Eating her own poop!

So I recently caught Coco picking her waste up to eat. Why ?!! Is she hungry ?! She would grab it, eat a little, then sometimes she spits it out while other times she just swallows it like it's.. I don't know. Warm
Sausage bun out of the oven. I find it extremely gross and while I like the idea of not needing to clear up after her (Instant vacuum, ha ha), I cannot stop thinking about it when she kisses me. Plus it's just disgusting. My dog used to do that (read that they have no reason for it) but he grew out of that habit after a while and it was easier to train him to kick the habit anyway. What should I do with Coco ?

My first two thoughts are:
Needs a vet visit
Missing something from her diet.

So... My questions are:
When was the last time she's been to the vet and had a UA and fecals done?

What diet are you feeding? Provide as much detail as possible.

Agree COMPLETELY with Megs...

I third this!

Were you able to get her on the HPW diet? If not, it could be from a lack of nutrition. Some animals do eat their feces, as a way to 'recycle' food. I believe, in the pouch, all marsupial babies eat the feces of the parent, to get the bacteria their system needs to digest solid food.

I do agree, that a vet check is a good idea. Have a fecal float and smear done.

My Luna did this a while back for a bit when she had joeys IP. She is on BML, I was gonna take her to the vet, but then she stopped doing it. I still have no clue why she did it.

Beryl, she does need a vet visit, they both do. If she's eating feces, she's either lacking something in her diet (I know you had found the supplies for the HPW diet, but wasn't sure if you had started making it yet. I had suggested what to feed in the meantime - plain boiled chicken, plain scrambled eggs, yogurt - any flavor but chocolate, and fruits and veggies) or there's another health issue that needs to be addressed ASAP. PM me if you need help, you know where to find me

Your suggie sees the feces as "lost nutrients" and eats it to regain nutrients. What do you feed? Many nutrient deficient animals do this, it's instinct. It's the same reason why some animals eat their vomit. They do these things because they're not getting enough nutrients in their diet. Definitely send your feeding plan and go to the vet!!!

Is the stool discolored in any way? Discolored stool could mean they're not digesting their food properly. The food is going through the system too quickly and thus causing nutritional issues as well as stool discoloration.

Hey all. They are on the HPW diet. Poop looks fine (thanks for correcting the word btw). I've seen her do it about twice since I've had her from Jan onwards.

Jess, vet check isn't going well at all. The 2 that I found had a really bad attitude and didn't do neutering so I'm searching again. Gotta put up a post for help soon.

Is there anything I should do in the meantime ?

Ugh, I know this has been a nightmare for you, trying to vet a find that speaks the language, it's been rough, I know

Remind me again, are they on the HPW Original, Plus, or Complete? I want to say that they're on the Original or Plus for some reason. In the future, the Complete might be such a great option for you - all you do is add water to the powder and voila! Dinner! (plus their fruits and veggies of course)....I'm just thinking because I know you had to look around for the bee pollen there, so that may be a good way for you to go....

I'm not going to be able to say 100% what you should be doing about the poop issue. For one, if it IS a diet issue, how are you to know what nutrient(s) exactly they are missing or not getting enough of? If it's a health issue, well we're back at square one because you're trying to find a good vet, and it's hard where you are. This is just totally my opinion, nothing more, but two BIGGIE things a glider should have in it's diet are calcium and protein (then again, they also DO need some phosphorous and vitamin D to help process the calcium). I am NOT an advocate for messing with diets, not at all, but maybe trying offering a source of extra protein (like some plain boiled chicken) and see if that helps. If it doesn't, maybe offer a good source of calcium, like lots of papaya and dark leafy greens or yogurt and see if THAT helps. I'm just trying to give you some ideas to tide you over until they see a vet. Maybe if you, by luck, offer for example some boiled chicken and the poop eating stops, it COULD (not saying it definitely WOULD be) be an indicator that they were missing protein.

Then again, the HPW diet has been fed for so many years and I would think that if the protein levels weren't up to par, we'd see gliders eating poop left and right! Who knows, I can only say it's something I might try....IMO, giving a few pieces of plain chicken a few times a week or some yogurt a couple times a week couldn't do any major harm, and it may very well help. I think lol?????????

Off topic, but I can't wait to see your thread about all the stuff you got! That box was precious cargo when I mailed it all out So excited that you got it so fast!

Fail, Jess. Fail.


OP... Do you think you could find a vet that would allow you to bring in stool and urine samples for testing? I have a vet here that allows that. They don't see gliders, but they send samples to the same lab that my glider vet uses.

Just a thought.

Lol fail on what?? My weirdo lopsided explanation of what I was trying to say haha??? I was just trying to throw her a bone and a lifejacket so she's not sinking while really worrying over finding a vet (which she is, trust me lol). I don't even make sense to myself sometimes.....

Nothing to do with your weirdo lopsided explanation, Jess. Lol, at least I don't think so.

I removed your duplicate posts from the board.


Bee, I completely agree that this could be from lack of nutrition in the diet, however, if you are feeding a nutritionally balanced diet, some of the digested nutrients will end up in the blood stream, and the undigested nutrients will pass through feces. You will have semi-digested food in the feces. If this is due to lack of nutrition, your glider could go after the semi-digested food.
Connie is right that babies eat feces to get bacteria required to properly digest for absorbing nutrients, they usually don’t contain these bacteria at first.
It is very useful to weigh your glider regularly, this will give you an indication health wise. If your glider has not been to a vet yet, I recommend you get that taken care of.
Another thing that crossed my mind was stress or anxiety. We were visiting a zoo once where some of the animals exhibited this behaviour, the caretaker informed us that these animals were moved to new cages and their behaviour of eating feces was out of stress and anxiety from being in a new environment. Is this possible for your little one?

I found an interesting quote while surfing the web regarding reasons why animals eat poop. Might not pertain to gliders, but it does support the idea that there are nutrients lacking from the diet.

PM me for the link.

It was the duplicate posts that were fail.