Hi guys, Looking for some advice, new to this forum... We have our new lab choc puppy, hes about 10.5 weeks now and we are having alot of issues with his pooing, we dont feel hes putting on enough weight and can see his ribs With soo many variations to causes to it, we are really struggling and we can see he is not putting on weight as he should. He was about 4.8kg at about 10 week mark, vet said its fine but everywhere i see online lab pups tend to be more? We have found when we reduce his food amounts it does form better (when we fasted him before chicken / rice) but dont feel we give him enough as it is! What i am just trying to gauge is what is the correct amount to feed a lab puppy, so much conflicting information and seems packets on the food is best not to go by? Currently Max is on 4 meals a day of autarky, 50gs each meal at 7:30/10:30/1:30/5:30. This is 20g under the minimum amount of the package for his expected weight/age. Whats the general rule of thumb? or is it puppy dependent. Hes very happy in him self. We are considering trying a food without rice in it v.soon
I would be less bothered by rice (4%) in the food, many dog/puppy food contain rice, than the maize this food contains. Maize is widely used in dry dog foods as an alternative to grains like rice, oats and barley. Of all of the grains used in dog food, maize is certainly amongst the most controversial. Many of the most ardent supporters of maize are from within the pet food industry. They correctly argue that maize is a good quality, nutritious carbohydrate source with a comparable nutritional profile to grains like oats and barley. Critics of maize, on the other hand, claim that it is harder for dogs to digest and is therefore much more likely to lead to food intolerance or allergies. Many canine nutritionists and some vets now recommend avoiding maize based diets altogether. So it is possible that Max's runny poo is down to the maize. I also had a look at the feeding advice forca 10 week old pup but couldn't work out how you got to 50g per meal. Based upon a 10 week old adult weight of 25kg+ the amount is around 390g per day. Reducing by 20% would still allow 78g per meal.
Thanks for the good advice JoJo, this evening hes at his worst... pure puddle runny poo. Likely the worst hes been. We are going to buy a new food first thing tomorrow, think we will try the wainwrights salmon and potato - no maize or rice in this product so fingers crossed this may do the trick. As for the food quantities, as hes been having poor poos - we have been on the side of caution and didn't want to risk over feeding as we knew overfeeding can cause runny poops. The breeder told us 3 handfuls, 3 times a day which was around 100g - we scrapped that as seemed nothing. The autarky food we have shows 220g - 320g so we stuck to the bottom end of this to avoid upsetting his belly to much. What do you think to us introducing this new food, should we go to a bland diet for a while such as potato & chicken then introduce it or just start on it immediately seeing his poos are so bad. Info varies so much on amounts to give and guess the quality of the food can contribute to it.
quite possible, its a mine field trying to find the cause. All with trial and error, he suffers weight wise We are going to go with boiled mince beef and potato now i think for a few days then once hes recovered we will introduce his new kibble slowly. We bought some probiotic supplement for him, would this be best to avoid when putting him on a bland diet? as the bland diets meant to be low fibre where as that adds fibre in? This is the product https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00BEXP5MA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
If it is a food intolerance, it is far more likely to be caused by the protein source than the carbohydrate source. I have the research article to back that up somewhere. The worst offenders are beef and chicken, so choosing a food without those is a good first step if you suspect a food intolerance. Ignore the quantities stated on the pack, they are just a starting guideline and are completely dependent on the individual dog and his circumstances. Mine eat nothing like the amount stated on the packets and it seems that most Labs need far less. The odd one needs more, but it's a lot less common. My boy Shadow was a small one and he struggled to put on weight. Like Max, he would get liquid diarrhoea if he was fed too much. So I had to find the amount he could take and then ever so slowly increase it. He spent much of his puppyhood looking rather scrawny; I would get him looking OK and then he'd have a growth spurt and go skinny again. Now he's an adult and still has skinny times, but is also capable of eating to excess without any issues. He's actually on a diet at the moment after leaving him with my husband for a couple of weeks
Hi Crumbs. My fox red lab is the same age and also a skinny mini. Her poos are literally up and down (currently the same as your pup) however she is a right scavenger and finds things in the garden, crumbs at granny’s house, whatever she can find. Bailey was on 3 meals a day as suggested by her breeder but I’ve now changed that to 4 smaller meals a day which did improve temporarily. It’s difficult to work out if it’s the food or the other things that she sniffs out. She’s currently on Skinners Field & Trial Puppy Food as that was what she was weaned on. I’m not sure if anyone else has any experience of that food (I will put on a separate post to ask). As a pet (not working) dog she’s recommended up to 185g per day but she’s not up to that quantity with her tummy I would have said she’s on @ 165g. I will try a separate post on the food to see if anyone has any advice and will possibly introduce a new food in with her existing kibble and phase out the old. Some posts have suggested certain types of food which also seem to reduce the need to scavenge. Anyway, just to let you know you’re not alone in this. I’ve found this forum really useful. Fingers crossed we get Bailey’s and Max’s tums settled soon!
Hi @Crumbs, poor boy with runny poo. It might be worth taking a poo sample to the vet just to rule out any problems like giardia and have a chat with him about your concerns. Overfeeding can cause runny poo as can an intolerance of something in the food - chicken can be a culprit as can maize . For runny tummies I cook white fish and mix with boiled white rice so it is very bland and gradually re-introduce puppy/dog food once the poo had firmed up. A change of food could be a good idea and something like salmon and potato would seem to be a good option. You could also have a look at the www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk website and investigate and compare some foods for Max before going out to buy. It will need to be introduced slowly over a week or so in any event. Hope things are better very soon.
Thanks guys, seems ALOT of things can cause our furbabies to have the runs... guess its trial and error. I'm not convinced its some parasite or disease. Happy boy and shows no signs of them conditions, its on our list but we are trying other things first. Currently the bland diet of beef and potato has totally firmed his stool out never thought id be glad to see a normal poo haha! going to re introduce his food tomorrow, fingers crossed!! Donna, check this page out for good foods, food dictionary https://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/the-dog-food-directory
When we first got our golden pup, she had really runny stools and we were really worried. Like with your pup, we weren't convinced that there was any kind of parasite as she was absolutely fine otherwise. We decided to change her food and she is now on Wainwright's hypoallergenic turkey and vegetables dry food. She really likes it and her stools have been normal ever since. It was such a relief to see a firm stool, so I know exactly what you mean. Her breeder really favoured the food she was on before as she said it gave her a glossy coat, however it definitely wasn't right for her and I'm glad we followed our gut instinct with it. i'm surw your pup will be the same xx
