# Obsessive grass eating



## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

I need some suggestions for dealing with my pit bull mix's latest obsession - grass. Now I know a lot of dogs like to "graze". In fact, Coke and Legend will also chomp on grass if they are bored or I let them outside and forget to feed them after I've been gone all day. Indy is taking this to a completely different level. 

She has always been absolutely obsessed with food. If I am preparing a snack, she will sit there with her eyes popping out, drooling, and teeth chattering like crazy. I actually cannot use food in certain aspects of her training because she looses her mind. She eats like every meal is the first meal she's had in weeks. She also eats pretty much anything that isn't nailed down when it comes to small objects and debris. She's not destructive in the house, but eats anything small - leaves, woodchips, etc. Acorns are another obsession of hers but luckily we don't have them at home, I only have to deal with that for two weeks while we're at the cottage. Anyway, normally when I catch her grazing I verbally correct her, or if I'm inside I rap on the window and she stops. For a while I didn't think much of it, but starting this week she has now pooped in the house FOUR times (she has never previously had an accident since I've had her) and every time it has been this absolutely rancid poop that is basically like gooey grass. I'm posting this in the behavior section because I really think this is a behavioral issue, like she's neurotic. She is a very energetic, high drive dog and is very sweet with us but she is also pretty soft, sometimes kind of anxious.

So far what I've done is let her out to potty and then put her back inside. I hate doing this though because she has a lot of fun outside with Legend and she also is not a clingy dog, she doesn't mind being outside and napping in the sun, but if I can't literally watch her every second she will quickly start chomping mouthfuls of grass between wrestling matches with Legend or playing with toys. Today it got really hot here and I was outside a lot but working on chores and couldn't be watching her like a hawk so I threw some empty peanut butter containers in the yard. The few times I checked, she was working on those rather than eating grass so that may help, but I won't be able to bait her with treats every time we go out.

I'm just curious if anyone's seen this before and how you handled it. Again, this is not the occasional grass grazing or even puking grass and bile (Coke does that). She is literally inhaling it and when she poops it out, it's like a Great Dane sized poop (she weighs less than 40lbs). She poops 2-3 times a day and they are larger poops than my GSDs,the majority of it looks like a wet bird's nest. Also I'm sick of cleaning up the rancid mess when she has accidents. Up until this week she's been a wonderful dog in the house, either free or in a crate, and had never had an accident.


----------



## GatorBytes (Jul 16, 2012)

Chlorophyll.

Funny, when I added dogs to "chlorophyll in lawn grass"...got this link 3 little Pitties.

This kind of explains, but gives you couple things to try...you could also try spirulina or chlorella - chlorophyll oxygenates the blood.

Why Do Dogs Eat Grass?


----------



## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

Mine are obsessed with the sticks a couple dig for grubs I have noticed more grass eating in the last couple days and I noticed ants. I have been on all of there butts for a while now .


----------



## Lilie (Feb 3, 2010)

My Golden has minor seizures. He always has. They've never been bad enough that the vet wanted to put him on meds. We thought he'd get worse as he aged, but he hasn't. He does have behavioral problems, both with aggression and OCD behaviors. 

One of the things he does when he gets excited is eats grass. Not like a normal dog who grazes, but with a frenzied ripping grass out by the roots type of behavior. He will normally have an object (like a ball or toy) in his mouth, he'll drop it and tear out the grass around the object. He'll ingest as much as he can. This might go one for a minute or two, then he'll pick up the object and run to a different spot and repeat the action. Once he calms down, he'll just play with the toy and forget about the grass. I've never seen him 'graze' like a normal dog.


----------



## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

Maybe she needs to be medicated? I don't know. She's always eaten grass, but this new level of obsession is more recent. She was sick AGAIN last night, poop I mean. I've never seen her throw up anything. Right now I'm just not feeding her more than a few kibbles at a time and taking her out on a short leash.

FWIW nothing has changed recently about her diet or her overall health. We do have a big change in the home that may be contributing to more anxiety as well as more pent up energy but there's nothing I can do about it. We have a couple staying with us for about a month and they have a newborn baby they are adopting. I don't allow Indy near them because 1) she's really wary of men she doesn't know and this guy always wears hats for a medical reason, 2) the wife is actually 8 months pregnant and we're still working on Indy not being mouthy or jumping up on people and 3) obviously I don't trust her around someone else's 1 week old baby when she's never seen a baby before. So she is being crated or confined to smaller rooms almost all the time and is actually very good with this (not barky or destructive) but I'm sure it could be draining on her mentally. We have a very tiny house so I'm constantly moving/herding dogs around to keep them out of the way of the baby. It's stressful for everyone but what are you gonna do... I just don't want this grass obsession to develop into a permanent habit.


----------



## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

GatorBytes said:


> Chlorophyll.
> 
> Funny, when I added dogs to "chlorophyll in lawn grass"...got this link 3 little Pitties.
> 
> ...


The website says to relax and not worry about it. I don't know that it applies here. If you'd see the sheer volume she is "processing" you'd understand. I fear she is going to bloat or have some kind of obstruction if this continues. She has been sick several days in a row now (pooping out big "birds nest" of grass followed by liquid) despite me trying to be diligent not leaving her outside without something fun to do but she's sneaky and will eat huge chunks in one gulp (my other dogs will kind of munch on a blade or two at a time).

I may try a tie-out that reaches just into the yard so she can go potty but then have the driveway area to sun and play. She likes to sit in front of the gate on the driveway and sun or watch people. The edge of the yard closest to the back door is mostly dirt already, she can potty on it but there's barely anything left there for her to eat.

I know I can keep her from eating grass, but I'm more curious how to address the behavior long term. Realistically, I don't want to have to take a dog out 5 times a day on a 4' leash and closely supervise all of her yard time when we have a nice yard that is secure for dogs and setup for them to have some space to play and enjoy their pool, toys, etc while I am working inside or doing chores and not having to pay 100% attention to their every move. I want her to be able to enjoy being outdoors without having these "episodes" of frantic inhaling of grass. I couldn't care less about the condition of the yard.


----------



## Blanketback (Apr 27, 2012)

Our dogs have been eating grass lately, but we've only had "real" grass for a few weeks here, since it was all brown winter-kill up until just recently. Maybe she's only excited to see it again? Like, extremely excited, so it's not so much an actual obsession? 

Our AmBull is the same with food - and I use the term _very_ loosely! Anything edible is fair game. She'll ram herself through a fence to get tomatoes and corn, tear apples off lower branches - and that's only the beginning. Kleenex is also a favorite treat, lol. She also acts like each meal is her last, and inhales her food. I can keep her occupied with a bone, but otherwise she's outside foraging for 'food' non-stop. It's weird behavior to me, after only experiencing the fussy GSD food snobs, lol.


----------



## sparra (Jun 27, 2011)

Sounds like a behavioral thing to me........any reason you can't keep your grass really short so she can't eat it......might break her out of the habit.


----------



## Susan_GSD_mom (Jan 7, 2014)

Liesje said:


> The website says to relax and not worry about it. I don't know that it applies here. If you'd see the sheer volume she is "processing" you'd understand. I fear she is going to bloat or have some kind of obstruction if this continues. She has been sick several days in a row now (pooping out big "birds nest" of grass followed by liquid) despite me trying to be diligent not leaving her outside without something fun to do but she's sneaky and will eat huge chunks in one gulp (my other dogs will kind of munch on a blade or two at a time).
> 
> I may try a tie-out that reaches just into the yard so she can go potty but then have the driveway area to sun and play. She likes to sit in front of the gate on the driveway and sun or watch people. The edge of the yard closest to the back door is mostly dirt already, she can potty on it but there's barely anything left there for her to eat.
> 
> I know I can keep her from eating grass, but I'm more curious how to address the behavior long term. Realistically, I don't want to have to take a dog out 5 times a day on a 4' leash and closely supervise all of her yard time when we have a nice yard that is secure for dogs and setup for them to have some space to play and enjoy their pool, toys, etc while I am working inside or doing chores and not having to pay 100% attention to their every move. I want her to be able to enjoy being outdoors without having these "episodes" of frantic inhaling of grass. I couldn't care less about the condition of the yard.


In the past I had a couple of GSD boys who would graze like cows. What worried me was that we lived across the road from a huge farmer's field, and he sprayed fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, etc., and the prevailing winds came in our direction. I found that as long as we kept the grass mowed very low and used a string trimmer to keep it low along the fences, around trees, around flower beds etc., they didn't eat it. They liked the long grass, wouldn't bother short grass. Also, funny, but I noticed that they were particular--they wouldn't eat crabgrass!

Anyway, it's more work, but keep the grass very low and that might take care of the problem.

Susan


----------



## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

It is really short. Our backyard is in terrible shape due to the dogs. The other dogs kind of munch on blades of grass but she is pulling it out. I swear half of the grass she's pooping out is really grass root.

I fear if I don't address the behavioral aspect, this will just transfer to something else like eating dirt, eating gravel, etc (she already has problems eating acorns and eating poop).


----------



## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

What about having her wear a basket type muzzle? Could she still get to the grass with one?


----------



## sparra (Jun 27, 2011)

Good luck with that one.......very strange.....she must think she is a sheep...


----------



## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

Probably not. I'll see if I can make mine fit.


----------



## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

I may see if my sis will take her for the weekend. She loves my sis more than anyone (and will probably go live with her permanently once my sis is out of her rental).


----------



## Lilie (Feb 3, 2010)

I wonder if you gave her a tug type toy when she went outside. Something to occupy her mouth. If this behavior is more mental than physical, it might help. 

If she tends to be anxious, I can see how the new situation in your home could push her threshold and she might be looking for a release. 

I'm thinking about the triggers in my Golden, his excitement will be driven by frustration. Things such as company (because of his aggression they aren't allowed to interact) will trigger the frenzied grass eating. So will movement of vehicles past his yard. Loud music. Dogs running the fence line. Mowing the grass. I use my best judgement and will keep him in his dog run (no grass) when I know I'm going to present a trigger. But sometimes even a squirrel will cause frustration.


----------



## K9POPPY (Mar 6, 2014)

We've had some that eat grass out of nervousness, you've got to wonder if your dog is picking up on all the stress you mentioned, I do know that for some, the grass seems to have a calming effect on their stomachs( but not the excesses you mentioned)- sounds like a very sensitive dog- maybe try 1 pepto-bismol for the stress? Hope you can find some relief- Bob


----------



## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

K9POPPY said:


> We've had some that eat grass out of nervousness, you've got to wonder if your dog is picking up on all the stress you mentioned, I do know that for some, the grass seems to have a calming effect on their stomachs( but not the excesses you mentioned)- sounds like a very sensitive dog- maybe try 1 pepto-bismol for the stress? Hope you can find some relief- Bob


I think it is, having other people in the house is bothering her more because she has a lot less freedom, and she's much more wary of people in her space. The other dogs don't care and are more gentle or social.

Lilie, the yard is strewn with toys. She will often carry one or play tug with another dog but is 10 times more obsessed with food (or anything she thinks is edible) than playing with toys. For example at flyball I use a tug to reward her and she loves that, she's an amazing tugger, but....if she thinks there is *one* loose treat or even a crumb on the flyball lane, she starts "vacuuming" and her turn is over, she has to be put up because she is mentally done at that point.

She was a street dog and then a shelter dog on the euth list so she seems to have this "take as much as you can get while you can" attitude. Maybe I'm too soft but I've never withheld meals from her to use for training because I feel like a dog who's had a very hard past and probably had to fight to eat should be fed meals as a given. I use treats for some aspects of her training but then adjust her meals to be a bit smaller. I don't want to create any *more* obsession for food and hope she understands that she WILL always be fed.


----------



## Neko (Dec 13, 2012)

We had a similar puppy pica issue and it eventually went away. we just supervised outside and kept the pup busy.


----------



## JanaeUlva (Feb 5, 2011)

I have noticed the dogs always like the early spring grass the best. But your dog does sound like the stress of the household is getting to her. Your sister idea sounds like your best solution. I have a big deck connected to the fenced in dog area that I can close off from the backyard because my 8 month old eats acorns. He enjoys the process of sniffing them out, digging it up an eating the acorn. He even has figured out to spit the lid of the acorn off the nut. But he has intermittent runny poop issues that I think might be caused or at least aggravated by his backyard acorn grazing so I frequently close the dogs off from the yard and they can still enjoy sitting outside on the deck. Good luck.


----------



## JeanKBBMMMAAN (May 11, 2005)

This sounds like a chicken or egg situation - is she eating the grass because her stomach feels bad and she's got a bug or other issues already and she's using the grass to soothe her stomach, and to vomit so she feels better?

Behavioral Problems of Dogs: Normal Social Behavior and Behavioral Problems of Domestic Animals: Merck Veterinary Manual has some rule outs. 

Things like worms and parasites make dogs' bellies feel bad. Something like SIBO/ARD could do the same. 

I would start by taking a fecal in and then seeing if my vet would work with me on a short dose of something like Tylan.


----------



## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

She's never vomited in the time I've had her, ever. She's not one that munches and then throws up bile and a few blades of grass (Coke does that when I get home from work, if I don't feed him immediately, so I started giving all my dogs a handful of food before I leave so they aren't ravenous but won't have to poop during the day).

I would bet my house this is completely behavioral, not health related other than the grass-eating itself making her sick (bad poop, but she's pooping out slimy *grass*, not diarrhea indicative of worms or digestive issues, no blood, no mucus). She's always been super healthy, iron gut, never any poop issues before this, never an accident in the house before this, she's never vomited. I've never taken her to the vet for anything other than her 3 year rabies shot.

Last night she had flyball and today I took all my dogs to an event and let her do some lure coursing. I'm hoping keeping her busy will tire her mind out this weekend and I'm keeping her indoors unless supervised. I did see her grab some grass this morning while I was loading my van, but haven't been putting her outdoors to play with Legend like I normally do so at most she had like 2 minutes where I wasn't paying close attention (as opposed to normally going outside to play for 45 minutes or so at a time without close supervision).


----------



## Mikelia (Aug 29, 2012)

What about a herbal/homeopathic stress/anxiety relief? I'm not sure of brands available in the states but I have used this product Natural Pet Pharmaceuticals with great results. Not for grass eating mind you but for a neurotic mess of a dog during extreme periods of stress (moreso what he considers extreme periods of stress). No side effects and you can't overdose them so it might be worth a try.
I recommend these calming treats quite often at work for pets who are generally anxious and for pets who are travelling/having visitors and we have good feed back on them too http://www.petnaturals.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=700875050 . Again, couldn't hurt.


----------



## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

My friends went to a baseball game today so I biked over to let their dog out. The live blocks away and I was gone maybe 45 minutes max. Mind you Indy isn't crated at night and often not during the day while I work (9 hours) but when I got back, she'd peed twice and pooped in the basement!

She's going back to crate/potty/house/everything training 101, so basically in a crate unless she's being exercised or out on a leash  Hate to do it since up until last week she's really been a wonderful house dog.

Yes if the anxiety doesn't improve I will definitely look into remedies, herbal or chemical.

Thankfully the other three dogs are adjusting well. They're being good when I have to crate them or gate them off in the basement so our guests can move around the house, carrying Baby, without worrying about dogs. They've also been very friendly toward our guests and are not barking at the new noises or the baby crying. I guess with four dogs in a tiny house and no one used to newborns or guests that stay for longer than a meal, it could have been much worse....


----------



## petite (Apr 5, 2014)

I second she may need some sort of medication. Especially with your baby coming, things are not going to get any less stressful. Maybe use this last month before you'll have way less time to monitor her to get her started on medication. I'm not exactly sure of your situation at home but I would hate for you to be overwhelmed by your dog's illness and your new addition to the family at the same time.

Will she try to chomp grass when you're supervising her? What if you sprinkled red pepper where she's nosing around? The spiciness up the nose or in her mouth when she eats it might deter her. I hate to suggest it but an e-collar is also an option, though I completely understand if you don't consider that a humane option. I would also be very concerned about obstruction at this point and longer term digestive issues of having such large, messy bowel movements of straight grass.


----------



## GatorBytes (Jul 16, 2012)

petite said:


> I second she may need some sort of medication. Especially with your baby coming, things are not going to get any less stressful. Maybe use this last month before you'll have way less time to monitor her to get her started on medication. I'm not exactly sure of your situation at home but I would hate for you to be overwhelmed by your dog's illness and your new addition to the family at the same time.
> 
> Will she try to chomp grass when you're supervising her? *What if you sprinkled red pepper where she's nosing around? The spiciness up the nose or in her mouth when she eats it might deter her. I hate to suggest it but an e-collar is also an option, though I completely understand if you don't consider that a humane option.* I would also be very concerned about obstruction at this point and longer term digestive issues of having such large, messy bowel movements of straight grass.


 Or you could just feed some *fresh* parsley and see if that satisfies the craving for grass, the need to oxygenate the blood and detox the vital organs re: winter


----------



## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

LOL, no, no babies coming for me (not this year anyway).

I was very diligent today, I don't think she got more than a few blades of grass. I also mostly fasted her today (just a few handfuls of food here or there). We had dinner at my parents with my family so she got to come along and be completely off-leash at their house and got to hang out with my sister (her favorite person). I didn't take any other dogs, just her. Got to be *her* special time and I think she enjoyed the freedom and attention. Normally she gets lots of treats but I asked everyone to avoid treating her since I'm trying to clean her out of all the grass and avoid any more tummy upsets.

She didn't have an accident last night or at all today. Yesterday evening she "asked" me to go out (whined and pawed at me) so I immediately took her out, praised and gave her a small handful of food when she pooped. I've been going out at night with a flashlight so I can see what she's doing and stop the grass eating.


----------



## GatorBytes (Jul 16, 2012)

GatorBytes said:


> Chlorophyll.
> 
> Funny, when I added dogs to "chlorophyll in lawn grass"...got this link 3 little Pitties.
> 
> ...


 
This came into FB today. Thought about you

Going Green: Chlorophyll For Dogs | Dogs Naturally Magazine


----------



## Waldi (Jun 14, 2013)

My dogs always eat grass, there is even name of this type fo grass "dog grass". My golden she things she is cow and can't get enough of grass, my GS is also enjoying it now, perhaps after was shown this bt retriever. From my observation, this is natural thing and does not causes issues and they only eat specific type of grass not any kind. Their instinct must tell them that that is good for them, my friend vet said that this is perfectly normal behaviour.


----------

