In article , Katra wrote:
I've only had the problem with whippets.... (especially the female) and
I no longer have those. The Shelties don't seem to be interested, but i
feed only Purina kibbles at the moment, and they don't really have
access to the kitty boxes any more...

Some breeds need more protein, which tends to increase the problem.

Ha, back when I lived in the boonies in Montana, and had an outhouse,
I had a bitch whose most favourite thing in the world was to dig under
the back wall and "clean out" the sump. Yicch!!
Ew! I've read about pigs doing that too. :-P

Oh yes, anything with protein in it, pigs will eat (including each
other).


K. (who has had to deal with coprophilic dogs... sigh)
If you have more than 5 dogs you hit a behavioural threshold where
one or more of them will ALWAYS exhibit copraphagy. Generally, if
given a choice (but not access to some other species), they consume
from whomever is immediately above them in the social ladder. Some
kennel dogs get so if they see their favourite target squat, they run
over and gobble it before it hits the ground
Rilly? Wow.

Kennels teach one a great deal about effluvia

We have 4 dogs of our own, (2 and 1/2 sheltie (one is a crossbreed) and
a border collie) and I've not seen them consume each others poop. We
police every couple of days, but they will eat from the compost if they

Accessability, remember! Since they can get at the compost, they don't
feel the need to consume from one another's leavings. And with only 4
dogs, you're below the social threshold point. Some dogs will eat
dirt instead, but you'll notice they have a particular patch of dirt
that they eat from all the time, not just random dirt.

can! I try to prevent that as Willow has gotten really sick a couple
of
times from doing that. :-(

Yeah, my tenant's Golden sometimes gets "toomuchhorseshititis" from
chowing down at the manure pile (even tho it's bone dry and a couple
years old now, and most nearly resembles lumpy lawn clippings). Screws
up the balance of intestinal flora and the dog gets the trots. A
couple days of metronidazole (or pretty much any handy oral
antibiotic, which kind isn't critical) takes care of the problem --
you don't want to kill all the gut bacteria, just reduce the total
load to normal levels. You can order metronidazole as "Fish-Zole" from
wholesale pet supply outfits. I usually use valleyvet.com

~REZ~