5 yr. old eating photos...is his diet lacking?

[twoblacklabs]

My 5 year old male has been doing very naughty things lately. He has gone from swallowing socks whole right in front of us to taking photo albums and scrapbooks off shelfs and eating pages...usually leaving the plastic page protecter behind, but not always.

He has horrible seasonal allergies and is on a daily dose of prednisolone. He is on grain free food..TOTW. He gets 3 cups a day. 1 1/2 in the a.m. and 1 1/2 in the late afternoon. He weighs 100 lbs.

He pulls his 'stunts' right in front of us. I know he doesn't get as much excercise as he needs and we are working to remedy that.

As much as I love him, I am at my wits end!

[Tanya]

Others who know more will chime in but I am fairly sure that predisone can lead to over eating/eating weird things.

Is the behaviour linked to when he went on predisone? Is his routine the same or has anything else changed?

Also, the lack of exercise can also absolutely be a reason for the "bad behaviour". He isn't a puppy but he still needs to get his daily exercise!

[POPTOP]

If the eliminating the prednisone and upping the exercise does not work, then in our house we'd call it a dog. Bandit, at 7, ate remotes, glasses and more remotes. Archie loves paper, especially cardboard. And Mardi, just had to clean the floor again because, even at age 11, she dug in a wet spot. It's their inner puppy coming out.

[krosen]

That medication tends to make them very hungry. A friend of mines dog was on it and he too began eating everything in sight. Eventually they had to muzzle him when he couldn't be supervised.

[jake&Tex]

I don't know anything about the medicine/appetite connection, but all I think is that if he's going to act like a baby, he needs to be treated like a baby! :-) I would definitely crate him when he cannot be 100% supervised by someone. Now it's the photo album, but next might be something that could shock, sicken, or injure him!

[Brutus]

Definintely the steroids. My Brutie was on Prednisone recently and destroyed all the cushions on our lawn furniture. He could have eaten one cushion but instead chose to take a bight out of each cushion so the damage was much greater. Prednisone affected his behavior too he was less affectionate and more aggressive/demanding. We weaned him off and his sunny personality is back (although the cushions are still destroyed). If you take him off prednisone do not cut it all at once, they have to be tapered or it is dangerous, ask your vet.

[MikeLynn]

Well, I've got first-hand experience with the drug - been on prednisone myself, for nineteen years. Considering that labs are prone to gluttony, I'm quite surprised that the poor guy hasn't eaten the whole house yet. On a bit more serious note, there might be some other reasons, but LAB/PREDNISONE must be a real killer combination

[piccadilly]

He's bored.

[CraftHer]

I think he's trying to tell you to post pictures

[Polly Pipkin]

Wow - socks are dangerous things to eat. No idea about the drug, back to puppy class for him!

You could also do some mental stimulation games with him and refocus all that energy. I bet he'd like nose work because the reward (food) is instantaneous and it really tires them out. Polly loves it!