the female eats the feces so that its smell cannot spread and attract predators. Even if there are no predators in your home, she will eat the feces for this reason.
Because puppies learn by watching their mother how to do certain things, they adopt this behavior. The female will stop eating the feces when the puppies start eating solid food and can leave the nest to relieve themselves. However, some puppies continue eating feces after this and may still do so as adults.
2. Feces can contain undigested nutrients. These undigested nutrients smell very appealing, which can cause a dog to eat the feces.
There can be several causes of undigested nutrients in feces: overfeeding, a condition involving a shortage of digestive enzymes (for example, EPI), or poor digestion of nutrients. If your dog eats its own feces, you can try to solve this by feeding it a little less or by giving it food made exclusively from high-quality ingredients.
Does your dog eat the feces of other dogs, however? Then you can only tackle this problem by keeping a particularly close eye on your dog during walks. This way, you can prevent it from eating feces.
3. Your dog has worms or other intestinal parasites. These worms or parasites absorb nutrients from your four-legged friend’s intestines, causing your dog to become deficient in nutrients. The dog will then start eating feces to compensate for this deficiency.
If your dog has worms or other intestinal parasites, it can no longer absorb the nutrients from its food properly; the worms or parasites absorb these nutrients instead of your dog. To obtain nutrients, your dog will eat anything that contains even the slightest amount of nutrients, including feces. If you suspect that your dog is eating feces because it has worms or parasites, it is essential to treat the animal for them.
Myth
It is sometimes thought that dogs eat feces because they are fed an incomplete diet. A dog may then start eating feces to compensate for the nutrient deficiency. However, this is a myth.
Dog foods labeled - complete - must meet strict requirements in the Netherlands. This means that a complete dog food really is complete and provides your dog with all the essential nutrients. Do you give your dog a complete dog food? Then it cannot have a deficiency of certain nutrients (unless there is a health problem that prevents your dog from properly absorbing nutrients from its food; in that case, however, the problem is not the food but a medical issue...).
