# Dog eating feathers



## wingnut

Our dog a K.C. Cav. has now decided to eat feathers. Once he gets one its very difficult to get it out of his mouth....he stops and will not continue on his walk and will sit down and not budge, all he wants to do is go home with the feather. Its getting embarrassing!!
We've tried treats and also the clicker to no avail.
Has anyone got an idea on how to stop him?
I don't want to use a muzzle.


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## Elles

Is that why your forum name is Wingnut. 

A Cav carrying a feather home sounds quite cute tbh. hmy: 

The usual tip is to offer to swap for something of equal or higher value. A Peacock feather?

Sorry, the proper guys will now help I expect, I'm just a pet owner who thinks it sounds really cute. 

PS: before you retrain it, can we have pics.  I'll probably be slapped now, as feathers might be dangerous in some way, disease or mites or something. Apologies again.


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## wingnut

Sorry no pics
But thanks for the tip.........now where can I get a peacock from!!!


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## louisefoy

I'm having exactly the same problem with my Cav KC. He's always been a bit bird-obsessed but is 4 now and it's suddenly gotten a lot worse. Same as you - he won't leave it, sits chewing / eating it, and if I try to take it off him he paws, scratches or nips me (and he is normally such a lovely good-tempered dog). I'm worried about the sharpness hurting his insides and the fact that they distract him so much - he will hunt them out and then nothing will get him to leave it (food, treats, ball...) I don't know what to do!!!!!


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## springerpete

wingnut said:


> Our dog a K.C. Cav. has now decided to eat feathers. Once he gets one its very difficult to get it out of his mouth....he stops and will not continue on his walk and will sit down and not budge, all he wants to do is go home with the feather. Its getting embarrassing!!
> We've tried treats and also the clicker to no avail.
> Has anyone got an idea on how to stop him?
> I don't want to use a muzzle.


Isn't it strange, you're worried about your little dog picking up feathers, whilst I actively use them to train my pups. I've a couple of training dummies with pheasant wings attatched that I use with pups. ( Never had any issues with mites of the like, aso I shouldn't worry too much. )


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## 8tansox

Us raw feeders don't always bother plucking birds to feed our dogs, not had any problems so far.... been feeding raw for over three years now.


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## Emmastace

I wouldn't worry about it personally......there are a million things my dogs have had in their mouth or eaten over the years, to no ill effect.
When the behaviourist was assessing Mia for her fear problems she brought a massive crate out containing everything you could think of to see what Mia was drawn to and how she reacted to things. After tossing everything out of the crate, stealing a few things and running off to hide them in my bed, she finally settled on a multi-section red leather handbag that was stuffed with about 80 pheasant feathers. She spent a few minutes opening all the compartments getting the feathers out carefully then discarded the bag. She then ran around like a mad thing dropping feathers everywhere. Although the feathers were strewn all over the house and yard, upstairs and down she decided they were her most treasured possessions and threw them everywhere every time i picked them up and put them in her toy box. She was chewing them for weeks with me picking some up whenever she wasn't looking and getting rid of them.


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## rottiemum

I wouldn't worry about the feathers...I had a dog once that caught a bird :scared:

She was coming in from the back garden with feathers sticking out of her mouth and I realised it was a bird and made her drop it before she came in the house. When I went to dispose of the bird I realised something really gross - it was missing its head - this I found a day later when she had thrown it up. (sorry, that's really gross)

But the point is she was fine - no ill effects.


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## Blondie

8tansox said:


> Us raw feeders don't always bother plucking birds to feed our dogs, not had any problems so far.... been feeding raw for over three years now.


You took the words out my mouth, lol!!


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## Malmum

He's probably trying to tell you something - like where's the rest of the bird then mum? 

When Marty and Flynn caught a dove they ate the lot, feathers and all. They plucked a bit but not much cos they couldn't wait to get it in their tums - greedy boys!


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## [email protected]

I live near wildlife lakes so when we're out walking, quite frequently a fox has had a bird in the night so the feathers are left as evidence. My two love chewing them. I just let them get on with it to be honest.


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## louisefoy

I'm not so much worried about it as annoyed that it is starting to spoil our walks. If he's off the lead he will just find a feather and sit chewing it, refusing to move until he's eaten it (even if I just carry on walking without him), and if I put him on the lead it's pretty much a case of dragging him away! I could just do with somehting to distract him away.


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## Emmastace

louisefoy said:


> I'm not so much worried about it as annoyed that it is starting to spoil our walks. If he's off the lead he will just find a feather and sit chewing it, refusing to move until he's eaten it (even if I just carry on walking without him), and if I put him on the lead it's pretty much a case of dragging him away! I could just do with somehting to distract him away.[/QUOTE
> 
> Who's walk is it spoiling, yours or his? Sounds to me like chewing feathers is what he enjoys so I would let him. Dogs like to do lots of things out on a 'walk' that doesn't include walking. As long as he is getting proper exercise time it doesn't really matter.
> If you are worried about him not doing what you want him to do then teach a solid 'leave it' but I would still let him chomp on a few feathers sometimes if it's what he enjoys.


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## Rozanne

If you are walking more than one dog - in my case I have two cavies - it's not much fun for the other one to keep waiting whilst I take the feather away. There is no aggression when I do so but I'm concerned about whether or not this is harmful and just as important why is he doing it, because having taken one feather away he will "hunt" for another and be completely distracted from any commands, other toys or distraction techniques I might use.


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