Coprophagia is the eating of faeces by an animal and is a common complaint of owners to their veterinarians. There has been very little research done on this particular type of behaviour, the veterinarian is usually poorly equipped to give a recommendation to the owner

Possible Causes of Coprophagia

Coprophagia may be due to various medical problems such as exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, pancreatitis, intestinal infections, malabsorptive syndromes and over-feeding (especially high fat content diets). Many of these conditions may have other signs besides the coprophagia in particular, diarrhoea. Coprophagia is usually only a small aspect of these medical conditions.

Different kinds of Coprophagia

A variety of behavioural theories have been put forward as to why canines engage in coprophagia.

Autocoprophagia An animal eating its own faeces.

Intra specific coprophagia An animal eating faeces from another animal within its own species.

Inter specific coprophagia An animal eating faeces from another species i.e dog eating deer, rabbit or cat faeces.

There are several behavioural explanations of coprophagia.

Attention-seeking behaviour When the dog is eating faeces, their owner tends to tell them off and, in doing so, pays attention to the animal. This may be a sequela to a medical condition which initially brought about the coprophagia and, now that the medical condition has cleared, the animal continues to engage in coprophagia in order to get attention from the owner. This is unlikely in well-treated animals as they will have all the attention they crave.


Allelomimetic behaviour The dog observes the owner picking up the faeces and learns from them to do so as well.

Learned behaviour The dog sees other dogs engaging in coprophagia and copies their behaviour, thus learning it from other dogs within the household or those living nearby. But why did the first dog engage in coprophilia ?

Maternal behaviour A bitch with puppies often engages in coprophagia, and this behaviour is normal. The thoughts are that the bitch is keeping the den clean thus preventing the scent of the faeces from attracting predators.

Dominance behaviour Sometimes a submissive dog will consume the faeces of one or more dominant dogs in the same household.

Reinforcement Something about eating the faeces itself reinforces the behaviour. Things such as taste may be a factor in this. It's simply appealing to the dog to eat the faeces, so it does so. This is the likely mechanism in inter specific coprophagia such as eating cat faeces.

What treatments?

We have not tried any of these ‘treatments’ and make no claims about their efficacy, nor do we endorse using any specific products. This is provided merely to inform interested individuals of past treatments for this condition

Deter These are chewable tablets formulated with natural vegetable extract. They are advertised as being safe to feed dogs of all ages including puppies.

Meat tenderizer Adding various enzymes to the diet of a coprophagic animal may help. The idea is that these enzymes break down more of the nutrients in a dog's diet so that it gets adequate nutrition and need not ingest its faeces to gain more.


Bad taste on faeces This is perhaps the most bizarre but supposedly common treatment for coprophagia. Owners are advised to put something like hot sauce on or in their dogs' faeces. The theory is that the dog will consume the treated faeces and will have an aversive response to it (due to bad taste!!!) and will eventually cease the behaviour. For this behaviour to be effective, it must be used 100% of the time. Every faeces must have hot sauce or other noxious tasting element on it or else the dog will not associate the bad taste with eating the faeces. Surely it would be a lot easier to just pick the faeces up ?! ?!

Scolding/Punishment This method of trying to have an animal stop a behaviour is quite common. Barking is a good example - owners think if they scold their pet for barking, it will cease to bark. Punishment almost never works as well as reinforcement, however, and should only be used as a last resort. This may actually lead to more coprophagia as the dog learns that it gets attention (being scolded) if it eats its faeces.

Ignoring Used by owners because they have figured out that their dogs may want attention from eating the faeces, so they ignore the dog when it's engaging in coprophagia.

Pickup This is a by far the best treatment strategy. Preventing access to the faeces in the first place should break the cycle of behaviour. In extreme cases of coprophagia, a muzzle may have to be worn by the dog when let outside, to prevent it from eating the faeces. A muzzle may also be needed when out walking your dog.

Muzzle If the dog engages in this behaviour when unattended, or consumes the faeces directly when it comes out, a muzzle may be a practical solution to the problem. If it is well tolerated and the dog does not have to have it on for extended periods of time, this may be one of the more practical ways to deal with a dog who is coprophagic and un-supervised.



Wait This seems to be a behaviour most often occurring in younger dogs. Many owners report that their dog eventually grows out of it. While not exactly treatment, it is possible that the dog will stop being coprophagic as it ages.

Positive Reinforcement The process of reinforcing another behaviour instead of the coprophagia. When the dog is about to begin eating faeces, the owner can use any variety of commands. "Leave it", "come", "sit", etc. The idea is to distract the dog long enough to allow the owner to pick the faeces up and make the dog forget about the coprophagic behaviour.

Combination It is just about impossible to recommend a single best treatment for coprophagia for all dogs. The mechanism and reasons why dogs engage in this behaviour are unknown, therefore it is not known which behaviour modification therapies will be most effective. A combination of positive reinforcement and picking the faeces up is perhaps the best remedy.

Other chemicals There are no less than several dozen purported chemical treatments for coprophagia, including homeopathic remedies. Some supplements which have been suggested include pumpkin seeds, breath mints, papaya, anise seed, iron tablets and pineapple.

Health Implications

Most of the time, coprophagia is merely a habit that is disgusting to owners but causes no real problems for the dog exhibiting the behaviour. There are some important exceptions to this however. The most critical is the possibility of ingesting internal parasites. Usually this will happen if your dog eats the faeces of unfamiliar, infested dogs or the faeces of wild life (such as deer). If you keep your animals properly de-wormed, the dog eating the faeces of these animals is usually not at risk from internal parasites. However, the possibility of picking up a parasite from a strange animal (especially wild life) is very real, and the dog should be prevented from eating such faeces as much as possible.In addition to internal parasites, organisms such as Toxoplasma gondii are transmitted in some cat faeces. This can cause a dog a variety of problems, including Central Nervous System and muscle damage. Try to keep the dog away from cat faeces as much as possible because of this. It is also possible that the faeces, if left to sit too long, can become infested with fly larvae, foreign bacteria, fungus, etc. It is best to make sure your dog avoids these sources of disease as much as possible. Be sure to keep your dog away from strange faeces when on a walk and clean up any old faeces in your yard as soon as possible.The faecal-oral route can also transmit some important canine viral diseases and infection could result from coprophagia of infected dogs faeces. Hepatitis and canine parvovirus are two important diseases, which can be transmitted in this manner. Fortunately, vaccinated dogs are at little risk.