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My puppy loves to eat grass, dirt, leafs, bugs (alive or dead)

16298 Views 19 Replies 13 Participants Last post by  Dennq, 
S
I have a problem with my puppy eating grass and other stuff. I could get him under control with small stones where I failed and he swallowed about 2 or 3 but I saw them again in his poop without any blood on it so I was a bit more relaxed there.

Anyhow, since three days he is exposed to grass and as a 10 week old, he eats it. Not ton wise but he likes to play with us the few minutes, then he lays down and picks up the tallest grass, and starts picking it in ones or twos and half eating, swallowing, spitting it , God knows when he eats or swallows. I usualy go over and give him a ball or toy after taking all the grass out of its mouth and it works in entertaining him to play instead of grass away, but then again, just for a few moments then the grass eating starts again.

Any suggestions there, will that stop with time ? He is great, in good spirits, eats well, no diarea, I think he is eating it because he was never exposed to it and isn't it nice to have all these millions of grass sticking out of the floor to bite on ? (I think he thinks that)

Any advice,
thanks in advance !
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just another truck
No advice, but my pup did, and sometimes, rarely now, does it still.
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D
My puppy does it too. They're curious...everything is interesting to them.
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Kris10
My husband always said Max processes everything through the mouth! Luckily this has gotten much better now that he is grown.
You have to watch them constantly! What is good is that Max learned to let me reach in and pull things out of his mouth without much protest.
Hehe- one time he was chewing something outside and I reached in there and pulled out an earthworm! Yuck!
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D
Ginger will go after bugs, worms, whatever, but she just brings them to me as a gift, most the time still alive... She caught a few moles out side and brought them to me alive, part of me wishes she would at least kill it before bringing it to me, then I dont have to do the dirty work
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ahazra
my 8.5 week old puppy does the same. Everything goes in their mouth...grass, pine cones, fall leaves, etc. I wouldn't be too worried as this is their exploratory phase. They are learning by trying it out. But I do keep a constant watch to make sure he doesn't try out something that will need an emergency visit...well atleast I try to do that.
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VegasResident
Romeo: Eyes to mouth to stomach...the GSD. This includes trying to eat a wet bee (spitting out twice which is why it was wet), rocks (which luckily he does not swallow), dead bugs, peacock poo (which gives him the runs), grass, dandilions, clovers, paper, ....gee should I go on? Most of the time if I can catch it, I pry open his mouth and either pull it out or shake his head to make the rock drop out.:)
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Kris10
Boy I am glad I didn't pull out a wet bee...
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VegasResident
Kris10 said:
Boy I am glad I didn't pull out a wet bee...
Click to expand...
LOL, it was a surprise... the poor little bee on the ground trying to get away...Romeo picking it up again, wings flutter, spits it out wetter, bee tries to run away....rinse repeat till I finally got to the bee
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4
At four months old, Jackie does the same thing. She eats anything and everything. The most digusting thing was pulling moist cat poop out of her mouth, double yuck!!! It's so hard to play in the yard with her right now since we have outside cats and there is cat poop buried all over our three acres. So I'm clicker training "leave it" and hoping that will help.
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Kris10
Yeah cat poop is a delicacy! I'm glad I have our cat box in a closet with a small doorway that our 2 dogs can't get to.
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S
Vegasresident, you made me cry off laughing. So I guess keeping it with grass and dirt and ants and flies does it for now although I try to catch it during the act and remove it. My worries are the darn small stones... But I keep smart about it.
Thanks for the replies
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4
Our yard is like a cat poop buffet!! I really wish our stray female that we took in didn't end up pregnant before we could get her spayed (actually I think she was pregnant before we took her in). Too many kitties now! But at least they're all safe and cared for. I really hope Jackie learns the "leave it" command very well, lol! Needless to say, we're practicing that one a lot!
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K
our 9 week old thinks she is a squirell she trys to eat more acorns than she does her food
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bocron
Pups do love to explore everything with their mouths. There could also be an issue with his diet, what do you feed him? We have found that when clients complain about their dogs eating weird stuff, if they switch to a higher quality or different protein food the problems goes away.
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S
I feed him Royal Canine Maxi Junior. At this moment he mainly eats : Dirt, Leafs, Ants, Grass, small stones (which I 99% catch), flowers, snails, a gecko last night (I think). But he likes a lot the ant nest. Then I shoveled the ant nest out and where the hole now is, he eats the dirt. I think it is just like some here said : From eyes to mouth to stomach and noway is there a chance I can run to him every single time and take it out of his mouth.
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bocron
Royal Canin is kind of a mixed bag (literally ;)). You might want to look into a higher quality food if one is readily available where you are.
Royal Canin Maxi Dog Food | Review and Rating
Personally, we like Nature's Variety Instinct, Orijen, Acana and Wellness to name a few. There are quite a few really good, grain free options out there that we have heard great things about, the ones I listed are just some that are pretty popular in our area.
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PaddyD
Seems you have a normal puppy. Enjoy him!! Their mouths help them explore the world about them, it's up to you to keep him safe and help him to learn what is acceptable. Mine always seemed most interested in anything I told her to stay away from. She was a real brat, but a lot of fun.
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J
Jordan pounces on passing leaves, chases ants and beatles, eats grass (she only did this while we were switching foods and the vet said it was because she probably had a tummy ache and it was fine as long as our grass didnt have any toxic chemicals on it!). She ate rocks (tiny ones), and i used this as a teaching opportunity... Id say drop it, take it out of her mouth (even if I had to force her mouth open and search for it), then Id click and praise/treat.... she rarely eats rocks.... now she brings them to me :D drops them in my lap and expects a treat :p

The vet said it was ok if the rock were ate as long as they were relatively tiny... I dont think she has ate anything else.... except I made the mistake of leaving a plush toy in her crate that wasnt super super durable and she shredded it, I saw left overs of it in her poo. :-\


Good Luck!!!
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D
My boy Ranger loves frogs!

Don't know what he will snack on when winter comes.
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