How to Stop Poo Eating Puppies
Published in Cats & Dogs News
Poo eating puppies can cause the most experienced of pet owners to vomit, along with the neighborhood women's sewing circle who just happened to stop by. Chomping away as if it were the primordial yogurt of their ancestors, theories on how to stop poo eating puppies goes from one extreme to another -- normal puppy behavior, boredom, instinct, nutrient deficiency, worms, and that puppies are just plain curious about poo!
How to stop poo eating puppies is something almost every puppy owner, dog breeder, veterinarian and dog expert cannot agree on, offering a different answer every time the subject comes up. The fact is that stool eating is considered a normal canine behavior called "coprophagia", referring to puppies and dogs that eat feces. They don't even have to single out their own poop... you name it, they'll eat it. The menu doesn't vary very far -- dog poop, horse poop, cat poop, or newborn-calf poop. Unfortunately, this can cause illness and disease in the puppy, with the only "safe poop" the puppy's own.
Most puppies outgrow their poo-eating behavior within a couple of weeks, while for others it is a life-long battle for their owners as their poo-eating dogs have become seriously dedicated coprophagianists.
Trying to break the doggie fecal fetish can involve trying out several methods:
Always walk the puppy or dog on a leash when outside - The best way to gain control of the poo eating situation is to leash the puppy at all times when outside. This way the pet owner is in control of the situation, pulling the puppy away whenever they approach feces and commanding "no". Using the leash as a training tool, the puppy will eventually begin to recognize what it is doing as wrong.
Increase the dog's diet and add more nutrients - Some puppies are not getting enough food to meet its needs, as puppies are overactive. Increase its ration or increase another meal a day, supplementing it with 4-Tablespoons of canned pumpkin (not the pumpkin type) as delicious filler.
Keep the feces cleaned up at all times in the backyard. That way the feces are not available for chow time when the puppy is outside exercising or toileting.
Give the puppy a Coprophagia addictive so their feces will have a bitter taste to it - The all-natural product called Prozyme can be added to the puppy's meals to prevent eating feces and also as a food supplement. Another solution is to pour cayenne pepper in the cat box or on feces in the yard to eliminate the smell of the feces.
Enzymatic Pancreatic Insufficiency (EPI) Disease - Some people who own poop eating dogs have found that their dogs actually had a disease which caused them to eat feces. Found through a blood test, this disease consists of an associated infection which needs antibiotics.
In this disease, the enzyme that digests food is not available in the dog so they are slowly starving to death. Food that is eaten quickly passes through their body undigested. Because they are hungry, they will eat the undigested food through feces on the ground. The solution for this is Pancrezymem, something the dog has to be on the remainder of their life. As this is expensive, another cheaper substitute solution is Pancreatin.
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