eating poo

Have you ever seen a dog - even a puppy - eating its own excrement? I don't think I have. Other mammals? Probably not. Domestic cats usually bury theirs. It's unnatural.

Dogs will eat their own sick, though...

The vomit contains what they've just eaten. Could still be attractive!

Have you ever seen a dog - even a puppy - eating its own excrement? I don't think I have. Other mammals? Probably not.

Three of the dogs I've had have all eaten poo - mainly cow poo but they seemed partial to horse poo as well. I did mention it to the vet when my youngest dog started doing it (and he's taken to eating his own as well about a year ago) and she didn't seem fussed by it all; she didn't give me a reason for him doing it either. It may be considered (by some) to be normal but I find it stomach-turning.

Rabbits eat their own poo to extract the last of the nutrients from it.

You are right elegran and they eat it directly from source via a neat dispenser! It used to make me feel ill when our rabbit did that.

We had a rabbit and a guinea pig who shared a cage - both male. The rabbit used to b****r the guinea pig all day long. Then when the rabbit died the poor guinea pig got dreadfully constipated and my OH (a doc) used to have to put his surgical gloves on and do a manual removal! So the rabbit had obviously been serving a useful function.

Explaining all this to the children and answering their questions was interesting! "Mummy - why is that rabbit doing that to the guinea pig - they are both boys?" - they were not concerned about them being different species!

Who started this thread!!??

And why are we all replying!

Ah lovely,
I am reading this thread with my hands over my eyes.

anyone?

Is it chocolate cake, penguin?

At least horse poo, sheep poo etc is only yesterday's grass

This is getting worse!

!
I haven't admitted this to anyone(except DH and my friend) but a few weeks ago I ate some chicken poo - by mistake.
I had scraped out some leftover rice for them with a fork, dropped the fork on the ground. The handle was sticky so I licked it, thinking it was from the rice, but NO! It was chicken poo
I rinsed out my mouth and scrubbed my tongue, but 3 days later had bad diarrhoea. Luckily not with fever, the Doctor said not to worry.

and worse .....

I have worked with under 5s for years and have never come across a child (or a worried parent of one) who ate poo! I know of babies and v young toddlers who have removed poo from nappies and made a terrible mess but as far as i recall none consumed any! I would check with HV/GP/Practice nurse if it became habitual

My DD pooed in the bath and ate some according to my 1973 journal,

She is 44 years old now and perfectly healthy.

Utterly revolting I never saw such behaviour when I worked with children nor did my DC or GC ever do it. I tend to think that people who ingest unusual substances do so because they are lacking in certain elements of their diet.

lacking in certain elements of their diet.

That's the only reason I could think of when I decided to ask the vet - fat lot of good that did me!

Never mind chocolate cake, I don't think I'll ever be able to eat another Malteser after reading an earlier post

Nelliemoser I was assuming that the flavour was related to the smell. Things usually taste like they smell. eg I don't eat corn on the cob because I don't like the smell.

The answer to the OP is extremely simple - no, no and probably.

No, it isn't ok for children to eat pooh. I find it hard to understand what the OP was about.

Dogs who eat their own pooh should be helped to stop the habit. I've had a few rescue/foster dogs who had the habit on arrival. Ensuring they never have the opportunity to practice the habit, feeding a decent diet, enough exercise and providing a calm, consistent environment sorted the dogs very quickly. Some people say put pineapple in their food, so they dog doesn't eat its pooh, others advise sprinkling chilli powder on a new pooh so the dog has a bad experience. I didn't do either of these things, hasten to add.

Poor old Pooh, his head bumped all the way down the stairs and then some dreadful child could be going to eat him. No, it isn't ok for children to eat Pooh.

I'd actually never seen it spelled 'poo' before I joined this site. Always 'pooh' - never to be confused with the Bear of Very Little Brain, of course...

There is something slightly disturbing about grown-up women using the word poo or pooh.