Dog eating his own poo

Andso

Hi, my 7month old springer spaniel started eating his own poo bout 2months ago and is still doing it despite our correcting him, rewarding him when he doesnt(which isn't very often). He is not a house dog, so I am literally hanging out the windows to see if he has made a poo to get to it before he does. Any constructive advise welcome.
Btw, I am feeding him on burns puppy junior, twice a day

Karen91

I had this issue with my pomeranian and I thought it was just a bad habit. I was feeding her Hills Science plan puppy formula at the time, after getting talking to a person who breeds and shows dogs they suggested that she may not be getting enough nutrients from the food I was giving her, she advised me to switch her to a raw diet or a higher protein kibble. I put her on Canagan country game which has a higher protein content and I have never had a problem since with her eating poop. Maybe you could try him on a grain free food with higher protein?

deadlybuzzman

We had that problem too. She's a rescue and apparently it's something you can see in dogs like her that were confined Alot.
It stopped happening basically by accident when we started giving her nice treats of proper food like rashers sausages.
When you think about it your regular food will have to taste pretty manky for eating crap to be a desireable option
Shell still try and eat pine Martins scat though!

Choc Chip

We had that problem with ours too - never her own poo, only other dogs (at least if it had been her own I wouldn't have had to clean up the garden as much ).

We tried feeding better quality food and, as the other posters have attested to, when her food was right the problem solved itself. She's now on about 75% raw and while she still finds poo delightfully smelly, she has no interest in eating it anymore.

There are lots of articles online about the various causes of coprophagia, but it might be worth changing his food as a first step and seeing if this recitifies the problem?

Andso

Thanks for the replies. I thought burns was a good food. Had him on royal canine in the beginning but found her poo slightly runny and was told burns was a good brand. I'll be honest and say raw feeding probably won't work here as it would make me gag to prepare but I would be open to any suggestions of better quality food. I have been giving him raw carrots and apricots during the day

deadlybuzzman

Andso wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. I thought burns was a good food. Had him on royal canine in the beginning but found her poo slightly runny and was told burns was a good brand. I'll be honest and say raw feeding probably won't work here as it would make me gag to prepare but I would be open to any suggestions of better quality food. I have been giving him raw carrots and apricots during the day

We switched from burns as she had bouts of colitis. I figured as grains cause digestive problems in people maybe it was the same in dogs and I was right.
I got her grain free nuts and she's generally fine

Choc Chip

There's a thread here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=95945714 which discuses various dried foods at length. I got massively confused tbh and it was probably my confusion which pushed me towards raw!

You might get some idea of a decent dry food you've not tried from that thread. I know my parents swear by Burns for their dog, but what works for one might not work for another - I think a lot of it is trial and error and figuring out what suits the individual dog. You're probably well aware, but any change of food will need to be done slowly to avoid an upset stomach. Good luck with it!

Nody

This is the ingredient list for Burns Original Chicken & rice:

Composition:
Brown Rice (67%), Chicken Meal (20%), Oats, Peas, Chicken Oil, Sunflower Oil, Seaweed, Vitamins & Minerals.

Note how little chicken there is in it? It's rice with chicken not the other way around. You want ideally a grain free (that means no rice, no wheat, no corn) with 80% meat. To cut your search short one of the easier to find is Taste of the Wild but there are plenty more (you can check out Zooplus.ie.

cocker5

Nody wrote: »

This is the ingredient list for Burns Original Chicken & rice:
Note how little chicken there is in it? It's rice with chicken not the other way around. You want ideally a grain free (that means no rice, no wheat, no corn) with 80% meat. To cut your search short one of the easier to find is Taste of the Wild but there are plenty more (you can check out Zooplus.ie.

Totally agree with this.. i fed my guy on burns for years and although it was ok - he's been on taste of the wild for the past 2 years and condition is excellent.

Cherry Blossom

Burns was good in its day but there are a lot more brands now and some are much better quality. Burns has a small number of ingredients so works for some dogs with allergies and digestive problems. My terrier was very skinny on Burns and I don't think it's the best choice for active breeds as there is not a lot of nutrition in it. I went from Royal Canin to Hills to Burns to Barking Heads to Lukullus to Purizon in the past 6 years

My dogs are wolfing down the Purizon and my Sheltie has always taken an hour to eat his meals on the other brands. His coat is in the best condition it has ever been also. It's expensive though but very high quality. I did have to switch over more slowly as the extra meat content made their poos a bit loose to begin with but all good after a few weeks.

ohbygod

I'm having the same trouble. The male dog is eating the female dog poo. I got power to put in her food so if he tries to eat it he will get a taste in his mouth and won't touch it

Nalz

I have this issue sometimes with my jack russell when I bring him on walks.

He doesn't eat his own or my other dogs.

Read somewhere that introducing pineapple in their diet can work, but as he doesn't eat his own that idea was useless to me.