Instead of taking over someone else's thread I thought I'd create a new one. I had my puppy on simpsons premium puppy potato and salmon sensitive, her stools were good but I transitioned to simpsons premium puppy mixed fish and chicken because it has a much better nutritional value. She's been on the new one for a few weeks and her stools have got softer than I was used too. She had a probiotic from the vets which really firmed them up but it finished yesterday and she just produced a stool that was half firm and half very runny. I wanted to ask if too much chicken/protein can cause this as she does have some chicken treats as well. Not relevant but would like to add she's my best friend!
Some dogs can be sensitive to chicken, so if your puppy was doing well on the salmon and potato I'd put her back on that, or choose another brand which doesn't contain chicken. This is lovely!
I'm going back to the salmon and potato, the other brand I was considering was Wellness but its got lots of chicken as well. I feel bad because I choose what food she gets so I need to get it right, maybe I'll increase her chicken and protein intake when she's fully developed. Thanks for your reply it cemented what I was thinking
Generally if they've got soft stools it's because they're being fed too much. My puppy keeps trying to eat stones, wood, everything, that's what puppies do, it's not necessarily indicative of being hungry or needing something else in their diet. Read the guidelines on the packaging and weigh every meal to make sure you're feeding the right amount. Get a really good quality puppy food such as Canagan, Simply, Barking Heads, Arden Grange etc. And don't let them in the garden unsupervised or they are going to eat things they shouldn't.
I've decided to go back to 3 meals per day, she just had another soft big stool and she's not big in terms of weight (17.90kg at 6 months which is 4kg under the average). I'm hoping with the reduction in chicken and protein combined with smaller portions will help settle her stomach
I don’t agree that soft stools are due to feeding too much and I guess it depends how soft is soft. If there is no form at all it will be more down to what you are feeding and how healthy your dog’s gut is.(rule out anything like Giardia if very bad) I didn’t get consistently firm stools over several months until I switched to raw but have to avoid chicken.
I don't think I feed her too much over the day but I was maybe feeding her too much at one time? She gets the same amount but I was doing it in 2 meals rather than 3 when she hit 6 months of age, and it was full of chicken so I'm slowly changing both to see how she gets on. I'd taken a sample into vets to check he said it looked okay but it's got softer since. Her last two stools have been much better
