IMHO I think my dogs are part goat and will eat anything that is interesting and/or tastes ok. Grass, bugs, rabbit droppings, wood chip (less often) but nothing seems completely out of the realm of possibility. Not to say that the always are doing this and it seems like age reduces this behaviour. The pup is a goat and the 3yr old dobie much less so. We feed Merrick which I think is one of the better kibbles and is nutitrionally complete. We tried the natural diet thing with our Staff's and it didn't make a bit of difference in the forrageing habits of our male. Had to abandon the natural diet, way too much hassle for me. Funny thing is the pup doesn't eat the apples, just plays and the dobie picks pears off the tree and wants to eat them. She never gets to as the pup steals them and tears off around the yard <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />. I think it more of an experimenting thing especially with young dogs trying to find out what is good and what isn't. Everything goes in the mouth and what tastes ok gets eaten.

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...... Everything goes in the mouth and what tastes ok gets eaten.

<img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Who says it has to taste OK?

I saw my granddog (when he was a puppy) steal a very very sour jelly candy (Sour Patch), drop it twice once he tasted it, and still eat it, mouth partly open, lip curled, and drool running out. He did all that faster than I could get over there and get it back. Taste, heck! <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> I think the test is more like "Can I swallow this?"

I'm no professional, so take what I say with a grain of salt. The raw diet and corresponding drop in berry consumption could be related. Is diet the only thing that changed or could other factors have contributed? If you want to know more about mulberries and nutritional content, here is a link.
http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-B00001-01c20Vd.html
As a caveat, I do not know the credibility of the site.

Leah, the Vitamin C jumped out at me. We supplement that every day now. I'd have to go back and look at the Royal Canin content, but that link you provided got me mighty curious about that.

I'm about to delve into the fresh raw tripe/liver/heart mixture my butcher makes up for a couple of breeders. I wish I knew more about it, but the dogs I've seen lately who are eating some raw green tripe (in addition to other raw stuff we're already feeding) look AWESOME.

Thanks for providing some info that might help solve the Mulberry Mystery.

Beth

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Who says it has to taste OK?

I saw my granddog (when he was a puppy) steal a very very sour jelly candy (Sour Patch), drop it twice once he tasted it, and still eat it, mouth partly open, lip curled, and drool running out. He did all that faster than I could get over there and get it back. Taste, heck! I think the test is more like "Can I swallow this?"

Connie - Too funny! Who'd have thought a dog would enjoy sour candies <lol>. I sure agree with this phylosophy though! I just returned from our vet's office after one of our females went off her food.... after several appointments, one surgery, 4 days in the hospital and one HUGE vet bill later, we discovered the problem. The dog had ingested the top end of a large black Kong... WHOLE! <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> I mean that had to be a real challenge to get down the old food pipe in one gulp:p!! ........definately a scenario to back up your "can I swallow this?" theory. <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />.

Dogs will be dogs <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />!

BTW, she's fine now (thank God)!

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......Too funny! Who'd have thought a dog would enjoy sour candies <lol>. ........after several appointments, one surgery, 4 days in the hospital and one HUGE vet bill later, we discovered the problem. The dog had ingested the top end of a large black Kong... WHOLE! <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> I mean that had to be a real challenge to get down the old food pipe in one gulp:p!! ........definately a scenario to back up your "can I swallow this?" theory. <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />. ......BTW, she's fine now (thank God)!

Yeah, "enjoy" didn't seem to have much to do with it. It was almost as if Milo had a bet with someone that he could eat the sourest of the sour candies............ drooling and making a terrible face the whole time.

I'm so glad your own piggy-dog is OK! Having had almost all piggy-types myself, I'm not surprised much nowadays at the things they can (and will!) manage to ingest. <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

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Nibbling, not so bad........ but some dogs swallow them whole and, like small pine cones, they can cause intestinal blockage.

Can you keep him away from that area?

Oh yikes, that could be horrible. I don't know what to do. It's not an "area", it's virtually our whole backyard and he will be spending most of his daytime hours in that backyard when he's older. We have 3 huge oak trees, so you can imagine how many acorns we get. He does mostly nibble on them, but later on when there's hundreds of them, there's no way to monitor what he does with them. Our other dog never seemed to have a problem with them. Is there a way to teach him not to eat them - maybe give him an aversion to them somehow?

Thanks!

Adrian

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Is there a way to teach him not to eat them - maybe give him an aversion to them somehow?

Thanks!

Adrian

Does he know "drop it" yet? I think I would start with acorns if I hadn't taught drop it yet to this dog, and I think I'd spend a lot of time on it. I'll bet others will have ideas too.

How about e-collar training? It seems to me to be a made-to-order e-collar situation.
http://www.leerburg.com/qaelectric.htm

I would definitely make a plan for this. Gulping them down would be almost the equivalent of eating rocks. Not so good.