Sudden Coprophagia

[caudex]

The word sounds so much prettier than its definition...

We've been feeding raw since July. About two weeks ago, we noticed Scarlett was lingering outside...discovered it's to dig up frozen treats. Yay.

My googling says, "The best treatment for coprophagia is a raw diet! Most see it resolve completely!" So that doesn't help.

We used our spreadsheet today and she's got plenty of organ, which was the first suggestion on my raw fed page. Maybe even a little high right now. Pretty well balanced, actually.

Any suggestions? Something she's deficient in? Current diet features chicken, turkey, beef, salmon, tripe, the odd bit of venison and duck, coconut oil, turmeric, and sodium ascorbate for her HD.

 

[Smokeycat]

It might just be the fact that it's frozen. The only time Kryten has ever eaten his poop was as poopsicles. Thankfully he seems to have outgrown it as it hasn't been an issue at all this winter but the last 2 were filled with watching him and telling him to drop or leave it.

 

[musicdeb]

How much are you feeding the pup? The pup should be eating 2-3% of expected adult weight. The food should be 80%meat, 10% meaty bone and 10% organ meat.

I would recommend picking up the feces as soon as the event occurs.

Teach your pup “Leave it”. When you see the pup approaching anything you want the pup to ignore, including feces, say "leave it." When the pup 'leaves it", reward with motivational reward.

You can use taste deterrents on feces. Try finely ground black pepper, crushed hot pepper, Tabasco® sauce, or Grannick*s Bitter Apple® spray or gel. Apply the deterrent consistently to all feces that the pup can access for a period of time (weeks or months) so the pup comes to expect that all feces taste horrible. Restrict the pup's access to water for 10 to 20 minutes after tasting the deterrent or the water will counteract the bad taste.

 

[caudex]

We have a pretty nifty spreadsheet built that calculates our ratios based on the food we feed, musicdeb. She is getting exactly what she should.

A couple of other places have mentioned the being frozen as the cause. I think that seems pretty possible. I just wanted to make sure there was no nutrional reason.

I don't think there is a condiment made that would deter Scarlett. She's eaten Siracha AND bitter apple spray and looked for more, haha.

 

[DennasMom]

Our sweet Denna did the same thing.... was "normal", until we started feeding raw, then decided poop was tasty.

Denna tends to go after hers when it has fruit and veggies in it, especially carrots or apples - which come out pretty much looking the same as they went in, so I figured it just looked like a "re-treat".

We didn't find a cure - other than a lot of supervision, a lot of "leave it" and getting very good at cleaning up piles QUICK (we have a great clean-up station setup now, which was a nice side-effect of the issue). She got out of the habit, for the most part... but sometimes she hangs out in "that" corner of the yard a little too long, and I know I've missed a pile.

The only thing I could hang my hat on, was that Denna started eating poop about the time she hit pre-puberty (6-8 months)... so maybe it was a female "keep the nest clean" instinct??