Puppy Food - Coprophagia

Rifter

Looking advice on the best puppy food for a Labrador Retriever puppy. Reason being he keeps eating his poop. He has been wormed, it was suggested to me that a food with a higher meat content might help.

I do pick up his poo as soon as he has done it when I can, however it does happen that when in the back garden hes toileted and starts eating it before I get out to him.

Cherry Blossom

How old is the pup and what are you currently feeding?

Rifter

Cherry Blossom wrote: »

How old is the pup and what are you currently feeding?

4.5month old, Burns Puppy food.

Cherry Blossom

Burns is certainly not the worst of foods. You could try something like Acana or Taste of the Wild. Have you tried the pineapple trick?

cannigans is good. i have a lab cross same age as yours is now and hes grand on it. even mix in some sardines

Rifter

Cherry Blossom wrote: »

Burns is certainly not the worst of foods. You could try something like Acana or Taste of the Wild. Have you tried the pineapple trick?

Ill give those 2 a try, eeeem pineapple trick???

Cherry Blossom

Rifter wrote: »

Ill give those 2 a try, eeeem pineapple trick???

You feed the dog a small amount of tinned pineapple with each meal. It make the poo foul smelling and tasting. It works for some dogs and for some it doesn't.

thomas anderson.

Calibra salmon and potatoe

Changed our lives so it did

DBB

The pineapple trick is quite an enduring one... However, its effectiveness has been empirically tested via research and found to be pretty... Well... ineffective .
Personally, I too have found this, I think the only reason that pineapple might stop dogs from trying to eat their poop is because it softens the poop, and a lot of coprophagic dogs won't eat soft poop.
Assuming that there's no malabsorption or other underlying health issue going on, and this is something you'll need to discuss with your vet,
there are commercial products that I've had some success with, including this https://www.petworlddirect.ie/p/vetiq-stool-repel-um-tablets/187045913.
But by far the most successful route in my experience has been a prolonged, strict routine of making damn sure you're with the dog in the garden if there's a possibility he's going to poop. When he poops, call him to you with excitement and give him a lovely few treats... This results (a) in the fog getting into a habit of coming to look for you once he has emptied, rather than investigating his poop, and (b) once they get into a routine of not investigating their poop, they tend to break the habit. But again, if you don't make sure you're right there to intervene, especially in the early days, this won't happen with any speed.
Changing the diet may help... I've also found that some coprophagic dogs, when fed on a very low-poop-producing diet (raw feeding probably best, but a high meat, no-grain option is not bad either), are less likely to try to eat the smaller, much harder poops!

maggiepip

Often a good dog probiotic will stop it, it can be a natural instinct in dogs to eat poo to try to balance their gut bacteria. I've had 2 poo eaters and probiotic have worked on both dogs.

Rifter

Thank you for all the replies, chamged his food to Acana, hes still doing it but not as kuch as before!!

Ill try the anticocrophagia tabs if it persists much longer!!

Bunnyslippers

I had a lab x that used to do this, I even got the hottest chilli powder I could get hold of and he loved it even more!! I tried different foods and nothing stopped him, the good news is he did grow out of eating his own poop, but loved every other kind of poop!!:D

Rifter

Bunnyslippers wrote: »

I had a lab x that used to do this, I even got the hottest chilli powder I could get hold of and he loved it even more!! I tried different foods and nothing stopped him, the good news is he did grow out of eating his own poop, but loved every other kind of poop!!:D

I tried chilli powder, it didnt phase him at all!!

Ive gotten the anticoprphagia tablets and im using those atm.

He also tries to eat sheep and horse droppings when out walking!!

jimf

remember reading an article years ago about this subject

the authors theory was pups weaned to solids from mothers milk later wer more likely to develop this habit something to do with watching mam clean up after them

as ive seen older dogs develop this habit I find it hard to believe

opinions please