Puppy eating her own "doo-doo"

[Corne]

Our yorkie puppy is ± 2 months old now and we recently found her eating her own ****. We got suspicious when it started looking like she did not go to the potty at night, but then caught her in the act. During the day we can manage this by just trying to pick everything up after she has finished, but the problem is at night. She eats it before we wake up, so we have no control over it. I am very worried about this, because it must be extremely bad for her and I'm worried that she'll get very sick. She is very tiny, so I don't think her body can handle stomach bugs at this stage. It is definitely not that she does not have enough food. I make sure that there is more than enough food for her day and night. She also gets good quality food and should not be lacking anything. She also has a lot of chewy toys to keep her busy. I have also started her on some vitamins, but nothing seems to help. Please help............

[ February 10, 2004, 04:14 AM: Message edited by: Corne ]

[Karen]

My 6mth old JRT does the same thing. She eats her own poop and her brother's poop. I just asked the vet about it because I heard that it is a vitamin deficiency. The vet said it can be from certain foods....Eukaneuba maybe...my pup is on pedigree..not a cause. She said they just like to do it and not to worry. I have to admit that I was not in agreement about the Vet's advise. I would love to know what to do as well.

[lou3]

a lot of it depends on what you feed them. Tinned food is so hard to digest it comes out fairly similar to what it goes in so naturally dogs will eat their own faeces. (it will also rot their teeth, give them bad breath, and will not allow optimum gastrointestinal health) My brother's dog was eating its faeces and i made him switch to dried food (much better all round) and the dog has never done it since. It can be indicative of a vitamin/mineral deficiency but on Pedigree that shouldnt be the case.
In some species very young animal will ingest faeces as a way of lining the gut with bacteria - i know this applies to foals but i'm not sure about puppies.
It wont harm your dog (one of our dogs has stubbornly refused to stop eating faeces his whole life and is still in peak condition at 14yrs of age) but shouldnt be encouraged. There are some products you can put on the food to try and discourage this behaviour but im not sure it would be advisable to give them to such a young puppy. A lot of dogs grow out of it, its an extremely common "problem" but its only a problem for us, the dog never has any qualms about it
Lou

[erdog3]

Good point on your last sentence there Lou!!
My oldest lab started this and has taught each one in succussion to do the same, not to mention all the other rubbish they love to pick up and chew on out here, sometimes I feel sick, Sophie brought back a rotten sheeps leg a while back, maggots the works, I dry retched at that, could't even look at it when I finally got it off her. .
They are almost like humans to me at times, but when they do that it reminds me,
THEY ARE STILL DOGS.

[sharon]

Well, what about pee? Cocoa just loves licking his pee off himself right after he goes. After peeing, he would immediately lie and start licking his pee off his thing. I changed his vitamins since I thought that might be making his pee taste sweet since its in paste form and sure looks sweet, but he's just still at it! I got a new puppy, Boozer, and noticed Cocoa licking Boozers thing everytime Booaer just finished peeing! He's just totally into pee! Isnt that unhealthy for him since I presume theres alot of germs in urine. What can I do or what do you think is the reason for this? Pls send me advice

[MissBandit]

I would think that he's just cleaning himself. (about the pee, not the doo-doo [img]tongue.gif[/img] )

[erdog3]

Yes, he is just cleaning himself, and his mate is helping him, also urine is actually sterile, I would'nt worry about it, mine do it all the time.

[Poppy_dog]

My 9 week old black lab eats her own poo, at the moment I feed her canned dog meat and biscuit mix, would it be ok to give her dried food now or should I wait a big longer? when I catch her eating her own poo I say No! in a non agrresive way and pick her up if I put her far enough away from it, she usually pick up the scent of something else intersting or tries to eat my shoe laces.

[Dax]

Start feeding the dry food - if she not to interested in it - mix with hot water enough to make soupy. Make sure it's not too hot & give it too her.

[Chocolab]

After I walked my lab, he always licked his pee off.