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You may detect that your dog is interested in the cat ’s litter box . A littletoointerested . peradventure you have been favourable enough to catch your wienerwurst before they have breeched the litterbox perimeter , otherwise like most preferent owners you have found out the hard manner . Nothing smells like , “ I know what you did ” , than a grinning frump with CT shit on his tooth .
Why Is My Dog Eating Cat Litter?
So , why would a dog eat cat litter ? Well , for starters firedog are passing scent oriented . aroma scientists put frump at 10,000 to 100,000 times more sensitive than our paltry human nose . A better exemplar was illustrated by frankfurter noesis researcher , Alexandra Horowitz , how humans may mark if our coffee tree has a teaspoon of sugar tote up to it . Meanwhile a dog can detect a teaspoonful of pelf in a million gallon of pee , the volume of two Olympian sized pools .
From a domestic dog ’s linear perspective the Earth subsist in aroma and having such an odorous object , the litterbox , in an accessible arena just invites a hotdog to investigate . Dogs are also scavengers and they search opportunities . The same goes for if your pet is in the yard and finds a stagnant fauna . Opportunity and curiosity intersect often for frank and the outcomes can be mixed .
Can Eating Litter Be Harmful To My Dog?
Yes and no . dissimilar types of litter add up to the cornucopia of scents and for better or worse so does if the litter box bear feces and piss from the computerized axial tomography . Litter come in a diversity of type ; newspaper publisher pellets , Zea mays cob granule , wooden pellets or shavings , and clay litter are just some varieties . Clumping litters typically have a clay linear like sodium bentonite that binds the big mass of cat piddle to the surrounding particle of litter . While these ingredient are mostly not considered toxic , they can cause issues when take in in large amounts .
Most often though many dogs will eat up big cat bedding material and cat fecal matter with either no ill effect or minor GI signs like promiscuous stool . overpoweringly hotdog prefer to have the feces , and smaller amounts of bedding material also happen to be eat due to law of proximity . If you know your pet did get into the litterbox , carry on to monitor their bowel movements over the next 24 hours to make indisputable they do not have an impaction .
If you comment your best-loved vomiting or curve their back in annoyance you should take them to a veterinary surgeon immediately . If your wienerwurst go through enceinte amounts of litter it can stimulate a block in the tummy or intestines that in the defective - case scenario can involve surgery to remove the impacted litter .
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parasite can be a concern especially if your home cats do not have annual enteric parasite screenings ( fecal tests ) done at the veterinary surgeon , or if they are not on monthly preventatives . Also , bozo that go outside are more potential to have enteric sponge and can pass them unknowingly to the dog if your puppy get into the litterbox to indulge themselves . A mutual misconception is that a best-loved parent will know when a heel or cat has parasite when they usually do n’t .
Preventing Dogs From Eating Litter
The easy and safest way to preclude your firedog from eating cat-o'-nine-tails litter is to physically keep entree to the bedding box . It is our task as responsible pet parents to be proactive in our dearie ’s health and this is a accomplishable answer for all households regardless of sizing .
First , evaluate the current locations of your cat ’s litter box . A plain bathroom or sleeping room can have a dog proof ( but cat favorable ! ) baby gate across the doorway . Several mannequin admit a handle to swing the door open so you and your family wo n’t have to hop-skip over baby William Henry Gates to have access code to the area . Kitty doors to basements or other dog - loose zones are great for households with bombastic weenie . Some cat-o'-nine-tails are put off by the cat pother on some of these door so start by removing the dither and make a clean and unruffled place where your cat can have litterbox secrecy . Remember , the guy ’s litterboxes should be easily accessible for them so if you are using baby gates , consider your cat need , for example , a senior cat should not have to jump over something to get to the bathroom so you may have a babe gate with a cat door or place the gate so the cat can easy walk underneath but the dog ca n’t .
Keep your dog busy , Your dogs may be drawn to your cat ’s private stage business out of sheer wonder . When they have nothing to do , they would rather use up and play with Arabian tea poop . To avoid this situation , you must keep your dogs in use with other healthier pick . Keep them officious with toys and game . Give them things to do , so that they wo n’t get bored and start looking for weird material to do .
Clean the litterbox multiple times per day . Lastly , another recommendation for prevent Canis familiaris from eat litter is by keeping the litterbox clean and your quat will value it too !
Managing multiple pets can take a bit of creativity but with a turn of scheme you could save yourself some peace of mind have it off that everyone is staying good .
