Coprophagia is the eating and ingesting of feces. There are several reasons a dog may eat their own feces. The reasons can be broken down into several medical related reasons, attention seeking, or even your dog’s a neat freak. The most common reason for Coprophagia is nutritional deficiency. Lack of iron leads the list.
Several studies have been done to try to find out why a seemingly healthy dog starts to eat their feces. One hypothesis states that coprophagia is a normal scavenging behavior stemming from a dogs evolution history. Or maybe its just boredom. Or maybe they really just like the taste. Eww…
In some cases the underlying cause can be medically explained. If a dog has malabsorption syndrome, a large amount of the food they eat will go undigested and the food itself will end up in the stool. The dog may eat the stool for nutrients it did not get the first go around.
A dog may eat their feces because of several diseases or illnesses.
- Inflammatory bowel disease
- Diabetes
- Intestinal parasites
- Anemia
- Increased hunger
- Neurological disease
- Vitamin deficiency
- Malnutrition
- Thyroid disease
Physical exams done by your vet are the only true way to determine if your pets horrible new habit is one of these medical causes.
If your dogs feces obsession is not medically related why are they doing it? A dog may eat their feces because they saw their mother do it when they were young. Female dogs stimulate urination and defecation of their young by licking them. During this process, they eat the feces and drink the urine to avoid contamination of the nesting area.
Other explanations are, for attention, response to punishment, or simply because they don’t like their area messy and it is there way of cleaning up.
MSG ( monosodium glutamate) can be added to your pets food to discourage coprophagia. Dosing should be discussed with your vet.
A few methods you can try yourself before heading off the vet are changing your dogs food to a high quality food, and feeing them more frequently and consistently.
Exercise and stimulate your dog to avoid a feces snack stemming from boredom.
Add pineapple or pumpkin to the food. They taste pleasant but will make the feces less appealing.
Keep your dogs area clean and don’t give them the opportunity for a fecal snack. If for some reason they beat you to it and you catch in the act, give a strong Leave it! or Stop! command, scolding them in the process.
This behavior can be mild or severe and in some cases outgrown. You know your pet better then anyone and if feel there is something going on talk to with you vet for additional options.
