Hello All, My 9 month old 56 pound boy is currently on Orijen Large Breed Puppy and has been for the past 5-6 months. His stool is mainly soft. He has also had 4 cases of bad diarrhea and I am not sure if it was caused by the kibble. I am looking for high quality kibble recommendations and your experiences. Here are a few other questions: At what age can I switch him over to adult kibble? Is adding pumpkin or yogurt on a regular basis ok? Is a cooked beef and rice meal ok once in a while? Just like us humans, food is the primary way to stay healthy. Does anybody have a few feeding tricks to help optimize health? Thanks
My puppy is on Orijen large breed puppy - on paper, it looks like a good kibble. She also has soft poos at the minute, but not too bad. I'll wait to see what happens over time before deciding whether or not to switch again. I don't think it is really a case of finding a higher quality kibble, but rather one that seems to suit your dog a bit better. You could try switching to a different protein source kibble and see whether it seems to suit your dog a bit better. I honestly think most mid to top end priced kibble from the major brands are pretty much the same in terms of quality. Avoid the lower end of the market, and if you don't want to feed grain then look for one without and so on. The age at which you can switch a large breed puppy onto adult food, depends on the food you switch to - the reason we feed large breed puppy food is because of calcium levels etc being suitable for large breed puppies. So long as the adult food is also suitable, you can switch. I won't be switching my puppy onto to adult food until she is over a year old though, there is no advantage in switching, and it's sensible to keep a larger breed puppy on properly formulated puppy food until they have stopped growing.
I put Riley on Orijen as it always scores very highly on food comparison sites. I don't think he did any better on it than any of the others I've tried and he certainly didn't love it any more so because of the price and the airmiles involved I switched again! I think a decent kibble has everything your dog will need without supplements but there's nothing wrong with adding bits and bobs for some variety. Riley seems to value variety so I add a little wet food to his kibble and I buy a mixed pack so he has something different each day. Obi couldn't care less and just inhales whatever is put in front of him.
Ask your breeder or Vet about switching to adult food. My boy was on ALS food so I didn't have to switch. A bit of pumpkin (or sweet potato which has 6 times the amount of fibre so you don't need as much) might help firm up the loose stool. Too much fibre has the opposite effect and will make loose stool so start with a very small amount, maybe a teaspoon a meal. The yogurt might add some probiotic (kefir has more) and help with digestion too, again, only a very small amount. Read the label, some yogurt is sweetened with xylitol, which is deadly to dogs and cats. Cooked beef and rice once in a while is fine. Caution on the rice, if you already have loose stool it might not help as rice in the gut can ferment. Again, sweet potato might be a better option but each dog is individual. Have you considered rotating foods? In the event of recall or your store is simply out you have another option your dog is already adjusted to. My main reason was to avoid buildup in my dog of the crap that goes into the production of the main protein and filler, reasoning that antibiotics, fertilizer and pesticides are different for, say, lamb than they are for chicken. OR for corn than they are for potato. I confess I did not research this part though. I fed two grain foods and one grain free, no trouble switching, kept protein, fat and kcal/cup numbers close since I started with the breeders food and it worked fine. I rotated two big bags at a time. Some rotate each meal but then you have to safely store three open bags of food.
We are struggling with a similar issue. Apollo has had a loose stool since the day we brought him home. He is now nearly 6 months old. I didn't think too much about it until I started taking him out and had to clean up after him with poop bags. We are in the middle of switching him to a new food but I haven't seen much change other than an increase in gas. How long do I give the new food before moving on?
In my opinion, finding the right food may take some time. However, switching too frequently isn't a good thing either. It puts too much stress on the littlest one's stomach
Do you mean BARF the brand of raw food or BARF as in feeding in line with the whole ideology? I feed quite a bit of raw but don't subscribe to any model or system. I kinda stick by the broad principles of aiming for variety, teeth cleaning benefits and not-too-processed foods (though we do include some daily kibble and if my dog is minded by anyone has has kibble only).
I did, not the prepackaged stuff but the ideology as endorsed, supported and encouraged by our new Vet after Oban first got sick. Oban's coat never looked better, his itching stopped (he was on TCM as well though) and he definitely loved his meals. It was quite a bit more work, planning and physical in the sawing up of frozen hunks of meat and bone. The OH's long unused saw from his deer hunting days was called into play, and OH too. And not cheap. I already had a separate freezer but it took a third of it to store the food which I bought and planned out for a month at a time. The cats went partially raw too. Sadly Oban got sick again, he is now on a special kibble geared to his gut issues.
BARF raw food patties? I'm not sure I'm I have space for making my own recipes and freeze it? I looked into the patties and they are very very expensive.
I've been BARF-feeding my ferrets and dogs for years. I don't have a problem with having to chop up the meat, as my supplier sells it in useful chunks. The bags I get usually have pieces in just the right sizes and amounts to weigh out perfectly for meals. Usually, I just thaw and serve, so to speak, and make sure to vary the meals each day. Fun Fact; 7 ferrets eat the same amount of meat in a day as a fully grown basset hound. I wouldn't suggest starting a BARF diet with a still growing dog if you aren't already well versed in the methods and balances; unless you have someone at hand to help you out or indeed plan the meals for you. The nutritional needs of a growing animal are hard to hit when you aren't just feeding them in all-in-one like in a good kibble, and the warning signs that you aren't on point can be easily missed if you aren't watching for them. I am a dedicated BARF-Feeder, but if Jackie had been under a year old when I got him, I would have probably kept him on kibble until he passed 12 months, as I've never had a large breed from puppyhood before and they have different needs than the small dogs and ferrets that I've fed before. At 9 months old, your boy would have to eat around 5% of his bodyweight to maintain growth and his current weight, depending on his metabolism. At 56 pounds, that would be 3.8 pounds (roughly) of meat and bone per day. Onto that, I'd usually add some squirts of fish-oils for the fatty acids. Maximum 10% of the meat can be fruits, carbs, and veg, though keep the fruit(sugar) low. Think health food, though always check that it is something a dog can eat safely. It is complicated, but doable. Just be sure, if you do decide to go that route, to have someone knowledgeable handy. Even after all these years, I still constantly talk to my supplier and my vet about the animals diet. Now, for the actual question about loose stools. Sweet potato in low doses, as others have said, pumpkin baby-food, I don't know if you have canned fish-balls where you are? It's just cooked white-fish in small balls, but we use it for stomach upsets as a gentle food. Normally, on one of mine, I give them more bone if they have loose stools, or add a bit of bonemeal to their non-bone meals. Sometimes it helps to have them at half-rations for a day or two, then gentle food like chicken or white-fish with some added bonemeal. A single dog to feed is like having one reverse-vegetarian human living with you. Over 30 days, an adult dog will eat half their body weight in meat and bone, so freezer space can be limiting and the actual food expensive. Wow, I hope that makes sense, I'm exhausted.
