The medical term for this behaviour is Coprophagia. Although the cause is unknown, puppies tend to grow out of the behaviour. Faeces can be bad source of disease including worms and other parasites.
Tips to prevent your puppy from eating its stools:
• Clean up all dog stools immediately
• Have your veterinarian examine your pet for any health problems
• Feed your puppy a fully balanced diet. Ensure the diet you are using has the terms "complete and balanced" on the package
• When your dog goes to eat any feces, firmly say ‘No’
• Use bitter tasting agents to discourage your pet from eating stools.
This week the 'Ask the Vet' question came from Melinda.
Posts
our 9 year old flat coated retriever (Charley) did this as a puppy, eating the older FCR (Harry) 'poo' preferred it warm!!.stopped at about 18 months.
ReplyDeleteHarry died in December and Charley started doing it again, eating other dogs poo.. i think may be bereavement process, as he is very sad at loss of Harry and taken on a lot of his traits.