In order to know

I've heard that in Mongolia, the traditional nomads burn dried horse poop for fuel.  Horses eat grass -- but don't digest it as thoroughly as cows do, so there's still some fuel left in the poop.

Modern dry dog food is largely cereal. Cereal is a grain, and thus related to grass.  Dogs have a single stomach, like horses -- and thus don't digest their food as thoroughly as cows.

Does dog poop burn?


I placed some "naturally dried" dog poop on an old metal tray, in the back yard (it's been rainy the last week, so there's little danger of starting a grass fire).  Tried lighting it with one of those butane fire-lighting wands.  Nope.

Next, i squirted it with methyl alcohol, then lit it.  It burned pretty well -- but it was obvious that it was the alcohol burning, not the poop.  Also, it smelled bad:  like -- well, burning dog poop, with a hint of singed hair.

The dried turds burned for a surprisingly long time -- but once the alcohol burned off, the poop stopped burning.  This leads me to believe that the poop absorbed the alcohol, much like a wick -- but that the poop itself does not tend towards burning.


This implies -- among other things -- that one should not bother carrying dried dog poop for emergency fire-starting purposes -- e.g. on wilderness excursions. 


--GG