#Pica dogs sand full

We surveyed over 500 dog owners and consulted with an animal behaviorist to find the best solutions to stop a dog from digging. The only fix is to stop your dog from digging.īut how do your determined digger from tearing up your yard? Not only are holes ugly, but when it rains, they turn to mud.

I would often return home to find my dog’s head in a hole with his butt sticking up in the air – spraying dirt behind him.

#Pica dogs sand full

The story is runner-up for the Best Feature in Southern Africa in the Gender and Media awards to be announced in early February by the regional NGO Gender Links.Does your yard look like the surface of the moon – full of craters? Seldom can a journalist in Mozambique devote so much time to a story, but SAVANA understood its importance. We also did lots of internet research about pica and geofagia. It involved several trips to markets, winning the trust of women traders so we could see the production process, and getting the Ministry of Health on board to do the lab analysis for free. I did not enjoy the grittiness, knowing it corrodes tooth enamel, and since a dentist bill scares me more than an intestinal obstruction, my tasting adventure was limited. Nonetheless, Salane argues that consumers should know the health risks of eating sand frequently. She wrote a short editorial into the central spread, calling for information campaigns, but did not advocate banning the trade because it provides income for many women. Salane deplores that sand is sold near schools and that the Ministry of Health does not inform people of the dangers. Then it is pound, usually by older children, and sifted until it is fine, soft and silky - ready for sale. Women traders bring the 80 kgs bags of sand by minibus, then dry it on the pavement of alleys and courtyards in the bairros for three days, unprotected from dogs, cats, rats and birds. Except the diggers and the porters, the trade is dominated by women. The sand sold in Maputo comes from quarries at Marracuene, 30 km away. It seems to be addictive – what psychologists call pica, an eating disorder where people have unstoppable cravings for non-edible elements, like glass, clay, chalk or burnt matches. Many of the users interviewed said sand gives them colic and cramps but they can't stop eating it, five or six times a day. Consumed in large quantities, it can induce anemia among pregnant women because it prevents iron absorption.

The sand samples that SAVANA reporter Salane Muchanga took to the National Laboratory for Food and Water Quality for analysis contained fecal matter and plenty of e-coli bacteria.īesides bacterial diseases, sand can can cause intestinal obstructions, stomach ulceration and parasitic infections like toxoplasmosis. It drives a booming trade, giving jobs to many, and disease to many as well, as this investigative story uncovered. The novelty in Maputo is that eating sand has become a fad among youth and non-pregnant women, and they eat a lot of it, every day. In Southern Africa, traditionally, pregnant women eat a little bit of reddish soil or sand, possibly for its iron content.

Eating soil or sand (geofagia) was a traditional practice among many groups, from Native Americans to Amazonian tribes. Five meticais (US$0,10) will buy you a funil, a cone made of newsprint filled with silky sand, the colour – and taste - of your choice. They look lovely, the heaps of sand in ochre, sienna, orange and yellow hues, glistening under the sun or the dappled shade in the markets and street corners of Maputo.