Scavenger

[jenza]

You can probably guess from my previous posts I am concerned about our pup being on Burns.  She just seems so hungry all the time.  Toilet training is going well but every time I put her out its taking age for her to do a pee as she just wants to eat everything in sight..........lumps of grass, leaves, twigs etc etc  - even a slug last night  yuck!!!!!

Our pup goes for her second jab Monday, yayy!!!!! Can't wait to take her out. So will check with him about the food, but how can I stop her scavenging!

[Sian P]

No advice, but Murphy was exactly the same. I think they just like to investigate with their mouths!

[CraftySam]

You can't.    You just have to have eyes in the back of your head and watch her like a hawk. 

I've not seen your other threads but if you think that Burns isn't suiting her then you could gradually change her to a different high quality dry food.  You could try James Wellbeloved, I started my Golden Retriever pup on this but he could never get through the amount he was supposed to and I changed him to Burns and in comparison he got a lot less on that so it might satisfy her a bit more.
How is her weight? Is she about right? The best way to check it is to feel her ribs with the flat of your fingers. You should be able to feel her ribs easily with a thin layer of flesh between her ribs and your fingers. If she's a bit on the thin side you could try upping the Burns a little to see if it makes any difference before swapping her food.

Before I switched to BARF (Bones and Raw Food or Biological Appropriate Raw Food) my lot were on Burns and Sapphi, my Lab, was on High Oats as we had to watch her weight. She was never satisfied and was very food obsessed, particularly food we had. OK she's a Lab and they are food obsessed but this was much worse than she'd been in the past. Thats when I started to look into BARF, since swapping she's been much better, more satisfied and less obsessed and her weight is still under control.

I'm not suggesting that you should switch her to BARF, it takes a lot of researching, but if you feel you are still having a problem its an option once you've exhausted other avenues.

Having said all of that it is possible her scavenging isn't down to being hungry but just because she's a puppy. I'm looking after a 12 week old pup and I spend my entire time removing things from her mouth.... stones, twigs, hawthorn branch  , leaves, poo bags that she's knicked.....I could go on! All thats not because she's hungry its because she's a puppy.

Puppies are easily distracted so its inevitable that she'll be off to investigate things that catch her attention when outstide, have you got a "cue" that you say to ask her to wee/poo? I use "be clean" and I repeat it constantly to try and focus her mind to the job in hand.

Hope some of that helps! 

[suki1964]

My cocker was forever hungry on Burns so i used to pad it out with left over veggies but in the end it was obvious it didnt suit him so i changed to Arden Grange,

I started the Springer on Burns and the same thing, forever hungry but then he always was so I cant say for sure it was the Burns, but hes now on Arden grange and finally down to three meals a day

[jakesmum]

My pup is something of a scavenger too...and now he's learning to communicate he's forever telling me he wants biscuits, chews etc.

His weight is fine, but it's as if he has hollow legs. I think some dogs are just like that so wouldn't worry too much.

Sure, if you think it might be the food, then do change it but I changed Jake's food as he was a bit hyper...he's less so now, but is it the food or just because he's a little older? And now I'm wondering if he's doing as well on this food as he did on the last one...so it's all a bit hit and miss I think.

[kalami]

Bella has always been a scavenger, my kitchen's always has leaves, twigs and grass in it, changing her food didn't make any difference, she's not as bad now as she used to be -  but I think that's down to us buying different toys and chew items (pigs ears, tripe sticks and raw hides - all gross but she likes them)
Bella was on Beta puppy but we changed her to Burns, initially we felt she was always hungry but she's quite happy on it now. She gets treats whilst on her walks, and always when she gets back from a walk.

[hollyd443]

Yup, we have a scavenger here to. Roxy loves bringing in moss, stones, chicken feed, bark,chicken produce (and I don't mean eggs, she prefers hen poop!).... she had a slug recently to - now there are some things that you just do NOT want to pull out of a pups mouth bear handed!!!! Yuck!!! We take treats out with us, when she picks up something yucky, we hold the tasty treat up, she drops the yucky thing and takes the treat. Its probably not the best method, by doing this I'm probably teaching her to fetch slugs, poop and snails to me (a good trick when the MIL & FIL come round  !!) But at least it means she doesn't actually harm herself by swallowing the yuck or bad things like stones.

Holly

[Nicola]

Alfie didn't do well on Burns, he lost a lot of weight and was always ravenous so I changed him to Arden Grange and he never looked back. As others have said though puppies do like to pick things up, Rodaidh is nearly a year now and still grabs big clumps of grass, leaves, twigs etc. as he's running along. If you're concerned about the food though I would have a think about changing it.