Hi all, We recently tried reducing our golden labs feeds from 3 to 2 and it doesn't seem to be agreeing with her. She has started having diarrhoea, which is clearly uncomfortable for her and yesterday she was sick in the morning producing what looked like packed together kibble that hadn't digested properly. She is on Wainwrights hypoallergenic kibble as she seems to have quite a sensitive stomach. We have to be careful as to what treats she has as often they can result in diarrhoea bouts. When we first brought her home we had hard time dealing with diarrhoea and blood and mucus. Her breeder had been giving her Chudleys and as soon as we moved over to a different food everything improved. We seem to be taking a bit of a step back now, although no blood and mucus luckily. I wondered if anyone else had experience of a lab with what seems to be a particularly sensitive tummy and if trying to move to larger meals either side of the day rather than small meals throughout had caused issues for you? This is the only change that has happened and she is otherwise perfectly well. Thanks
Sorry to hear about the issue you are having. We had this with Vanilla and it pretty much became a 1gram move from the lunch meal to either side over several weeks (actually months). From memory it took us about 4months to transition from 3 meals to 2 a day. You will get there just slow and steady.
Thanks for sharing your experience. That's really helpful. Going really slowly with it, sounds like it could be the best option
Harley has a very sensitive tummy and we spent months on chicken and rice as she couldn't tolerate kibble and has blood, mucus and diorrhea too. She stayed on 3 meals until she was about 6-8 months old as couldn't handle 2 meals. It wasn't an issue for us so this what we done.
Bonnie also has problems with rice so that does make it a little difficult when she has stomach problems. She's 10 months old so hoped she would transition ok to 2 meals but I suspect we have gone a little too quick for her. Hopefully we can pull it back and she will settle down again. I feel so sorry for her - she doesn't have the best time with her tummy. Thanks for sharing Harley's experience. It's really helpful to know others have faced such difficulties too
Does she have to go down to two meals? I understand if it's more convenient for you, but if you're doing it "just because", then there's actually no need. My older dogs are three years old and still on three "meals" a day because it suits us all and helps to break up the day. * I say "meals" because most of their food is actually given in training treats and/or enrichment activities so they actually get very little at meal times - but they enjoy it so I keep it going as a little tradition and the meals act as a good jackpot for keeping things like my recall whistle topped up or for anything else I want a big reward for
It was more convenience than anything but we were having the same discussion as to whether it is really necessary. We work full time but Bonnie goes to my parents during the day as they are retired so it isn't an issue havjng a meal during the day. I think 3 meals a day will suit her better. We have started to put her meals back to normal and suddenly her stools are looking better, so that suggests 3 meals is the way forward. Thanks for everyones help!
