# Does Your V Eat/Try to eat Weird Things?



## kellygh (Oct 25, 2010)

Pumpkin (almost 6m) is the strangest dog we have ever owned when it comes to eating! We have her on Orijen, but we constantly have to change what we add to the food to get her to eat. We have tried several brands, nothing is different, so we have stuck to orijen since it is a quality, grain -free food. I mention that, because I find it a little quirky that Pumpkin turns her nose at the gourmet food we offer but can not get enough paper products! Her main focus is tissue paper, kleenex tissue, or toilet tissue. Occasionally a soggy bag she finds in the woods will suffice. We had to quit buying toys with fuzz inside, because she would literally eat every last shred if able. She actively seeks out tissue in the bathroom trash cans, and wrapping Cmas presents with her was out of the question! We stayed on high alert during the holidays due to the abundance of tissue paper, and we still watched her poop festive colors for days  She is doing decent with the leave-it command, but forget it if paper is involved. She will chew & swallow even faster if she knows she is busted! We try to limit the opportunity as much as possible with 3 kids, but she is now tracking paper ??? Anyone else have a V with seemingly strange habits?


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## Kobi (Oct 26, 2010)

Kobi eats some pretty weird stuff.... his biggest fascination is probably dryer sheets. He will go for paper towels too. I think I broke him of the toilet tissue habit with a little smacking around. One thing he LOVES to eat if given the chance is dryer lint (the stuff that comes off the screen, in big old clumps). Basically, if it's not his food he will try to eat it. Fortunately he doesn't eat much of the stuffing from his bed and toys because he would have consumed quite a bit by now.


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## kellygh (Oct 25, 2010)

I forgot about the dryer sheets ;D Pumpkin loves though too!


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## KashagLake (Sep 27, 2010)

lol! Holly goes crazy for paper products as well! I can't even read a magazine around her! lol! She loves dryer sheets & lint as well! She goes absolutely crazy for bark and wood too! We have a wood stove and as soon as we bring in more wood she right there gnawing away on it and trying to get little pieces of bark to chew on. Shes tried the stuffing from her toys, shes not a huge fan of it.


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## Big Rick (Apr 14, 2009)

We tried many different foods for Dexter because he's so picky. He would eat for a few days then refuse. One day we were in PetSmart and the Nutro rep suggested their Natural Choice Venison and Brown Rice brand. He hasn't refused to eat once since we started with it and that was 6-7 months ago. It's not grain-free but he didn't like the grain-free brands.


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## Sahara (Mar 22, 2009)

I can't teach Tizane to get the newspaper because we wouldn't get to read it if she got to it first. It used to be funny because she would take it and stare at it, imitating us. But now she'll pull it off the table and start shredding it if you get up to refill your coffee. I guess she figures that once the paper is gone, she gets to go for her walk, so she's gonna help it along. Lol


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## DarDog (Aug 15, 2010)

Darwin doesn't eat any weird household products. But, he recently started eating poo . Frozen ones are his favourite.

I would prefer a fetish for paper products!!


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## JillandDan (Sep 8, 2010)

Holley goes for mulch and other misc items she finds on walks. We are trying to get her to stop but she is persistent. I just stinks because we can't really take her to the dog park as much as we would like because there is mulch there and she gets a piece and goes tearing around so you can't catch her to get it out of her mouth. Any suggestions to make her stop would be appreciated.


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## Kobi (Oct 26, 2010)

Does she try to eat it, or just run around with it? If she's not eating it, don't worry 

I once fought with Kobi over a dead mouse he found on his walk.... I had to pull it from his mouth. Then I had to do that again, and again, and again. I probably fought him five times over the mouse over the next month, because I would not remember to restrain him when we got near the dead mouse area. He still searches for the mouse if we go by there but it's gone now, thankfully.


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## JillandDan (Sep 8, 2010)

She runs around with it but then stops and tries to eat it. She has enough tummy troubles without mulch in the mix.


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## Kobi (Oct 26, 2010)

Ah yes, I forgot how many issues you have had with Holley's digestive system.


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## JillandDan (Sep 8, 2010)

We may have found a cause after all this time. She has been on a restricted diet for a month now per the vet. She only has her food (Nutro Natural Puppy for sensitive stomachs) mixed with pumpkin and for treats she gets boiled chicken. The other night the vet had us try to remove the pumpkin and just try her food. The blood came back the next morning. She is back on pumpkin now and seems to be okay again. The vet said she thinks Holley needs a high fiber diet but puppy foods don't offer that so she will be on pumpkin for another couple months until it is time to change her to adult food and then we will go from there. 
Sorry to go off topic.


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## minnere (Jul 8, 2010)

JillandDan, we have a similar situation with Pacer where we can't take him to the dog park either. His issue is that he will tear up tennis balls and eat the pieces. Three weeks ago he did this and got so sick we thought we were going to have to take him the ER vet. He has eaten pieces before and just passed them, but I guess this time he couldn't. We were terrified because he was laying on our tile (which he never does, won't even sit there) and just shaking. Luckily, it all came back up and he was fine, but he absolutely cannot have tennis balls. He also eats mulch, etc. but that has never caused any problems. 

If we try to get the tennis ball from him, he runs because he thinks it's a game. We don't give them to him at home, but there are so many laying around at the dog park that we just can't take him there.


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## JillandDan (Sep 8, 2010)

Aw. I am glad Pacer is feeling better now. I know what you mean about the tennis balls being everywhere in the dog parks. I hope you find a solution to your problem so Pacer can enjoy the park again.
I know most dogs have no problem passing mulch but Holley seems to be the exception to all the eating rules with her sensitive tummy. There is one dog park that is all mulch so we definitely can't go there until we figure out how to get her to hate mulch. It is a shame. We know she would love to go but we can't risk her getting sick. We were able to go to the one at our apartment for a while because the mulch around the trees was covered in snow. She has so much fun but now it is all melted and she is back to going after everything on the ground but especially mulch. I wish we could figure this out.


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## sarahaf (Aug 17, 2009)

Rosie has the vizsla pica too. It's slowed down a little bit as she matures, but she still loves to get her hands on bubble envelopes and certainly paper products that contain any food residue [bags on the street, etc], and sometimes wood. As a pup, she went crazy for all things paper, wood/bark, and stuffing she would get from stuffed toys and the undersides of old stuffed chairs that needed reupholstering.

JillandDan, sorry to make you repeat yourself, but how old is Holley, and has she ever been tested for giardia? Just asking b/c Rosie had it as a pup, and her tummy was very unhappy until we had her treated for it.


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## JillandDan (Sep 8, 2010)

sarahaf,
Holley is almost 8 months now. She was tested for it when she first had the issues. It definitely seems to be a fiber issue because she has been fine for the whole time she was on restricted diet. Then within 24hrs of removing the pumpkin (fiber) she had the blood again. She went right back onto the pumpkin. Thank you for advising about that though.


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## sarahaf (Aug 17, 2009)

Glad to hear it. Sounds kind of like doggie irritable bowel syndrome then. Not that they have such a diagnosis for dogs, I made it up...


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## minnere (Jul 8, 2010)

Ok, I'm a little worried. A friend, dog owner, told me that I would be ok to give Pacer soup bones and she said to boil them first. I didn't know at the time that, that is the exact wrong thing to do and it makes the bones splinter more easily. Anyway, my husband decided to give him one this morning while I went for a run. I should have reminded him that he needed to keep an eye on him, but I assumed that, that was common knowledge! My husband let him eat the whole thing!!!! I didn't know this until I got back from running 90 min later. Pacer seemed fine all day. We took him hiking and he ran around like a mad man for 2 hours. It wasn't until tonight that he started acting funny. He asked to go out and I sent him out. He came back in with paws extremely muddy, but then he has been digging in the dirt and eating random pieces of it all day! He went to his food dish and ate a few bites. 20 min. later, he threw up all over the floor. There were some pieces of bone in it among other things (he seems to be a vacuum cleaner when out doors). I read that you could try to give them bread, so I gave him a small piece. 20 min later he threw up again, more bone and more than just the bread. What should I do? He is breathing and I won't let him go to his food dish. He seems to want to eat but I just won't let him. I'm kind of freaking out. We actually went through a similar situation with the tennis ball a few weeks ago. It's going to give me a heart attack!


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## labeda14 (Nov 14, 2009)

hi minnere,

so, maggie ate a piece of rope toy and was doing things similar to what you're saying below--throwing up everything, but otherwise acting okay (wanting to eat, etc.). we took her to the vet where she took xrays and said that there were "patterns of obstruction", but sent us home to see if she could pass it on her own (but to keep a close eye on her in case she starting acting weird)...she said to give her 1/2 cup of water per hour and if she held that down to try to feed her 1 cup of rice cooked in chicken broth and see if she could keep that down (and hopefully pass it and whatever was stuck)

maggie ended up requiring surgery, and again, it was a soft object that was stuck. i'm not sure i'd wait with a hard object like a bone, that could likely cause a lot more damage to her stomach/intestine.


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