Eating pooh

[Merla Pearl]

Merla, bless her, eats her pooh. She won't do it if I'm watching her and give her a treat for poohing outside but when I come home, often only the remnants of a pooh are there. I wondered if she wasn't getting enough to eat but when I enquired about that, I was told not to increase the amount of food. A friend of mine suggested a spray called bitter apple. If anyone has experienced this unsavoury little problem, I would appreciate any advice you could give me. Thank you.

[Merla Pearl]

I just found a thread that exists about this topic in doggy behaviours, but please feel free to add any additional comments here if you think it's different for puppies. I have only had Merla for just over a week. Thanks.

[Martina]

i've heard that adding a bit of crushed pineapple to the food that you feed will help this problem. apparently, it's tasty going down the first time, but not the second :eek: ... also, i think your pet store has some sort of pooh eating preventative additive. good luck!!

[EllieMae]

Oh Oh! I know about this subject a little bit. Ellie Mae is a poo eater through and through, she poos and eats it while turning in cirlces to catch it. Half the time I don't think it touches the ground! :eek:
So, the reason they do this is that poo smells different to dogs and cats, they smell the food that is left over in the feces. It sill smells like not so bad food to them. The mother dog in a cave, WAAAAYYYYY back in the day for frenchies, would eat the feces of her pups to hide the smell from preditors that might go eat her and the young.
So from what I can make of it, she is cleaning it up. I doubt this is the real reason though, I think that like other poo, it tastes good to them, it is gross, but it won't kill them. :o
I have tried Brewers Yeast tables, pinapple, hot sauce on the poo, ForBid, vinegar, yelling and now I have just given up. I am PRAYING that she will grow out of it as everyone has said she will. She also won't eat it outside, mostly because I clean it up from the yard, but she used to hide behind the couch to eat it. We moved around our living room so she wouldn't have anywhere to hide. The only thing you can really do is never have your pup out of your sight. Ellie Mae is on a strick eating schedule, so we kind of know when she will go poo, but if we are not paying attention...thats our fault.
There is another posting about this issue under behaviour issues I belive... Good luck and just keep telling yourself, its not good for them, but it won't kill them.

[Mpup]

Molly had this nasty habit as well. I say had....because luckily she has grown out of it for the most part. I tried the forbid and it did not seem to work, but others have had better results I think. Watch her like a hawk and treat her every time she goes - Molly stopped looking for the poop as she would hardly finish her business before looking to us for a treat. Good luck!

[Carolyn]

I have had a couple of Bostons (years ago) that had this nasty habit. I found that no product on the market helped but it seemed to be a puppy thing and they just stopped one day. Fortunately this was never an issue with my two Frenchies. appicon