Eating Wood Chips
I swear, if you saw that way Oppy eats, you'd imagine we're starving him. He absolutely LOVES to eat just about anything. Recently the landscapers at our apartment complex put in new mulch next to our walkway right outside our door and every time we walk by, Oppy has to try to grab a wood chip or stick out of it. He'll usually just carry it around until we get back inside when he eagerly starts eating it as fast as he can. Being a corgi, he's ridiculously quick so I often have a hard time getting them out of his mouth (sometimes he hides them in his mouth so I don't know he has them until he's off his leash). He usually chews them up pretty good so I'm not super worried about them causing any blockage, but I was just wondering if there were any other reasons I should try to keep him from eating wood chips and sticks.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Susan Stanton on
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I have exactly the same issue with Ethel (the last time I boarded them for a weekend, the little notes they always give us when we pick the dogs up essentially said: "Bertie was happy and would play chase all day long. Ethel was pooping wood bits, is this normal?"
So I have really really been working with Ethel on two commands: "leave it," meaning don't pick that object up in your mouth, and "drop it" if she picks up something before we can say leave it. My concern is that even well chewed, the wood and sticks can splinter and cause problems, and also, one never knows if wood chips have been coated with something to inhibit mold, etc. So far, we've having good success with "drop it" when on walkies in the woods (she's just to quick for a leave it to work when roaming off leash.)
Oh, and Ethel also ate a small jar of wood putty -- so she had to have tons of extra fiber to get that out. Corgis.
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Permalink Reply by Alice on
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I was just about to write a post about the same thing! I'll just reply to yours instead.
Finn has always loved to carry sticks and pine cones around on our walks and he used to try to bring them in the house but he learned that this was not ok and has started dropping them in a pile by the front door. The few times he has gotten one in, he has eaten it and if he finds a tiny twig while we're walking he'll just eat it. He does the same thing with clumps of grass that end up laying around after the lawn is mowed. It's the only time he eats grass; he won't just pluck it from the ground like a normal dog..
A couple weeks ago we moved out of our apartment and in with my husband's parents while we wait for the house we're moving into to be ready. A couple times I caught Finn with something in his mouth that he refused to drop and after digging it our I found that it was wood. I finally found where it was coming from. There is a smoker in the back yard and he was finding wood chips scattered in the rocks near it and eating them.
Two nights in a row we woke up to Finnigan throwing up. The first time it just appeared to be white foam but the next night there was wood in it (and a hair). That night he threw up multiple times and each round contained wood.
We removed all wood chips and he was fine. There really weren't many chips though and he's only outside when someone goes with him (which is how I caught him chewing wood chips) so it didn't make sense how he was actually ingesting all that wood!
It just so happened that same day my father in law fixed a door that wouldn't stay closed and Finn kept pushing it open. He didn't seem to be doing anything in the room but it was annoying none the less that he'd punch it open then run out and watch for one of us to come close it. days later (with still no more barfing) we found that there was a basket in the closet of that room containing pine cones and Finnigan had been eating them! Who knows how many; there were shreds scattered around the closet. Now I understand where he was getting all the wood from!
I wish my dog weren't a wood eater especially since we're about to move into a house and there's no guarantee that twigs won't fall from the trees. That's my little weirdo, the Corgi/Woodchuck. Glad to know mine isn't the only one. :)
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LOL, they are something, aren't they? We actually have a beaver family in the pond that our yard abuts, and I point out their little hut to the pups, reminding my guys that they are NOT beavers! Ethel also loves bark, especially of spruce trees, but also maple and oak. She's not picky. And the grass thing -- mine too! Oh, the first time the lawn is mowed in the summer, they go wild for the grass clumps, just wild! They will pick up huge pieces and run like maniacs around the yard acting like they've just been released from a bread-and-water diet.
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Permalink Reply by Keri&Merlin(Judy&Alan's Pups) on
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I saw this post about wood chips and almost fell off of the computer chair!!Both of our corgis,Merlin and Keri,are huge chip eaters too.We figured They did it because their breeder lives on a farm with redwood/fir trees allover and They got used to
munching on Them up there.The "leave it" command works on everything except the chips!so far no trips to the vet for this,but who knows...some kind of genetic mutant corgis and beaver combo?lol
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Permalink Reply by Heather and Ella on
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My first thought would be that wood chips are sometimes process/dyed/treated with chemicals, so you may want to avoid those. But just a regular "non thorny" stick should be fine as long as he isn't scratching up his mouth/gums. Ella is a bug hunter and loves attack dandelions, corgis are too funny. :)
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Permalink Reply by Ramona on
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haha...i just finished repairing, refilling, and repainting a wooden leg on our sectional sofa TODAY, because Colbie chewed up a huge chunk of it. She also likes mulch and tearing off dead barks and branches off of our trees in the backyard. I'm not sure she likes to eat it as much as just chew on it.
We've tried spraying bitter apple on certain things and slapping her nose when she's chewing something we don't want her to but not sure if those have worked, especially since she actually likes bitter apple.
We haven't seen any problems with her digestion, but hopefully she won't have any! :P
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Permalink Reply by JH on
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I recently saw a news story about mocha mulch. It has a chocolate smell and the dogs and cats are really attracted to it. It is highly toxic.
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Permalink Reply by Nicola Porter on
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LO got hold of a popsicle stick and threw up three times all with splintered wood in it.
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