I recently began my first compost pile at the house. My wife and kids have been helping by adding fall leaves, pulled weeds and all kitchen scraps. It has been a wonderful experience and we look forward to using our homemade compost.

My question is about adding our dog's manure (labrador retriever) to the pile. She is fed good quality dog food (Nutro) and usually makes ~ 2 small "piles" a day. I used to throw it in the corner while "pooper scooping" and noticed how wonderful the grass grew around this accumulating pile. I recently dug underneath the pile and found the soil very soft, filled with earthworms and seemed very healthy.

Does anyone have an opinion on adding the dog's manure to our ongoing compost bin?

Thanks in advance!

Sure - just as long as it is a pretty big pile and you heat it up good. Poop composts in your yard all the time, this is just faster.

In the summer, see if you can get some soldier fly larvae going - they reduce my 3 dogs' turds into vermicompost in record time.

Thanks!

I have seen several postings on various sites concerning diseases and how not to use it for vegetable gardens and such. I feel as long as you practice common sense, and not eat your compost, you should be fine.

I once asked this of Howard when the City of Plano was telling people in their composting class not to include animal waste. Here is what it came down to: Pet waste is potentially harmful when raw, not when composted.

On way or another, you are going to handle raw pet waste. You'll either pick it up and throw it in the landfill or you will pick it up and throw it in the compost pile.

I had a master composter tell me most home compost piles don't get hot enought to kill off bacteria, so she recommended not using home compost with animal waste on food crops.

As with any compost, wear gloves when handling.

Thank everyone. I'll get some pictures of the before and after (yuck!) and let you know how it goes. I don't plan on using this for edible garden plants but spread on the lawn or worked into the soil for general landscaping.

So far, making compost has been fun! My kids have been great at dumping their kitchen scraps in the bin. I am amazed at how much less food scraps have ended up in our trash can for the landfill.

anyone have "guidelines" for what temp's a good hot compost should be at? I have a neato toy from OTR work (laser thermometer) and have been toying with recording the compost temps randomly to see what it's doing.... suggestions folks? should I make a seperate thread?(scratchs head) Don't want to tangent or thread-jack... just felt it was relavant to this topic here...