Choosing food is no walk in the park

[gsdlover91]

Berlin has been on Fromm Gold since I got him in September...recently I switched over to Blue Buffalo LBP, but just bought a bag of TOTW puppy because I am not *crazy* for the BB, pretty expensive...and I preferred the Fromm over it. Anyways. I've been switching foods because since I've had him, he has not really had normal, solid stools at all. It almost always is 'mushy', sometimes worse. He has been tested numerous times and he has nothing...so I'm assume it's the food.

Also- he gets one pouch a day of the Nutro puppy beef and veg wet food..but I just bought a can of the Merrick puppy wet food. He likes Merrick alot more. Opinions??

What do you guys think? What food, out of those three is best? Is anything else similar to those that is ideally under $50 for a 30lb bag? Is the food even his problem?! lol, I just have no idea what else to do. I've tried pumpkin, probiotics, anti-diarrheals, etc etc etc....is he sensitive to a certain food??


oh and...is 1.4:1.1 calcium: phos ratio too high for the TOTW? Finding a food is so confusing and it sucks because the Fromm was perfect (not for him apparently)

[martemchik]

If your dog hasn't had good stools on any of the foods you've given him, you're really going to have to start looking into the ingredients a lot more. Seeing what you have/have not given him and what he does better on and what he does worse on. Fromm is an excellent food to try that with because they have tons of different proteins. Your dog is old enough to get off of puppy food at this point and many of the Fromm grain free foods have just as much or even more protein than their LBP food.

LBP is duck based, so maybe go with a different protein. Whitefish/salmon is always a good one to try when the regular proteins might not be agreeing with your dog's tummy. In the end, without doing HARDCORE research into % of this, and % of that, I trust most of the "holistic" brands. Plus...the more research you do, the more likely you are go be scared of an ingredient that is 1 out of 1000000000 parts in the dog food and are likely to go all raw anyways (if you have the time).

My dog is 2.5, we switched him to a regular food when he turned 1. Did fine for a while, then all the sudden had issues. We switched from brand to brand, tried a bunch of the fromms and finally just went back to the LBP. He likes it, he eats it, he does just fine on it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[RocketDog]

Well it's been my experience that the wet food could also be causing a bit of loose stool. I found when switching foods, it takes a good two weeks to see the stools firm up from the switch also. And it may take three weeks before they look normal color wise. If he was just a little pup in September, it takes a while before they stop eating all sorts of stuff too---that can impact stools additionally.

My dog did very well on Orijen, But never loved it. Recently I switched him to Pioneers Natural Venison formula. It's grain free and uses sweet potatoes and yams instead of russet potato. A 30 pound bag costs $48.95.

HE FREAKING LOVES IT.

[robfromga]

We feed Blue Buffalo, Willie and Simone do great with it, Zane can get some loose stools. I add some pumpkin, for a treat every day. They all love the pumpkin and it helps Zane. I'd love to find the magic food that doesn't cost $50 per 30# and they all tolerate.

[jocoyn]

Overfeeding can also cause loose stools. Just an option. With any kibble, I do use supplemental digestive enzymes. Not sure if that is good advice but I find things work better that way. I figure they are not built to digest starches and you can pick your starch with any kibble; they all have it be it potatoes or grains or peas.

[doggiedad]

you're right, choosing food is no walk in the park.
it's a pet in the pet store, . when feeding pumpkin
i suggest usuing fresh pumpkin (baked) or in a can
( nothing added). maybe there's something in the
puppy food that's not working for your pup. try
adult food.

[vickip9]

Originally Posted by robfromga

We feed Blue Buffalo, Willie and Simone do great with it, Zane can get some loose stools. I add some pumpkin, for a treat every day. They all love the pumpkin and it helps Zane. I'd love to find the magic food that doesn't cost $50 per 30# and they all tolerate.

Have you looked into Earthborn Holistic? It's sold at speciality stores and online, and is probably the least expensive of all of the premium brands (Orijen, Acana, Fromm, etc) and still had really good ingredients. I think it's like $40 something for the largets bag.

[doggiedad]

this was supposed to say "it's a walk in the pet store", .

Originally Posted by doggiedad

you're right, choosing food is no walk in the park.

>>>> it's a pet in the pet store, <<<<

. when feeding pumpkin
i suggest usuing fresh pumpkin (baked) or in a can
( nothing added). maybe there's something in the
puppy food that's not working for your pup. try
adult food.

[Jag]

I feel your pain!!! I looked at foods for a week.. like 100 hours put in altogether before settling on Innova. Then a week ago I thought maybe I'd change him to something else. Decided at this point I'm NOT going through that again! Acana was recommended to me from the guy at the store... after Orijen. The increase in protein is just too much with Orijen, IMO. I decided to just stick with the Innova for now and re-think things when he's older and 'working' more. Earthborne I think was a recommended food that wasn't so expensive, too. If they change the formula on Innova, I'm really going to be in a pinch. A lot of foods are made by the same company, so you may want to look into that, too. Food recalls are at the top of my list, because my boy's dad was poisoned by a high end food that was recalled.

I agree that the wet food (especially since it's a different kind) could be causing the runs.

[bocron]

Find a good food and get the kibble and stick with just one thing for a bit. With adding pouches of this and cans of that, you'll never narrow down where the loose stool is originating. There are quite a few good foods to choose from out there, off the top of my head of the most popular among our clients I'd say TOTW, Orejen, Acana, Nature's Variety Instinct, Evangers and Innova seem to be doing well. We didn't have good luck with TOTW, but many of our clients swear by it. When we run across a client having issues with loose stool we recommend the Nature's Variety Instinct since it has Tapioca in it which is very helpful with irritated digestive systems. Mostly we tell people to pick one and stick with it for a few weeks to allow the dog to totally adjust to it and then make a judgement. If they don't seem to improve after a good try THEN consider changing. Sometimes it's the protein source itself, we have one dog who just can't do beef, when we switched him to a chicken based food he improved in a matter of weeks. So now everyone at our house is on a chicken based food for simplicity.