I have a six week old and she eats her poop. Can you tell me why and what to do to stop it?

This puppy isn't even old enough to be away from her mother, so I really hope for your sake and the pup's that Mom dog is with you too!

This is a somewhat common behavior for very young puppies, they, like human babies can be prone to putting what ever they FIND in their mouths!

And six weeks is about when Mom dog starts STOPPING her clean up of poop for her babies.

The number one fix is that you need to be diligent at picking up poop and cleaning up any urine or poop coming out of the pup as fast as you can! They'll step in it if nothing else, and that's nasty too!

Secondly, Level headed is mistaken. Commercial dog and cat food IS lacking in what dogs, puppies, cats and kittens are DESIGNED TO EAT!

http://www.api4animals.org/facts.php?p=359&more=1

http://www.homevet.com/petcare/foodbook.html

Both of these animals are designed to eat RAW MEATS, BONES AND ORGANS. This is what they digest the best, and what their bodies get the most value from.

Pricey brands such as Iams work very hard to convince us as consumers that they are the best feeds for our companion animals, but when you start to study and research and learn....you find out differently.

http://www.skylarzack.com/rawfeeding.htm

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawfeeding/

http://www.rawfeddogs.net/Recipes

Raw chicken has the softest bones of all, and is usually easy for a puppy (or even an adult dog) to start with first....

REMEMBER RAW BONES ARE SAFE.....COOKED BONES (ALL OF THEM) ARE DANGEROUS...COOKED BONES SPLINTER, RAW BONES MASH UP NICELY!

Do not forget training either...using negative training for your house training (yelling, smacking being scary to the puppy) can teach the puppy to eat its own poop in an effort to keep you from finding it and being upset and scary.

Email me for a free copy of Potty 101 (my email addy is in my profile) This is the FUN way to house train your puppy with POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT!

If this puppy has already been removed from its Mother and siblings...you may face a few unexpected challenges.....Puppies learn a lot from their Mom and from each other from ages six weeks to 12 that can not quite so easily be taught by humans...but you can learn some of the tricks to help her learn what Mom and her sibs would have taught her!

This has to do with correct behaviors, not actual "tricks" dogs can do. Feel free to email me with any questions you may have.
Wags!

Here is a photo of my Kitten Saylore with his FIRST EVER chicken leg last spring, his first meal with us...while my dog, Hannah, prays we'll be temporarily struck deaf and blind so she can steal his dinner! Saylore decided that a BOWL was NOT NEEDED for this meal! lol

A raw chicken breast with the bone in, would be the easiest thing for a pup this age to eat, and you can also smash it with a mallet (or a meat tenderizer) a couple of times to start. If you read over the web sites I posted, you'll learn everything you need to know about Raw Species Appropriate diets...my dogs STOPPED craving Cat Poop after we switched them over!

This depends on the dog. I've heard from vets that they do this because their bodies are lacking something. I say BS. I feed my dogs IAMS canned dog food mixed with some dry, plus a multiple dog vitamin and one dog will eat poo and the other one does not. What I suggest is, remove it with a scooper as soon as you see it.

can be lack of vitamins or minerals. Try putting a tiny bit of crushed pineapple in her food,will make her poop smell unpleasent,that she will not want to eat it again.