Coprophagia

Causes of behavior

1. Maternal behavior: After the mother dog gives birth to puppies, she will lick the genitals and anus of the puppies. In addition to stimulating the puppies to urinate and defecate, she will eat them to protect her health. Keeping the environment clean can also prevent the smell from leaking out and avoid being hunted by other animals. This is a normal maternal behavior.
2. Imitation behavior: The owner often cleans the kennel and the place where he lives. Over time, the dog also cleans up the urine and feces near where he lives. The dog sees other dogs eating poop and learns to eat it. imitate behavior.
3. Improper punishment: The dog is physically punished by the owner after defecating or biting or destroying things, which makes the dog fearful. Therefore, after defecating, it eats the feces and destroys the evidence for fear of being punished by the owner.
4. Replacement behavior: It is natural for dogs to eat feces. Some special smells in feces are what dogs like. The fermented excrement of herbivorous animals is very attractive to them. When they cannot eat such excrement Eat your own or other feces instead.
5. Attract the owner’s attention: If a dog eats feces due to internal illness, the owner will punish it to gain attention. After the internal illness is cured, the owner will scold him for eating feces but continue to do so in order to gain the owner’s continued attention.
6. Behavior of class hegemony: A lower-ranking dog in a group may eat the feces of a higher-ranking dog to show submission.
7. Feeding habits: Some dogs eat several meals a day, and after changing to one meal a day, they eat feces to satisfy their hunger, which leads to this habit.
8. The main reason why dogs eat poop is because of the lack of certain vitamins in the body. Just like cats like to eat mice (deficient in taurine, etc.). Cats will eat certain grasses when they are sick. Once your dog eats feces, it is recommended to go to the pet hospital. There are special medicines or foods that can treat it.

Dogs will eat feces due to lack of nutrients and trace elements

This situation often occurs in puppies, and the probability of adult dogs is very small. Due to the puppies’ They have weak absorption and digestion capabilities and poor gastrointestinal function. After the food is excreted, there are still many nutrients and trace elements that have not been absorbed, and the excreted stool will contain a large amount of protein, carbohydrates and other nutrients, so Xiang is not suitable for them. It is said to have digestible value and is a delicacy. So they sometimes eat the cocks they pull out.

Dogs will eat poop to attract attention due to loneliness

When the owner reacts greatly to the dog eating poop, the dog will have a clear feeling that eating poop will make the owner Pay more attention to yourself. Therefore, some dogs use this method to achieve their goals in order to become the focus or attract the attention of their owners. However, some dogs use this method to eliminate loneliness because they are simply bored to the extreme and want to find some fun. This is most likely to happen in Dogs locked in cages for long periods of time.

Incorrect training methods will cause dogs to develop the habit of eating poop

If people train dogs incorrectly in terms of behavioral responses, dogs can easily react incorrectly. The most common thing is that when the owner sees the dog pooping in a place where it should not poop, he pulls the dog's head, presses the nose to smell the poop, and then reprimands or even hits the dog. The owner thinks that this behavior is telling the dog not to poop, but to the dog it may be that the owner enters the door, sees the poop, gets angry, grabs him, and ends with screaming or beating. The dog will think that to avoid being reprimanded or beaten The only way is to destroy the evidence and eat your own poop.