Hi

I have read with interest some posts on here regarding coprophagia and the links to various diets.  I have three boxers fed on Royal Canin/Chudleys and I have never experienced and problems relating to them eating their own  poo.  My husband has a labrador pup who he is training to be a gundog.  He has fed her on Skinners as this seems to be a popular choice with the gundog fraternity.  She has always seemed obsessed with eating the boxers' poo and has recently started eating her own also.  I was horrified by this as I had never seen it in the boxers.  My youngest boxer has always been fussy and a nightmare to put weight on.  I decided to try her on Skinners young dog formula as it has a higher fat/oil and energy content than the food she is normally on.  This went well initially - she appeared to like it better than her old food thereby eating more of it and putting a bit of weight on............but you guessed it she has just starting eating faeces.  This cannot be a coincidence.  There must be a mineral or vitamin lacking in the Skinners formula.  Some people have suggested Vitamin B.  Skinners is twice as expensive as Chudleys so to then add extras to it seems a bit much.  Royal Canin has always been my preferred choice, but it gets prohibitively expensive with 4 dogs (even when on the breeders scheme).  I agree with many of the posts on here that relate to dry food alone not being the best choice and I do add healthy fresh extras to their meals.  I would be interested to hear of similar experiences.

x x

My dog is currently on Skinners Field & Trial Salmon & Rice and I've had no problems - so far! :)  He has never shown a tendency towards eating poo though.

Hi Annie

Thanks for sharing your experience.  How long has your dog been on Skinners?  Has it always been fed on Skinners?  The Labrador has been fed on Skinners since weaning and has always eaten poo (now six months old) the Boxer has never eaten poo and was not fed on Skinners until two weeks ago and has now started eating poo.  The Skinners we are feeding is a puppy formula so maybe the one you feed is better balanced in terms of vits/mins.  The only other thing I can think of is that the Boxer is copying the behaviour of the Lab, but why so suddenly?  I am going to put her back on her old food and see if it stops.  Will keep you posted. x x

My boy is about 2.1/2 and has been on Skinners for about the last 4-5 weeks, before that he was raw fed which I hope to return to.  Won't go into the reasons for the (hopefully temporary) change of diet as too lengthy!  I did have a dog once who did eat poo and I'm not convinced it is always diet related - I think some dogs just enjoy doing it (yuk!).  I would hope that manufacturers would pay particular attention to getting the right balance of vitamins/minerals in puppy food so wouldn't expect adult food to be more balanced than puppy food.

Certainly worth thinking about changing the diet to see if the behaviour changes.  Good luck! :)

My elderly Goldie, as a pup, would eat his own poo and although he grew out of it to some extent it only really stopped when I changed to a raw diet (he was 13 at the time!). I am convinced it is to do with the undigested parts of the commercial foods and down to the grains in them. My current pup is also a poo eater and I'm in the process of changing her over to a raw diet, so I'll see if she stops then. I think it is pretty common amongst Goldies and Labs, born dustbins!

I know of people who have fed Skinners F&T Muesli Mix for years and their Flatcoat (Now dead) used to eat his own poo and any other dogs he could get a hold off.   Turning my stomach just thinking about it.

My flatcoat used to eat his poo, but he wasn't fed on Skinners. Trained him out of it - but he is a glutton! ;)

try adding pineapple to their diet, it is supposed to stop them

I used to walk a flatcoat that was fed on burns and it ate any poo going (maybe its a breed thing)

As for skinners, ive just changed Alf onto it (he was putting on too much weight with BARF)  and so far he hasnt been eating poo, my friend feeds her 4 munsterlanders on it and as far as im aware they dont eat poo.

Personally just scanning through the ingredients of Skinners it's a bit too heavily cereal based for me and not enought fat for my Munsters.   I find 15-18% fat content keeps them at a good weight.     I'm weary of cereal based foods in breeds that can bloat.

>try adding pineapple to their diet

This is only supposed to make their own unpalatable,not sure about other animals poops. The only other connection i can see with pineapple is that it has enzymes.Enzymes help when they arent digesting their food properly,and by the sounds of it this skinners food doesnt seem to be very bioavailable/digestable.

My only advice would be to change foods,it is not a natural behaviour for dogs to eat their own species or that of other carnivores droppings.

Pineapple does stop them eating their own poo and it could help by feeding it to the other dogs in the family.

Dogs do eat poo, some puppies are especially partial to horse poo, which I know can be dangerous if the horse has been wormed - fatal even.  I feed raw and know my dogs are getting all the correct vits, minerals etc but one was particularly partial to horse poo and we had to be extrememly careful on our walks.  I have also seen dogs eat fox and rabbit poo, so while it may not be normal, it is certainly by no means unusual.

I think Ktee was referring to carnivores, which isn't normal as such, whereas eating herbivores poo is by no means unusual (please correct me if I'm wrong), which is why I think a lot of dogs fed cereal-based foods tend to eat their own poo because of all the undigested cereal-matter.

ive heard that some puppies eat poo because they see their mother do it. or something along the lines of that

I agree hayley123

I have had four litters over the years, two bitches with two litters each (both labs). The first bitch cleaned up after pups until the were about 3 weeks then it was my job!!! None of these pups ate poo. But the second bitch would clean up after her pups right up until they left home, quite a few of these pups went on to eat poo, one of them is now 3/12 years old and will still bring it to me although he does not eat it anymore. I seem to think it became a learned behaviour from mum.

As for the pineapple, it seems to work but I have only given it to the dog that does the eating. She was 5 mths whe I got her and would follow other dogs and eat it as they done it but giving her a pineapple slice everyday seems to have done the trick, if you try it make sure its in its own juice and not syrup.