I have a question about food. We have been feeding our puppy (now 12 weeks) Merrick grain free puppy since we converted him over when we got him (doing the transition) so he's been entirely on it for about 3 weeks. He has been doing fine no diarrhea or anything up until Sunday night. He has been sleeping through the night since 9 weeks. Sunday evening he woke us up we took him our potty, he had diarrhea. Then Monday night same thing, but twice 2am then again 4am. Last night once at 2am. During the day it's between, sometimes normal then later with diarrhea. The only thing we changed was increased his food according to the package for age/weight. Do you think this could be it? Should we decrease? or is it we are feeding him to late in the evening? his feeding schedule is 6:15am, Noon, 6pm. One thing I also noticed it the package shows they eat more then at 16 weeks it decreases???? Why is this?
Quite often poo that starts normal and ends soft is caused by overfeeding. With only a handful of exceptions, the labels on the packets tend to vastly overestimate the amount required by our Labradors, who seem to be able to eke every calorie from their food compared to some other breeds. I would definitely reduce the amount you're feeding him and judge amounts by his body condition rather than an arbitrary number on the side of a packet that can't take into account individual metabolisms, activity levels and so forth. A decrease in food amounts normally corresponds with the end of a growth spurt; obviously more food is necessary during these developmental stages. You'll probably notice that the amount fed to a puppy is quite a lot more than that fed to an adult too, for the same reason. Again, this is only a guideline as the food is not breed- or individual-specific, so you really are best ignoring the packet and feeding for shape instead.
Thank you that makes sense. The doctor has not said that he is over or underweight so I don't really know how to judge his size??? or if we are over feeding but I will reduce and see what happens thanks
Harley used to suffer with a sensitive tummy if I gave her too much food. It took me a few weeks to know what was the right amount for her, it was very trial and error. Hopefully your pups tummy will settle soon
I had the same problem with my puppy. I first thought it was because I had a diffrent food from the breeder (still Farmina, but they used puppy medium, I use puppy maxi), but it just continued for a week. Then it stopped while I was still feeding him the same amount. As soon as I gave him more, diarrhea came back. So I guess you just have to find the wright amount.
