Canine Pica occurs when a dog is so desperately short of nutrients that they starts eating weird things they find like coal, wood or rubber.
A dog’s survival instinct is so strong that their bodies’ urgent nutritional requirements drive them to try and obtain these nutrients from the most unlikely sources.
Chester Eats Rubber
A dog called Chester, for example, used to hunt down anything made of rubber. He especially enjoyed chewing on used condoms which he devoured with relish. This was much to the embarrassment of his parents.
Pica is not reserved for dogs alone. All animals will do go to great lengths to satisfy their nutritional needs. When you think about it, the obsessive consumption of processed and overly sugary foods like Mars Bars are a form of human pica!
How To Treat Canine Pica
You can treat pica in dogs by supplying them with an easily digestible food and nutritional supplement. This is the answer to treating Canine Pica. Raw meat and bone is the most appropriate and easily digested of all foods available for dogs.
Feed Raw
Raw meat and bone is entirely natural, full of enzymes and bursting with nutrients. Mixed with PET Plus, the body can easily digest and absorb the nutrients and micronutrients. Download my diet sheet for more information.
Feeding your dog in this way will gradually rectify their nutrient deficiency, but it will take time.
The dog will be seriously depleted of nutrients to get to the extreme state of Canine Pica. Therefore it will take a while for those nutrient levels to return to normal. Don’t expect results immediately – instead be patient, and persevere with proper feeding.
Changing Your Dog’s Eating Habits – Forever!
If Canine Pica has been an issue for some time, the strange items the dog has become used to finding and eating may have become rather a habit.
But It May Have Become A Habit
So later, even when there is actually no nutritional need to go and eat these found things, the dog may continue this behaviour, given the opportunity.
In order to address this, you will need to change your routine. Go for walks somewhere else, remove all sources of rubber, for example, then the dog will eventually forget about trying to find peculiar things to eat because there will no longer be any nutritional need.
But make sure you continue to feed raw food and PET Plus to prevent the recurrence of Canine Pica.