I love coal- my muzzle is black now when my owner came home from popping out for 15 mins she was shocked to see i'd changed colour!
Ive told my vet and he's instructed me not to stop doing it- apparently im consuming coal to absorb extra moisture from my system?!
He has known of this once before with a gsd- her owners stopped her and then she became ill!

Want to know if anybodies dog has any familiar odd coal eating habits?...

I now have my own cloth for my sooty nose- anyone got anytips for getting rid of coal!

Flo- the naughty terrier xx

My shepherd pup (now 7 months old) started to get very interested in eating coal when we stayed at my partner's mums over Christmas. She would grab it out of the coal scuttle and run off with it like it was a piece of treasure, and then crunch it all up. I am not sure if this was for a specific digestion reason - we just thought she was being a mischeivous pup, but it is interesting you should say that as she had just had a serious bout of food intolerence which left her with a severe case of the runs. Maybe she was still feeling a bit under the weather when she was doing this, I am not sure, but she was very interested in coal specifically.

All my dogs eat coal, have done for the past 28 yrs (not the same dogs, obviously :D) They'll also steal the cinders out of the fire in the morning & crunch away on them. Doesn't seem to do them any harm & I can burn the poo :D

good- i know now im not alone and that fellow dogs have my habit, i must say this coal stuff really cleans my teeth up too, thanks, Flo x

My dog started eating coal left over in our barbecue last summer. She even tried eating the fake ones in our gas fire (she's only a year old) so we had to secure mesh over the fire!
Interesting that it seems to preceed illness. She developed bad acne at the end of the summer (apparently dobermans are prone to this). We eventually took her to the vets & she was put on anti-biotics for an infection & she was also having her first phantom pregnancy. She became sicker & was losing a kilo a fortnight so we had to have her spade.
Maybe I should let her have access to more coal so she can warn me when she is feeling unwell next time!!

My pup (5 months old) loves coal as well.  I always make sure she doesn't get any of it, because I can't imagine it is good for her.  My husband asked a retired vet (a friend) whether it is harmful for the dog and he didn't think so, he said, it should just pass through.  Mind you, we were talking of tiny flakes and not whole lumps.

Bagpipe

Yep got another coal muncher here too ;)
Kai loves to pinch it from the bucket when he thinks your not looking, the only thing he seems to love better is lumps of peat ( the kind you burn on fires). :D

well- we're getting a little collection here! many more than i thought!

When I was a child our golden retriever regularly ate from the coal scuttle.  Mine will eat charcoal from the BBQ given a chance.  I've never seen ill effects.

My lot enjoy the odd little coal snack if they get the chance.

Coal absorbs toxins in the body I would be very interested to hear what kind of diet these dogs are on and if there are any digestive issue's. I wouldnt think coal would taste very nice,it sounds as if these dogs are self medicating.just like when they go into their owners herb gardens and seem to instinctively know which herb to pinch!
If my dogs were eating coal i would be seriously looking into their diet and what could be causing this strange habit. just my opinion :)

Hi Hailey,

It does seem a strange habit from our point of view - but then most dogs given the chance will munch on rabbit poo or any number of other gross stinky things.  Not something I'd want to be adding to my diet, but they seem to get as excited by that as I do about a nice Chinese meal! :-) My dog Ciara enjoys the odd appetiser of coal - she is on Arden Grange and apart from the odd dodgy tummy incidents there have been no digestive system issues.  Has your doggie ever had access to coal for you to know whether they would eat it or not? cos now thinking about it most doggies I know that have access to it do seem partial.  They are funny little things our furry friends aren't they - although having said that Ciara will often take a sniff of my glass of Iron Bru and then look at me as if to say "ugghh, gross how could you drink that" then baffles me by prefering to take a drink out of a nice muddy puddle when she always has nice fresh clean water at home. :-D

Karen

Hailey

Our kai is on Burns and Naturediet. No digestive issues here :)

Flo is on jwb fishand rice and nature diet- no bad diets here! my vet explained to me that they do it to absorb extra moisture from the system, so if i stop her from doing it, i'd expect her to have diarrhoea?

When I was pregnant with No1 son, I used to nibble on a little piece of coal

One tiny little nugget an evening was absolute heaven :D

My own mum put it down to the fact that my grandfather was an engine driver - apparently she did the same & so did her sisiters!

Margot

it is charcoal that absorbs toxins (Is that the same as coal?)

They give it to kids in hospital when they have eaten somthing nasty!!

it is charcoal that absorbs toxins (Is that the same as coal?)

Good question tennostaffs :) I wonder if i'm confusing coal with charcoal?? :o They also give thsi to dogs that have swallowed toxic stuff to help absorb it.

Yes i have a fire and my dogs have never touched the coal,if they did i would start worrying!

well my vet isnt worrying and he should know, so im not worried either :)

Over 28 yrs my dogs have been on all sorts of diet - hasn't made any difference, they still all eat coal. I think they just view it as very hard dog biscuits.
Only one who doesn't is the Akita and he's the only one who isn't a scavenger (that's not to say he's not a Thief, but that's a different subject) :)

Coal seems to be a highly popular addition to the Jack Russell terrier diet. Or it is round here anyway! He nicks little bits out of the coal scuttle which he prefers to crunch while sat on my OH's pillow! No digestive problems here - he's fed Burns and homecooked meat and poultry.

Ours also used to eat coal throw it about all over the place,we now have gas,so they dont get the chance now.

Sheila.

I'm sure,(but don't quote me on this) that charcoal isn't the same as coal, charcoal is infact wood or other organic matter that is heated with out air present and the moisture been removed. Coal itself is a fossil fuel.  Sorry i can't help anymore, but I think they are 2 seperate things!
Emma

Thanks Emma- this thread is getting rather scientific!
Imsure that if so many dogs are consuming the black stuff then someone wouldve known of any bad sideaffects? interesting though.....