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Why does my cat always like to poop while I'm eating? 🤔

Avatar of the author: Dr. Emily Becker 07/10/2024 06:23:22
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Cats like to pee and poop when their owners are eating, and this is not an isolated case. Many pet owners face this dilemma.🐱

Why do cats go to the bathroom when we eat? Is it deliberate or accidental?

### Reason 1: Biological Clock

Why do cats go to the bathroom when we eat? Is it deliberate or accidental?

Even if they don't poop in the morning during your breakfast, there are surely some cats who go to toilet during your afternoon tea...

This is due to a fixed biological clock. Cats have a similar schedule as their owners. They usually poop half an hour after waking up or 1 to 3 hours after a meal.

**Dawn and dusk are the active times for most cats to wake up, hunt, eat, and exercise.**
This 1 to 3 hour window is exactly when we have breakfast, come home from work, and have dinner. So, it's not revenge; it's just a coincidence.

### Reason 2: Completely Influenced by You
Of course, there's another scenario:
"Why does my cat always poop right when I wake up on the weekends around noon and order takeout?"

Besides their natural biological clock, many studies show that cats living with humans for a long time can be influenced by their human companions' schedules. Even without sharing sleep and meal times, many cats exhibit behavior such as: sleeping while the owner is out and waking up and starting to eat when the owner is about to come home.

### Reason 3: Stimulated by Food Smells
In addition to the above behavioral experiments and explanations, some veterinarians suggest that some cats might poop more because they're stimulated by the smell of food.
It could be human food or cat food.
It doesn't necessarily have to be a "bad smell" triggering their urge to poop; it might also be an appealing aroma or other scents stimulating the cat's gut motility.
In reality, there are cases where cats beg for food, don't get any, and then run off to poop as a result.

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**🌻 Frequently hear pet owners say, “Why does my dog always eat its own poop? Is it lacking trace elements?”** 🚩🚩 Especially for some small dogs, they just pooped with the front paws, and then sneakily eat it with the back paws. Initially, the owner doesn't see the poop and thinks the dog is constipated or eating less. Later, discovering this habit becomes unacceptable. In fact, there are various reasons for this phenomenon, and it might not just be the dog’s own issue but could also be caused by the owners. ㅤ ✅ **Nutritional Deficiency + Intestinal Absorption Problems** 🐶 🌾 Lack of trace elements (iron, copper, vitamin B), protein, digestive enzymes, etc., can cause dogs to eat poop. When these nutrients are not met for a long time, dogs instinctively seek them in different things, eating trash 🍄, poop, grass 🪴, stones 🪨, furniture, etc., turning all these into their target food. ㅤ ✅ **Too Hungry** If you often forget to feed your dog 🍜, or there's no set feeding schedule, the dog might get too hungry at home and find nothing to eat 🍚, leading it to eat poop. Additionally, before the dog comes home, some pet shops/kennels may not feed the dogs regularly 🍗 (puppies need to be fed three or four times a day, but some places only feed once or twice at irregular times), causing the habit of eating poop to form from a young age, making it hard to change later. ㅤ ✅ **Owner's Scolding** 🥢 Many new owners, especially girls, upon seeing the dog poop in the wrong place, drag the dog to the poop and scold it. This scares the dog, making it feel the need to destroy the evidence by eating the poop 🦴. ㅤ ✅ **Too Bored** Some dogs 🐶 stay at home all day with nothing to pass the time. Once they start playing with poop and get scolded by the owner, they realize this behavior grabs the owner's attention. Hence, they keep eating poop more for attention 💥. ㅤ ✅ **Undigested Food and Attractive Smell in the Poop** 🥪 Many dogs eat heavily flavored, oily, and additive-rich human food 🍛. When these get excreted, the poop still has undigested food and residual smells, attracting dogs to eat it 🥩. ㅤ ✅ **Innate Behavior** Some dogs eat poop due to their natural instincts! 🦎 People often say, "A dog can't stop eating poop." Before domestication, dogs would destroy evidence to avoid predators, and mother dogs would often lick their puppies' excrement to teach them where to poop 🍃. ㅤ ✅ **Nutritional Deficiency** Usually, this is because the dog food lacks sufficient nutrients to meet the dog's growth needs, or there are parasites in the dog's stomach competing for nutrients, making the dog more interested in any edible items. ㅤ **Correct Ways to Stop Dogs from Eating Poop:** ⭕ Catch them in the act and lightly tap them ⭕ Spray chili water or mustard on poop, the dog will learn after being burned a few times ⭕ Clean up promptly, start preparing to grab when you see the dog about to poop ⭕ Supplement trace elements, provide proper nutrition, and feed on schedule ⭕ Avoid feeding heavily flavored human food ㅤ If you really can't get rid of the habit, slowly accept it 🤣 ㅤ #DogCare #PetCare #PetKnowledge #DogEatingPoopWhatToDo

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