feces eating

I could use some advice! My 4 mo. shih tzu female is eating her feces and my 4 year old golden's also. I understand in her crate, but she is also eating hers when she has accidents in the house and both of theirs outside if I can't get there fast enough. Besides sprinkling something on her food, is she lacking something in her diet? They are eating Iams Lamb and Rice. Thanks!

Usually, this is a sign that they are missing important nutrients...take them to the vet to have them evaluated on what it is their lacking.

This is very common with puppies. You need to take her out on leash so you can correct her when she tries to do this.

If she doesn't know the "Leave it" command, start teaching her right now.

You take her out on leash, she poops then tries to eat it. You give a little tug on the leash and sharply say "LEAVE IT". She'll probably turn to look at you and when she does, praise her immediately and give her a treat.:)

This is perfectly normal and it doesn't have anything to do with lacking any nutrients. Puppies eat their poop because they can. That's what a vet told my mom about her Lhasa when he was a puppy. They grow out of it.

Ya. No. :D If the dog smells protein or other nutrients in the poop, he'll eat it. He might not be lacking anything, but it's there in the poop anyway, so may as well go for it. Don't count on him growing out of it. That's what vets say about chewing too, and a lot of dogs never grow out of that.

Foods with fillers will produce very tasty poop. The more corn in the food, the more goes right through undigested. Don't think of it as eating poop, think of it as the dog trying to get the most of the food, because he's not getting it all on the first try (probably won't the second try either). If you really want to end this, on top of the training that Lucky suggested, you can try switching to a food without corn.;)

I dont know about looking for nutrients or growing out this habbit we find so disgusting. But my GSD used to try cow pie and rabbit currants. One day while out she came trotting back with cow pie dripping from her her jaws, I grabbed her rough and with my head above hers growled a very firm NO! BAD GIRL !!! :mad: She has been free of this for 3 yrs now.;)

Oops! I was sure I was told that feces eating was a sign of nutrient deficiency... does it apply to older dogs? or cats?

I'm gonna stick to what I know best... =^..^=
:cool:

Bailey did this when he was about the same age. Like others suggested we taught him the "leave it" command and it worked well. Also, we always tried to clean up after him ASAP. If there's no temptation it's that much easier to help him learn IMO.

Oops! I was sure I was told that feces eating was a sign of nutrient deficiency... does it apply to older dogs? or cats?

I'm gonna stick to what I know best... =^..^=
:cool:
It can be a sign of a nutrient deficiency, but usually if a dog is lacking something, it craves a particular food with it. Like the dane that used to be a member here couldn't digest meat protein and every time her owner was eating veggies, she'd ask for some and when she got some would wolf them down. She just showed an obvious craving for veggies. Feces have a bunch of nutrients that a dog wouldn't crave if they were lacking in just one. The dog would move on to a source that was really dense in whatever nutrient it was lacking. In theory. ;)