Hello. My puppy, Coco, is 19 weeks old and is growing wonderfully. She already has great recall and is quick to learn. However, she doesn't have a fixed poo schedule, although she always eats at the same time. She is being fed on Royal Canin, Labrador Puppy food, and is fed at 06:30, 13:00 and 20:00. I made her evening feed later as she was not able to go through the night without pooing. What would "normal" poo times be? Coco's toilet times change a lot. She isn't pooing after her evening meal and then, if she has last pooed between 16:00-17:15, she will not be able to last the night. Yesterday she pooed at 02:30 and now she hasn't wanted to poo this morning. She still poos 3-4 times/day but not always around the same time. I read that most dogs are pooing regularly after each feed. I assume that this is actually eliminating the from the feed before and not the one they have just eaten. I am hoping that moving to 2 feeds might help. Is 20 weeks ok to move to twice daily feeding? Many websites say 6 month. Any advice please?
You'll get a lot of help with this one, we do like our poo discussions here. Maisy (1 year old) doesn't really go at a set time after meals, her meals are not always at the same time - about 9.30am and evenings sometimes 5pm, sometimes 8pm, sometimes not at all if she has had lots of snacks. However, she does poo every morning before leaving home (7am apprx) and every evening on a walk - that can be between 6pm and 8pm depending when we go out. Sometimes a third one appears after a morning walk but I don't know where it all comes from. When she was Coco's age she would go in the morning after getting up about 6.30am-7am, afternoons about 4pm and again in the evening before bed 10pm-11pm, her meals were really regular then, breakfast at 6am, lunch about 12 and dinner at 6pm. She never wanted to go at night, slept right through. Hope this helps.
No, I would stay on three feeds. At such a young age, she will struggle to manage the volume of food in her tummy that two meals would mean. My dogs don't toilet after feeding. They go on one or both of their morning and evening walks (meals are after the walks) and the youngster sometimes goes before bed time. They don't have set meal times and their meals are only small, they get most of their food spread throughout the day in Kongs and for training. 19 weeks is very young to have a reliable schedule. She's still a baby.
My Coco is nearly 4. He doesn't have a fixed schedule for pooing, but he does have regular set meal times. He has 3 meals a day 7:30am (8:30 at weekends/holidays), 6pm and 10pm (though his last meal at 10pm is very small - a hang-over from our previous dog, Belle, who had to have a small meal at bed time to prevent bile vomiting in the night). He goes 2-3 times a day, when it suits him. He also gets additional treats throughout the day for training.
I kthink she's a bit young to determine that yet. Plus, if for some reason an outing is delayed, when they're older and do have control, they might hold on till you get home. But here's a trick. Red beets will stain poop dark red. Scary dark red that looks like internal bleeding. Whole fresh beets give good hard recreational chewing, they're full of good nutrients and they can help you time poop passing. Small beets to introduce them. Cooked beets stain red too. Just a guideline but interesting to look for.
Not just snowbunny! My father-in-law used to grow beetroot and after the first batch of the season there was always a heart-dropping moment that first time!
My friends oh loved those beetroot crisps ate loads and ended up at his gp thinking hes got stomach cancer because he was bleeding when he pooped. She looked at his fingers and just said what's this on your fingers...... He was very embarrassed. Another friend ate so much beetroot she stained her contact lenses purple. It's dangerous stuff.
My 19 week old usually goes straight after breakfast, then again on morning walk (sometimes 2 small ones) and once more on an afternoon outing. As I do let him out into the garden on his own I'm not always aware of him going after that and I don't think he always does, he just holds it till morning.
Thanks for all your advice so far. I am also quite partial to beetroot in my juice which has given me shocks in the past when I have forgotten drinking it.
Mine in 20 weeks old. He gets a cup of kibble at 7 AM, 12 PM, and 5 PM. I keep a running white board tally at the door noting when he eats, when he poos, and when he pees. He usually has to pee/poo at 6:50 AM, then again at 12:15 PM, and then again at 5:10 PM, and before bed at 9-10 PM. I won't take him to bed until he poos, and I tell him that. since he starts harassing me about going to bed at about 8:30, I remind him that he has to go big Potty or he can't go up to his night crate. He knows. I recently moved the evening feed back to 5:00 PM from 6:00 PM because he wasn't pooing at night until 10:30 - 11, and I want to get to bed by 11 myself. I don't work(my hubbie does), so I have more options. He is pretty hungry at 7:00 AM. Its 8:00 PM now and he's sleeping on my foot. He sleeps a lot but he did get a 35 minute walk today, and pretty wild from about 9:00 AM to 7 PM. He can't really use the yard yet since there's 2 feet of snow on the ground everywhere. But I'm looking forward to teaching him to chase a Frisbee.
