Why Dogs Eat Poop And Other Things
Original article by S. Veigel 04/06/2016
Revisited May 30, 2020 (with additional facts and perspective)
Before you freak out about Pica behavior and spend a lot of money, we need to talk.
When I’m speaking to someone about dogs and I say something like, “Well, dogs do eat poop” I’m not saying it because I encourage it with my dogs. I’m just stating a fact. And I generally get two reactions, regardless of whether I’m speaking to an educated professional or an average dog owner. The first reaction is a wrinkled up face in concert with the expression, “Oh, yuk” and/or “My dog doesn’t eat poop”. It may also at times include some nutritional suggestions. But then I’ll mention that dogs find cat poop to be extremely desirable and the second reaction will often be something like, “Oh, yes. I can’t keep my dog out of the cat box” or, “Oh yah, they do love cat poop”. Then there are all the special foods, pills and training tips “guaranteed” to stop your dog from eating poop. And at the same time I’ll read articles describing how abnormal it is if your dog does eat poop and how this is a disorder. Did I miss something?
Important note: Don’t let your dog get interested in other dog poop on a walk. I’m not advocating for letting your dog eat it. You don’t know what kind of parasites they might pick up. Most of the time they’ll just sniff it for information about the previous owner, but get them to leave it and move along.
Let me quote for you 2 statements. I’m not going to give you the source because, if the statements are eventually edited, I’m not trying to pick on people. I just want you to pay attention. Also, these statements have been bouncing around in a virtual echo chamber web page after web page ad infinitum. So it wouldn’t be fair to reference just one author.
Statement 1]: “Eating things that are not food, like dirt and grass, is a disorder called ‘pica’. This can indicate boredom or a poor diet. A dog who eats poop is coprophagic. Coprophagia can indicate parasites, pancreas problems, boredom or poor diet”.
Statement 2]: Eating poop is “not considered to be normal dog behavior”.
Starting with statement 2, because that is the simplest to answer, this is a delicate way of addressing human sensibilities. The wording “not considered to be normal” is more of a human preference than a fact based on observing animal behavior. It’s ok to state that many people feel this way but a more direct answer to the original question, “Why DO dogs eat poop?” is subsequently required.
Now statement 1. Do you get the idea from reading statement 1 (above) that all dogs who eat dirt, grass and poop are suffering a mental or physical disorder? Do the words “Pica” and “Coprophagia” sound like really scientific physiological or psychological abnormalities you should worry about? If your neighbor had a dog that ate dirt, nibbled grass and liked poop would you think that neighbor was mistreating that animal or giving it terrible food (without any other corroborating evidence)? “Oh no! My dog has Coprophagia! I think my neighbor’s dog has Pica!”
Pica is a general category of appetites with many subtypes. Pica basically means “eating things that are non-nutritive or not considered to be food” (Wikipedia). Ever chew ice? Under the Pica heading eating ice is “pagophagia”. If all you knew was that pagophagia meant eating ice you might wonder about that. But no, chewing some crushed ice with your drink doesn’t qualify as a disorder. Think of these terms as sort of a scientific/medical shorthand. When a doctor, for example, reads the word pagophagia in a medical report it usually implies an obsessive-compulsive behavior. In this case it’s worth noting, may indicate some other medical issue and/or might result in associated health risks (like your teeth).
The word coprophagia comes from the Greek words “copros” meaning “feces” and “phagein” meaning “to eat”. Coprophagia is a subtype of a general category called Pica. So you don’t say pica as eating dirt (like statement 2 above) without qualifying it. The Pica subtype for eating dirt is actually “geophagia”, not Pica. Other subtypes under Pica are, but not limited to: Metallophagia (eating paint, drywall or metal), Lithophagia (eating stones), Onychopagia (biting your nails) and Geomelophagia (eating raw potatoes).
Personally I like to peel a potato, sprinkle salt on it and eat it raw. It is then salty, crunchy and moist with a subtle potato flavor. That does not mean I am geomelophagic because it is not an obsessive-compulsive behavior, does not indicate I may have a contributing health problem and it’s not a “disorder” just because I might snack on one. Ever eat limestone or feed an animal limestone? Probably not but it also doesn’t make you lithophagic if you’ve ingested Dicalcium Phosphate, which comes from limestone, in your vitamins (for example) or otherwise used the powder as a source of calcium. Ever use “Pink Salt”? Pink salt is chock full of minerals that come from dirt; minerals your body is made from. You’re not geophagic, are you? Could all these words be relative to the species and the application?
Technically speaking a Dung Beetle is “Coprophagic”. But this is not a “disorder” because Dung Beetles are supposed to eat dung (poop). Other creatures who eat poop include, but are not limited to, Beetles (of all sorts), Flies, Rodents (including squirrels), Guinea Pigs (Cavies), Baby Elephants, Pigs, Rabbits, Wolves, Dogs, Koala’s and Gorillas.
Note: Rabbits don’t just eat poop. The first pass of their food is excreted from an area of the digestive tract between the large and small intestines called the “cecum”. The excrement is an aromatic substance called “cecotropes”. This is actually partially digested vegetable matter. The rabbit then eats the cecotropes to complete digestion. Sort of an external version of a cow with four stomachs and how they “chew their cud”.
Everything in nature is geared toward survival. From the bottom up animals didn’t always evolve immediately to have everything they needed at birth. One of the priorities for survival is Symbiotic Bacteria (Gut Flora) to aid in digestion and to strengthen the immune system. In human babies Gut Flora takes about 1 to 2 years after birth to develop adequately. But humans evolved to take advantage of antibiotics, probiotics and a wide variety of cheese (good bacteria) and other foods. Animals don’t have that luxury. And they don’t analyze their food source. If it smells like something they need, they’ll eat it.
In animals, Symbiotic Bacteria/Gut Flora is often acquired from the mothers poop. And then there’s the fact that no digestion is a perfect 100%. After eating an animal there is still protein and other nutritional benefits that can facilitate the survival of other animals who come along and then eat that poop. And nature – the animals – are often good at taking advantage of that. Another reason for eating poop is cleaning the den. Baby animals are sometimes hidden in dens and eating poop not only keeps the den clean it also provides the mother with some nutritional value. A male wolf (for example) will bring food back to the den but the frequency and even the expectation that food will be provided is not always guaranteed.
Important note: Contrary to some misconceptions echoed in articles, wolves do not eat stomach and intestinal content. They eat meat. And they will eat poop.
Can’t Coprophagia indicate an ailment? Of course it can. And if you suspect there’s a problem developing you should have your dog evaluated by a veterinarian. But eating dirt, nibbling grass and eating poop is not necessarily indicative of anything. Drinking water is considered normal, but an increase in drinking water could indicate an ailment known as Cushing’s disease or something else causing an increase in thirst (like feeding your dog pickles – which does happen but you absolutely should not do). Eating poop – by itself – is not necessarily more indicative of a problem when it involves animals than drinking water is.
Some dogs really like food and other dogs are pickier. Some breeds (like hounds) statistically have a higher percentage of interest in the matter. Some dogs grew up watching other dogs eat poop and acquired a taste for it. Other dogs may spend most of their life in a more controlled environment where the opportunity to explore it wasn’t provided or where they were given the command “No!” anytime they even sniffed it. But to make an empirical statement that this animal behavior indicates boredom, poor diet or an illness is just disingenuous in my view. It makes for a lot of worried people who don’t need to be worried. They just need to clean it up. It also sells a lot of “remedies”.
My response to an over-used statement on the web citing a study: You can increase a dog’s desire to eat poop if you isolate a dog from humans and then deny nutritional benefits, because there is food value in the poop. However, you cannot conclude this is “the reason” therefore that dogs in general eat poop. The behavior of a dog begging for treats is not alone indicative of a substandard meal.
In the past 25 years alone (not including non-sequential years) I have had dogs with no Thyroid, dogs we knew had various types of cancer, two dogs with Cushing’s disease, rescued dogs, healthy dogs raised as pups and Charlie, who was an absolute mess. During these years we would have 3 to 5 dogs at a time and I’ve observed dogs who would not touch poop, dogs who only ate cat poop and dogs who would get excited seeing a fresh deposit. In all these years I’ve tried pills to stop dogs from eating poop (usually containing Cheyanne pepper), a special cheese, food additives, pineapple and bitter apple; none of which ever stopped a dog from eating poop if that dog had an acquired taste for it. A dog may leave it alone if I’m standing there, but if it really likes it that dog will snatch it up in a heartbeat and run under a bush to eat it before I can clean it up.
FYI: Though I’ve seen it suggested otherwise, the dog I mentioned above that had no testable thyroid activity didn’t like poop (unless it was cat poop).
The good news is dogs have a great sense of smell and they tend to be very selective. I’ve seen them walk around the yard and ignore older poop. I suppose there are some other products I haven’t tried to stop a dog from eating poop but I’m just not going to freak out about it. If I have to walk around the yard sprinkling hot sauce on poop to keep them from it, I’m just going to tell them to leave it while I go clean it up. Otherwise, they’re dogs. Give them the best nutrition you can find, but don’t be disappointed if the food or additive doesn’t change their behavior.
A Final Note about Eating Grass and Dirt
A dog’s life is all about smell and taste. They can smell things we can’t. When I see my healthy well fed dogs appearing to eat dirt I most often notice that they’re going to regular preferred locations. Not just any dirt in the yard. Then, on closer inspection, I find that they’re nibbling small roots or organic materials in the dirt; including fungi. People eat certain mushrooms (fungi) and other fungi are used in producing quality probiotics. Often my dogs like to nibble grass. They especially like broad leaf grass in the morning when there’s a cool dew on the grass. Grass contains chlorophyll. We eat vegetables containing Chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is good for the pancreas and people even use chlorophyll to treat pancreatic problems. My dog Ginnie especially likes yellow leaves in the fall. Yellowing leaves occur when a tree stops producing chlorophyll. Yellow leaves are yellow because the pigment is now carotene. There’s disagreement over whether a dog’s digestive system can turn that into beta-carotene, but she likes it.
So before people ascribe the term “disorder” to animal behavior maybe we need to look closer and understand it from the animal’s perspective. Maybe we need to see what they’re actually smelling in the dirt. Just because an appetite fits into a Pica category it doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a problem. If a dog nibbles a little grass, it’s not. If it becomes anxious or obsessive about it, the dog may have an upset stomach and is using the grass to cause vomiting.