Author Topic: Turkey will not stop eating rocks!!!  (Read 2028 times)

Offline Kermit

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Turkey will not stop eating rocks!!!
« on: February 28, 2006, 10:46:46 pm »
My sweet little Turkey girl has a new obsession. Rocks! For a while there she would just bring one in every time she came in from outside. But now when I take her outside, the first thing she does is start hunting around for a pebble. It was making me nervous, and today I found that there is good reason behind my concern! I was cleaning up her poop, and there were small rocks in it!!! :o I couldn't believe it. I just hope they are all making it through her system! What a nightmare!!! :-[
But there are rocks everywhere, and she is so quick, and I think when I try to take one from her is probably when she is swallowing them! There is no place in my yard anywhere that doesn't have rocks. :( Why does my puppy want to eat rocks???
Help? ???

Offline chaos270

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Re: Turkey will not stop eating rocks!!!
« Reply #1 on: February 28, 2006, 11:44:42 pm »
Sometimes they eat rocks due to a deficiency in their diet....I can't remember what it is off the top of my head but maybe try a google search on it...i'll look and see what i can find for you.

Ok I found this on another forum and it agrees with most of the other stuff I found, It was in response to someone's post that the dog had already needed surgery:

1. I would ask my vet if there was a reason she could be eating rocks-some kind of deficiency, perhaps or if dogs get pica, something like that...(pica is associated with anemia~ iron deficiencies)

2. Leaving her out unattended isn't good anyway, and if she's like my dogs she'd rather be with her person whether it's in or outside, so having to be in or out and supervised isn't a bad thing.

3. Depending on the breed and given the severity of the problems she's had with her stomach, I'd ask my vet if she should have a basket muzzle while she's out until I could train her well with the leave it command. Still under supervision and not out alone.

4. Going to obedience classes with her to give her those basics, plus if you find a good one, they will teach the leave it. Leave it is something I say every day, and every day I am glad I taught it, when I drop a pill, or break a glass, or two dogs are getting ready to fight for the same toy...

Also there was a suggestion of when you take the rock away give some other more suitable object for them to chew on.
« Last Edit: February 28, 2006, 11:57:23 pm by chaos270 »
Erin and the critters
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Offline Kermit

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Re: Turkey will not stop eating rocks!!!
« Reply #2 on: March 01, 2006, 04:18:34 pm »
Thanks for the suggestions you guys.
I am happy to report that at 3am when we went outside for a potty, and Turkey was nosing around for a good rock, I told her "no!" firmly every time she went to grab one, and after about 6 times, she looked horribly embarassed and came over to me with her ears back and begged to be forgiven! And today, she seems to not care so much for rocks! I am keeping my fingers crossed.
I guess I was using the wrong approach when I was chasing her around trying to get rocks out of her mouth. Who knew a simple "no" command could work such wonders??
 :)

Offline Senghe

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Re: Turkey will not stop eating rocks!!!
« Reply #3 on: March 01, 2006, 08:01:30 pm »
Do you want some really good news? Turkey will more than likely grow out of eating stones. Flynn used to be terrible - sometimes he'd poop and there would be so many stomes he'd sound like a Spanish senorita playing the castanets! *clickety clack* or the stones would come up the other way in a pile of sick :-X This was despite much vigilance on my part and a lot of removing stones from his mouth and shouting "NO!" a lot. He was like that up to about 6 months and then he just stopped doing it.