What Happened To White Dog Poop From The 1970s?

If you’re a dog owner, or even if you’re not, you could probably identify a pile of dog poo. It’s generally brown and sprinkled throughout yards, parks, and the occasional sidewalk.

However, dog poop wasn’t always the signature brown color it is today. In fact, back in the 1970s and 1980s, it was common to see chalky, white dog poop littering yards and sidewalks.

While dogs didn’t go anywhere, their distinct white feces started to disappear in the 1990s. Today, it’s basically nonexistent.

If you were around back when it was a regular sight, you may be wondering what happened to it. Did dog owners just get better at cleaning up their pets’ poo? Did dogs somehow evolve to poop darker?

The mystery was so popular that Sarah Silverman even wrote a song about it with lyrics that said: “What ever happened to that white dog poop from the 70’s? It went away as mysteriously as it came.”

According to IFLScience, the answer lies in popular dog food brands.

Back in the 1970s, it was common to feed dogs food that was extremely high in calcium from cheap bone meal and meat. Since dogs couldn’t process the amount of calcium they were consuming, they would simply poop out the excess!

As the sun dried the feces out, the white calcium would become visible – which is why dog poop was often viewed as white.