Is Poop part of the circle of life.

[PressOn]

My miniature pincher is on a special diabetic diet and eats whatever he can get a hold on the side when he can, including the chicken poop.

The hens on the other hand have layer feed, the garden, and all of the plants and bugs in the yard, and they still eat the dog poop. My little dog pooped this morning and three of the hens downed it within two minutes.

And then I came in and ate the processed poop, I meant to say I had eggs for breakfast.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

Yuck... what can you do... I guess it is part of the circle of life.

 

[jen5680]

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[kareninthesun]

For the chickens to eat the dogs poop, that is NOT healthy. You shouldn't even use it (the dog's) as part of compost for veggie/fruits. There are different types of bacteria/worms, etc which are hard to kill off. Can you block off a potty spot for the dog until you can clean up after him?

 

[galanie]

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There are pathogens in dog poo that are not present in chicken poo that can make both us and the chickens sick. Besides which the three species digestive systems are different. A dog can digest nearly anything without being harmed, including bones. Not the same for the chickens and for us.

Poo is part of the cycle of life but I'll take the processed poo in the form of plant life, thank you. Aged chicken poo is the best fertilizer my garden ever had. Cat and dog poo, no. Not only because of the pathogens, but the plants themselves don't care for it.

 

[duckinnut]

I just got to ask, were the eggs chocolate colored?

 

[dragonlair]

My hens don't bother with the dog poo, thank goodness, but will peck at the goat berries and dive for the grain bits in the horse poo.

My dogs don't care, they will eat it all..........horse, chicken, goat, dog, human..............

I know dog people who compost the dog poo and use it on their flower gardens. They have gorgeous flowers. My comfrey plants love dog poo and the ones who get fed dog doodies daily are 5 times the size of the ones who don't.

 

[suebee]

Strange. My chickens would never eat dog poop. The dog however loves the chicken's poop...especially the broody poop, which is probably the size of dog poop!

 

[RenegadeEggs]

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There are pathogens in dog poo that are not present in chicken poo that can make both us and the chickens sick. Besides which the three species digestive systems are different. A dog can digest nearly anything without being harmed, including bones. Not the same for the chickens and for us.

Poo is part of the cycle of life but I'll take the processed poo in the form of plant life, thank you. Aged chicken poo is the best fertilizer my garden ever had. Cat and dog poo, no. Not only because of the pathogens, but the plants themselves don't care for it.

To answer the op's question, yes. I have been composting the dogs poo along with the chicken poo. There are thousands of years of knowledge on the topic, even in the Bible. The natural cycle is that worms and bacteria eat the poo, not the animals. Any pathogens in poo, be it chicken, dog, human, pig are quickly killed with a good, aerobic, hot compost. I can get 160F for a few days after scooping out the doo from the coop. For a good reference, read the Humanure Handbook from Joseph Jenkins. Lots of crappy humour

and loaded with the science behind the stuff.

I should mention, not all poo is created equally

....it is very natural for the chickens to follow herbivores around and scratch out the maggots from that. Different poo altogether.

 

[stilldeb]

My chickens have never bothered dog poo, but we pick it up pretty quickly (we have one small dog) and I toss it in a row of forsythia bushes that we have and they are HUGE and GORGEOUS. (and my husband hates them)