[Conrad Berube]

Conrad Berube asked the Naked Scientists:

Hello

Way-back-when it was my job to clean up the family pet's droppings in the yard. I remember that the dog's leavings often developed a white patina as they dried.

I've had many dogs since then but don't recall having seen such white neo-coprolites in, well, in a dog's age. I now live in beautiful British Columbia rather than Michigan where I grew up-- did I just get more prompt at picking up the yard, is there something different about the environment between Michigan and British Columbia, have the constituents of dog food changed over the last several decades or is global warming causing the demise of ivoried doggie doo?

Bee happy,

Conrad Bérubé

What do you think?

[DoctorBeaver]

The constituents have changed markedly. There is not so much bonemeal in modern dog food and I believe that was the cause of the whiteness.

[blakestyger]

Yes. Our dog did a completely white poo once - great consternation: had its biliary system packed up? No, in fact it had eaten a particularly big bone at one sitting.
Strangely, I recall an incident in the late 1940s when I was at primary school in rural Shropshire - everybody filed through the toilet block (outside)to examine a pure white turd extruded by some poor, undernourished little soul. Who still thinks that we had better diets under post-war rationing? It may have been true for those who could afford what was rationed!