My labbie simply adores eating grass and has done this from a very young age, she will happily munch and graze away all day if I let her and has a particular liking to reeds.  her friend a JRT is the same and we wonder if they have some cow in both of them.  However, I am wondering whether grass eating is linked to her food, or a lack of a vitamin, I have also heard that they eat grass to make themselves sick although this rarely happens with her, she just seems to like it.  Could it be that there is something lacking in her diet or in the Burns food that might make her do it as the JRT is also on Burns.
Many thanks

Thats very interesting and I will wait for the replies because Alice is fed on Burns and she loves to eat grass too.  I haven't put the two together but it could be interesting.

CarolW

my dog grazes like a sheep and she too is fed on burns.

My two are raw fed and enjoy grazing too :)

Sorry to disrupt the flow of the thread :D :D

Mine are fed on Arden Grange and they love eating grass too....

Don't think there's any relationship bet food and grass eating!

Don't think there's any relationship bet food and grass eating!

I do :) Course, there are other reasons,but craving  certain minerals,lack of fibre in the diet,lack of greens and/or the vitamins they contain in the diet can all be contributing factors.

An easy way to tell if this is the case is by adding green vegies or something like easy green/keepers mix(dorwest herbs),Alfalfa,barley/wheat grass etc to their diet and see what happens ;)

This isnt the first time I've  heard Burns and grass eating in the same sentence,so i would definately be trying the above if i fed burns.Even if your dog doesnt eat grass,adding one of the above things can only be of benefit :)

Hmm, I disagree there's a connection.  New grass is incredibly sweet - have you ever eaten it yourself?  It is very high in sugar and quiet tasty actually, especially if you suck out the sweet part in the middle.  I'm not surprised if my dogs find it tasty too!

Don't know if it's anything to do with Burns, because I don't feed it. But my dogs have all eaten grass (one grabs mouthfuls of lawnmowings, given the chance), and all are fed on a very varied diet, including pulped vegetables. In fact, when we went to stay with a relative with a dog, which had never shown any interest in grass-eating, that dog saw what mine were doing and copied, and carried on for the rest of his life! As long as the grass (or young wheat, which is also very tasty!) hasn't been sprayed with anything it'll do no harm - but there might be 'problems' at the other end when it emerges! :D

Both my dogs are fed on Burns (have tried others but keep coming back to Burns ;) ) and neither have ever tried eating grass. 

I had a Tibetan Terrier once, who watched our rabbit eating grass and then 'pretended' to eat grass :D :D  he used to bite it and spit it out and hide it under his paws :D :D  (he also hid tablets under his paws when we had to give him them :) )

I've known lots of dogs who eat grass, doesn't seem to make any difference what food they're on :)

Mine have a taste for the spring/summer grass; don't eat it at any other time of year.  They have been fed lots of different diets over the years including Burns.   Didn't make a blind bit of difference.  I agree with 123, new grass is very sweet and tasty too.

  JG sounds like you've had the experience of pulling very long pieves of grass out your dogs bum too

My dog is fed on autarky and loves the fresh new grass but then again he eats anything.
Gill

It is interesting isn't it whether there is a link or not.  I know that my dog has known the JRT since pups and they both started to eat grass at similar times.  I would like to actually add something like seaweed to her diet but I don't want to upset her tum.  Which actually brings me to my next question.  As labs as with many other breeds can have a tendency to put weight on easily I am very careful with what I give her but I do wonder whether she can get bored of Burns chicken and rice every day and I often add some tuna or egg to it but I am not sure what I can and can't give her in her food.  What would be nice and healthy to add in to the burns to make her diet more varied.  I don't want to really add other dog food in because of stomach upsets etc but fresh things would be good.
Also is it true that seaweed can turn a dogs nose from brown to black?

can you just change the variety of Burns to give your dog some variation.  When mine is looking like a bit of a porker (less exercise or extra biscuits) we change to Burns high oats which is even better for wieght control.
I'm sure there is seaweed in some of the Burns flavours so this might not cause an upset tum if its already present in smaller quantities

>What would be nice and healthy to add in to the burns to make her diet more varied<

Where to start,where to start :D Pretty much anything that is healthy for us,is healthy for our dogs,except the obvious onion,chocolate,grapes and raisins.

You can add chicken,beef,lamb,tinned fish(sardines,mackarel),yogurt,cottage cheese,sweet potato,pumpkin,liver,heart,green tripe(all dogs flip for tripe). And anything else you can think of :)

don't want to really add other dog food in because of stomach upsets etc

Has your dog actually had tum upsets with changes of food??As most people rotate different foods as well as add fresh stuff to add variety and to ensure the dog is getting the widest array of nutrients.
What about naturediet? They do a sensitive version,as well as other flavours.

but I do wonder whether she can get bored of Burns chicken and rice every day

Would you get bored eating the same food everyday? ;) I think it is a gargantuan myth that dogs dont need variety or appreciate it,even.Ofcourse they will eat whatever you put before them,because they have no choice.They deserve the same consideration as we would give our children IMHO! I wouldnt expect my kids to eat the same meal everyday,and i dont force my dogs to do this either!
You will get the smart dogs who some people may call fussy,but i think they are just clever little mites letting their owners know that they are sick of the same old thing and demand a change!Some people advise  the tough love method(i've been guilty of this on occasion :( ),but i prefer to listen to my dogs :)

Also is it true that seaweed can turn a dogs nose from brown to black?

Yep,it has been known to work.

snap JG mine is always in the compost getting mowings out that have turned more silage like :rolleyes: then we have the lovely camouflage poops at the end! just great at least he tries to cover them up :-D He isn't fed on burns either, proplan and always has been!

>always in the compost getting mowings out that have turned more silage like<

Isnt eating grass mowings dangerous? Or am i thinking of horses? I know it is not advised for some animal...

why would it be dangerous it is only grass that has been cut

perhaps not so much dangerous as not wise (may give an upset tummy) depending on the stage of the compost. fresh mowings..no probs. But mature compost, the decaying matter may harbor toxic molds, fungus, Salmonella, and possibly even Clostridium botulinum, a bacterium that produces the toxin that causes botulism.

I must add that i ONLY put grass mowings in the compost and it has only been there for about 3 weeks now! I do stop this tendency when i see him! but he sometimes just makes a b-line :rolleyes:

Lawn mowings are supposedly dangerous for horses because it's reputed that they ferment in their stomachs and cause colic (and can also have mower-oil etc on them). Dogs and ruminant animals don't seem to be affected this way though.

>Lawn mowings are supposedly dangerous for horses because it's reputed that they ferment in their stomachs and cause colic <

Yep thats it :) Has anyone heard of grass clippings causing bloat? I dont know why,i vaguely remember reading something about this and dogs,but i'm not 100% sure :rolleyes:

Yes, but in cattle

My dog is always scoffing grass even though i put hokka mix on his food which contains loads of herbage, i think he sees going for a walk as a trip to a big salad bar :D

My friend had an elderly lab who used to eat soil when being fed Burns. If he was changed to any other food he stopped doing it and as soon as he was back on the burns he began eating soil again so I think there could be something missing in the burns that they need.
My own dogs all started to eat dog poos including their own when I fed them on burns, changed to a raw diet and they have never done it again, except for once when visiting a friends dog's house who was fed on, you guessed it Burns! It seems to me that a lot of dogs are unable to digest whatever is in the burns food first time round and this may lead to eating grass, soil or poos in my opinion.