West Highland White, Coprohagia
Coprohagia is the technical term for eating faeces.
This has been studied in dogs by several people with no answer for "why"
being found.
Nutritional deficiencies may be present in some dogs, this may be boredom
related in many dogs. It has some "natural" roots in the fact that dams
often eat their pup's stools, apparently as a method of hiding their
presence from predators.
Dogs will eat the stools of other species, dogs obviously do not find the
taste of faeces objectionable.
The problem is this, you just don't know what in other dogs faeces, if
they have not had worming treatment, worms can be passed to your dog.
Assuming this is a recent problem, have your dog examined to rule out any
possible underlying physical cause.
Feed smaller, more frequent meals. Dogs often develop Coprohagia when
they feel empty. Splitting daily portion into smaller meals may help
alleviate this motivation.
Commercial foods fed to dogs today can also cause this, people having
cured Coprohagia by switching to human food. |