I came home one night and Andy greeted me with what looked like sand on his nose. Upon closer inspection I realized it wasn't sand but kitty litter...at which point it dawned on me that Andy had been snacking on cat turds while we were out. Cat turds! Coprophagia is the technical term for the eating and ingesting of feces. I call it plain disgusting. Coprophagy is fairly common and some would even say perfectly natural. In most instances it's just a nasty habit born of boredom or anxiety; though in others it an be an indicator of a nutritional deficiency.
If your pup is eating poop just for kicks you can buy supplements that will make it taste bad (apparently dogs find it very palatable otherwise). In Andy's case we just had to erect a barrier that would prevent him from having access to the litter boxes. For the first week or so he would sit on one side of the barrier literally smacking his lips while the cats were doing their business. Ew. He's since gotten over it. By the way, does any one else think of Almond Roca candies whenever they see cat turds covered in litter?
cat fecal matter (or rather the bacteria therein) can very dangerous to humans so i wonder if it's the same for dogs. i don't remember reading about that being the case, but just to be on the safe side...
ReplyDeleteand yes on the almond roca.
Andy had watery stool when he was doing this and his poop firmed up soon after he was forced to stop. I haven't read anything specifically about how the bacteria in cat fecal matter affects dogs but I have read that parasites can be passed this way...so turd consumption is never a good thing!
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