A dog eating cat litter is not
uncommon despite the fact that it sounds awful. A lot of animals eat
feces including dogs. The dog's objective is not to eat the litter but
the cat's feces, which invariable means eating a bit of litter at the
same time for obvious reasons.
So what is it all about and what can people, who care for both dogs and
cats, do to stop it? Should they try to stop it?
Eating Feces
I won't go into this in detail as I don't think that this kind of
information, in a general sense, is very relevant to this article.
Briefly, the behavior of eating feces is called, Coprophagia. Many species of animal
eat feces. it can involve eating the animal's own feces, the feces of
other animals of the same species and the feces of other species.
Some examples:
Gorillas eat their own feces and the feces of other
gorillas. Reason: to improve the absorption of vitamins and/or other
nutritive elements that are made available during the re-ingestion of
seeds.
Hamsters eat their own droppings. The reason: a
source of vitamins B and K, produced by bacteria in the gut.
Young elephants eat their mother's feces. The reason:
to obtain the bacteria required to properly digest vegetation that is
found in their habitat.
Why Do Dogs Eat A Cat's Feces?
It seems that the experts are not sure of the reason. it has been
proposed1 that it is caused by one or more
of the following:
dog seeking attention or stressed.
obtaining vitamins produced by intestinal bacteria.
cleaning up their area due to incorrect training. The
dog may be fearful of defecating and eat its own feces and the cat's.
scavenging.
removing the scent of feces for natural survival
purposes.
feces are a form of food. Cat food is high in protein
relative to dog food. If the cat is overfeed the cat food might not be
completely digested leaving feces that contains useful protein for a
dog. This may be encouraged if the dog is underfeed.
health problems such as pancreatitis, intestinal
infections and food allergies, as some examples.
The above are hypotheses.
What Can Be Done to Stop It?
There would seem to be three methods to tackle the "problem". And it is
a problem as litter can be dangerous to a dog. It is highly expandable
when wet. A blockage might form in the dog's digestive tract - a
serious condition that can be fatal. There is also the risk of the dog
contracting contracting intestinal parasites, I would have thought.
Solutions:
Find the particular reason why the dog in question is
eating cat litter and remove the cause. This may be difficult as the
reasons in general are not completely understood. A vet might be
usefully consulted.
Physically prevent the dog eating cat litter.
Make the cat's feces unattractive to the dog in
question.
I would like to expand on solutions 2 and 3.
There are products that are available. One is on Amazon and I am sure
that there are other outlets that sell products that prevent dogs from
getting to the litter.
Another nice product is a covered cat litter box that has a built in
entrance that is designed to present a barrier to a dog. It is called
the Litter House (opens in a new window - link broken). The "door"
to the covered litter box is on an angle to the litter inside. I think
that it is this that makes for a barrier to a larger dog. If the method
is that simple, why are there not more of these products on the market?
A dog eating cat litter is, apparently, quite commonplace.
{Please note: sometimes embedded videos go
black because the creator has taken it off YouTube - I have no notice
of this}
I am guessing but the effectiveness of these barriers would seem to be
dependent on the size of the dog. If the dog is the same size as a cat
I cannot see how they can work.
As to making a cat's feces unattractive to a dog, this requires
applying additives to the cat's food2. My
research indicates that this
is not advisable for commonsense reasons, (a) the food becomes
unattractive to the cat and (b) the food may become harmful to the cat
- the cat has very specific dietary requirements. It is important to
not upset the integrity of high quality cat food in my opinion.
Conclusion:
Probably the best and commonsense method to prevent a dog eating cat
litter is to buy the Litter House
cat litter box (a USA product, incidentally). This website receives no
commission on sales by the way!
