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Answers
It's odd for dogs to start doing this if they haven't done it before.
Nutro is a step up from Hills, for sure. It's possible that the stool smells a lot like his new food, which if he likes, seems appealing to him.
Some dogs are just born poop eaters (yeech!) but I'm always dubious when they start doing this all of a sudden. It's more than likely due to the change in food, since it seems too obvious to ignore the change and the timing of the behavior.
I guess the question now is WHY. Sometimes, dogs who get inferior foods don't get the chance to digest it properly and what comes out resembles food so much (and since they are still hungry)....and they eat it.
Nutro isn't really a horrible food. I'd not say it's the best thing out there, but wouldn't think it would be inferior enough to cause this sort of thing.
Pick up the poop immediately, and if, after a few weeks, he keeps going for it, maybe have him checked out with a full blood panel to look for any deficiencies.
I agree with Jack. When I started to add slightly cooked meat to Lola's diet, she started eating her poo. She never ate poo before, so I think it was because it smelled like meat. I would just tell her to leave it and pick it up right away. Eventually she stopped eating it. I did end up stop feeding this to her for a different reason later though.
Lola Penelope
answered 2 weeks, 6 days ago.
Helpful? /1
How old is it? Many of our puppies have started it around 4 months. We switch to adult food then, plus the puppy has gotten big enough to be outside by itself. It has also gotten cold enough to freeze them and one of the few things on top of the snow.
Why dogs do it is poorly understood. It may be diet related, but changing the dog's diet might cause worse problems. Whatever problems it causes for the owner, it doesn't seem to hurt the dog unless you are trying to clear up a worm infestation.
I never cease to marvel at the creative ideas on why premium foods are better. I guess it calls for extra effort when you have no facts to back your case. Other than the ingredients don't sound as good, there is no reason Nutro should be any better than Hills. Certainly no proof it has better or more complete nutrition.
They say you can feed pumpkin to make the stool taste bad to the dog. Never tried it myself, so I'm not of much help on this particular question.
There are those who claim that adding anything to a dog's food upsets "careful nutritional balance", but they have yet to give any sources or proof of this. My GSD is fed a rotational diet of several different brands, plus meaty table scraps and raw suppliments. She's been fed table scraps all of her life (even when on lower-quality brands) and it's never caused her any trouble. Neither has it caused anyone whom I know any trouble. Aster defends "the common brands" by saying that many people feed them without trouble. Well, I've never heard of someone having trouble adding things to their dog's diet unless it was one of the foods you are to avoid (such as grapes or chocolate) or if the dog had an allergy to that particular food. What's with Aster's double standard?
Some scraps are bad. Others are healthy. As for foods being "carefully balanceed", I have yet to see any proof of that claim, and I have looked for it. Commercial foods are balanced to keep a dog surviving, obviously. But that I've had much better results with a homeprepared diet suggests that commercial foods are not "completely balanced" after all. Surviving and thriving are not the same.
"While we know blue Buffalo is behind the ''True Blue" rating
system, I suspect other companies sponsor other rating systems
behind the scene."
Perhaps. Anything is possible. Please share any sources you have
on this.
At any rate, I feed canned Blue Buffalo because of the meat
content, not because I blindly follow internet rating systems,
which I do not. I follow my own experience and the common sense
God gave me.
"If I was feeding Nutro and my dog was doing well, I wouldn't
let fear mongering and hype make me change."
On the other hand: if I was feeding Nutro, I'd be willing to
look into any and all claims for or against it and talk to those
who feed the other pet foods. And that's exactly what I've been
doing. (Though I have never fed Nutro.)
"There are so many different brands of dog food because premium
foods are very profitable."
Sources?
"The so called better ingredients aren't that much more
expensive and you can skimp on testing and advertising."
Sources?
"It costs nothing to post to dog forums."
Correct. That happens a lot all over the internet. People who
work for X company will of course recommend X brand.
I could also point out that indoctrinating veternarians to
recommend certain brands is pretty profitable since many people
just assume that vets are the say all end all of anything dog.
Just another reason why people need to think for themselves,
whether they are reading forums or talking to their dog's vet.
"There is no telling who has bought into the hype, and who is
selling dog food."
Exactly. Anyone can make claims. Anyone can claim to be an
expert. Anyone can claim to have proof. Anyone can claim that
another source is a "hype" or "useless" or "irrational". Anyone
can call anyone else names. Anyone can make up their own
convenient facts without giving any sources.
Which is why I'm always telling people to have an open enough
mind to consider all sides and to use the brain that God gave
them.
"I never cease to marvel at the creative ideas on why premium foods are better. I guess it calls for extra effort when you have no facts to back your case."
Pot calling the kettle black, methinks. Aster, you claim to be an expert. Yet you focus on philosophy and clever twisting of words (from what I've seen) rather than giving actual facts. You have been asked for resources and hard facts many times. Why have you never given them? Oh, you cite studies that no one can look up, and for a while a study done on a completely different species, but you always manage to hop around actually answering the questions you recieve.
I've never claimed to be an expert, nor do I claim to be one. But I don't have to be a scientist to be correct. My driving point is that people need to think for themselves. And to help them out, I show before/after pictures.
"Other than the ingredients don't sound as good, there is no reason Nutro should be any better than Hills. Certainly no proof it has better or more complete nutrition."
The experience related by others and myself does not count? Funny, because you love to harp on experience. You claim to have it. Yet you've admitted to me that you've never even tried "the premuim brands".
this is a fairly commom problem, you can buy something to feed the dog(s) to make the feces unpalatable. However, the USUAL cause of this problem is that the food passes thru the digestive system WITHOUT being fully digested.A change of food might help the problem and have the added benefit of better nutrition for your dog.High prices DO NOT guarantee good nutrition.Read the bag and look up each item, also, the primary ingredient should NOT be corn,soybeans, wheat "midlins" or any combination of grains, the primary ingredient should be MEAT.Out here we have local brands of dogfood at the feed store,I rely on them, check out brands other than the ones touted by the "ad men" those brands have POOR quality control, THEY are the ones in many cases that are recalled.More money does NOT equal better quality.Do your research, don't trust ads.Big companies like ADM and ConAgra use pet foods as a vehicle for their food processing wastes. Sort of "pre table scraps".Undigested food=costly poop.
SUNSHINE
answered 2 weeks, 5 days ago.
Helpful? /0
Clean up after the dog quickly...this can become a habit unfortunately. I've heard that certain things added to the food such as meat tenderizer or papaya or pumpkin discourage the eating of feces but I haven't tried those, and I'd be concerned about how my dog would digest those...could be adding to the problem instead of helping. Veterinarians will prescribe an ingredient called "for bid" that makes the feces unpalatable if you can't break the habit. As far as the food change affecting eating poop, it may be that the poop smells different now. Try the fast clean up - don't give the dog access to it. As I said, it becomes a habit and like any habit the more established it is the harder it is to break it.
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