Poop Eater

Question
Four month old female black lab not yet spayed seems to go out of her way to eat poop. Has 3 parvo shots.Is she lacking something in her diet? Feeding her Iams puppy food.


Answer
The best solution to stool eating, coprophagy, is cleaning them up before the dog has a chance. You can try food additives, the home remedies pineapple juice or canned pumpkin or the commercial products Forbid or Deter.

Why dogs do it is poorly understood. It may be diet related, but changing the dog's diet might cause worse problems. Whatever problems it causes for the owner, it doesn't seem to hurt the dog unless you are trying to clear up a worm infestation.

For more information see http://home.gci.net/~divs/behavior/coprophagia.html

For the sake of her joints, I would switch to the adult formula now.  There is nothing wrong with Iams, but switching to the adult version may make the problem worse. Some of my puppies have started it after switching to adult chow.  Often they out grow it.  Bad hips only get worse with age.