Dogs eating chicken "packages." Don't want to know the answer to this but I need to know.

[GA_Gypsy]

So I finally have chickens that accept my dogs and vice versa. My bird dogs finally romp and actually play with them but now there is a problem. I cannot stop them from eating every single "package" that my chickens make all around the backyard! I have them on heartworm preventative and worm the chickens regularly. But after all of that, can someone PLEASE help me to either convince me that its okay or tell me what to watch out for. I have a big backyard that I like all of them to enjoy. I don't want to keep them separate because at the moment the dogs lose. We'd have to totally redo the backyard design to make the chicken area smaller and the dog area bigger. I know that many of you have dogs and chickens together, so how do you all do it? Or is it okay? Thanks for all of your input

 

[GA_Gypsy]

Oh and BTW, the guy at the Tractor Supply Co said that they sell a spray that you can go around and spray on the packages around the yard to discourage the dogs to eat them, but um yeah. That is a little, um, impossible to do. Don't have that much time in my day to do that. WAY too many of them around! Thanks

 

[Judy]

Lots of folks here just accept this. Dogs will be dogs. My vet chuckled and said chicken poop is calorie dense, which is a hassle in my case because my dog (who was very close to starvation when found) stays overweight.

Just don't let him lick your face....

 

[nurse_turtle]

My dogs LUV chicken poop. It's gross to watch, so I don't. They also LUV chicken food. I think it's the reprocessed chicken food they LUV so much. I think it's normal animal behavior. If you keep your dogs on all their preventatives, you should be fine.

 

[NovaAman]

My dingle berry eaters love to steal my chicken work shoes... Naughty dogs.

 

[BlueBob]

To a dog that's called recycling

Gives me an idea though...If DE is passed through a chickens digestive system intact, and then the dog eats the package, there wouldn't be any need to worm the dog for intestinal parasites then would there? Win Win!

 

[donrae]

Chickens eat the horse poop, dogs eat the chicken poop (and the cat poop), now if I could get the horses to eat someone's poop I could have a cycle!

This is why I seriously NEVER let a dog lick me. Anywhere. EVER.

 

[CluckCluck18]

I don't worry too much about it. My dog loves cat poop but doesn't eat chicken poop....she does love to eat their food though.
My chickens will peck at the dog poop in the yard and the cat says " OMG.....you guys are all NUTS!"
My chickens eat organic and my dog/cat both eat high quality food......God Bless our funny, silly, sweet pets.

 

[alessadry]

I am a dog trainer and stopped my dogs eating the chicken poop by enforcing the ''leave it'' command. I primarily taught this because when my chicks were young they were on medicated feed with amprolium and I was concerned about my dogs eating poop with traces of medications. Now, they may occasionally eat one once in a blue moon -when I am not looking -but I am not concerned as I was before since now they are only on layer crumbles.

 

[Terrik]

To a dog that's called recycling

Gives me an idea though...If DE is passed through a chickens digestive system intact, and then the dog eats the package, there wouldn't be any need to worm the dog for intestinal parasites then would there? Win Win!