# Smelly Farts



## jem1013 (Jun 5, 2011)

Hello all,

I am sure we are all used to puppy farts, but my 5 month old boy has the really bad ones every day. I am not sure if this is normal or not. He is on Taste of the Wild, which is a grain free high protein food. I switch between the different types within the brand to give him variety but that does not seem to affect his smelliness at all. I want to stay with grain free but I am not sure how many other options there are, or if it will fix the problem. This may be just normal puppy behavior. Please let me know your thoughts, thanks a ton. 

Ty's mommy


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## monarchs_joy (Aug 13, 2011)

I'm far from an expert on puppies or whether this is normal, but possibly the Taste of the Wild? My girls eat it (first Pacific Stream, now Sierra Mountain) and do fantastic on it, but I've heard from others whose dogs did not do well at all. There are several other companies that make grain free options - Merrick, Solid Gold, Wellness, California Natural, etc. just to name a few. Has he always eaten TOTW? Might be something to think about.


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## jem1013 (Jun 5, 2011)

Yea he has always been on TOTW. I may look into other options if these keeps up. Thanks for the info =)


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## Pointgold (Jun 6, 2007)

Daniela used to feed Taste of the Wild. Her dogs had flaming yellow farts. The Dalmatian breeder here does, and their dogs would clear out the training room. Nature's Farmacy Probiotic helped somewhat, but not enough. Nasty stuff.


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## CarolinaCasey (Jun 1, 2007)

I think that your puppy is too young for you to be switching protein sources every bag. It is probably creating gastric upset and resulting in the gas. Our dog thrives on this food. He seemed to get gas when he ate the duck formula at about 4 months old. We switched to the lamb variety and he never had a problem. Stick to the lamb or salmon varieties as a youngster as they are lower in protein than the bison or duck.


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## Summer's Mom (Oct 20, 2010)

Summer does better on foods with some grains in them.. and not so high protein. 

When on grain-free is the only time she has noticeable farts.. on "chicken and rice" or "salmon and brown rice" type foods we dont even notice any farting (maybe she does without the stinkies or maybe she doesnt?).. Doesn't matter the brand of the grain-free, that just seems to be it for us..


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## Pointgold (Jun 6, 2007)

Why are you feeding a grain free food, out of curiousity?


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## lgnutah (Feb 26, 2007)

Brooks has this problem when he sneaks and gets the cats' food, but not when he eats just his own food (I feed ProPlan all life stages chicken and rice now, but used to feed Nutro Natural Choice Lamb and Rice or Chicken Soup adult dog, and he had no problem with either of those)


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## Summer's Mom (Oct 20, 2010)

Pointgold said:


> Why are you feeding a grain free food, out of curiousity?


Me? Or the OP? heheheh

Summer came from the breeder on Orijen, but she never did well, so we switched.. She was on a grain-y food for some time but had trouble keeping weight on, the pet store recommended a grain-free duck (Pro Nature Holistic) that supposedly is very popular and has great reviews from the customers.. Summer looks ok on it, nice coat (as nice as what she was genetically endowed with can look), ok poop texture etcetc.. But she farts!! I'm hoping to switch back to a "regular" kibble eventually, and I hope we find something that can work for her..


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## jem1013 (Jun 5, 2011)

Wow Thanks for all the advice, I think I will stick with just one protein source. I heard somewhere along the way during my research that variety was better, but I rather have my house smell good. I decided to do grain free because of the research I did on dog diets. It doesn't make sense to me to feed a carnivore a bunch of seeds (aka grains). I like the TOTW because it is protein, fruits, and veggies. I will try and stick with the lamb or salmon and see how he fairs, Thanks guys and gals

Ty's mom


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## AKJ5294 (Aug 20, 2011)

Well in people, we have smelly farts when we eat something that doesn't agree with our bodies, or need more probiotics. 
If I were you, I would look close at whats in your dogs food, he might be allergic to something in it, or he might need more probiotics. For my dog I used to put low fat, plain organic yogurt on his food and he loved it. Oh course he was a Shih Tzu.
I will look though my books here more and see what I can find, and let you know  
Hope this helps somewhat.


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## AKJ5294 (Aug 20, 2011)

I found this online
hope it helps some!
Flatulence in Dogs - Dealing With Gassy Dogs


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## Florabora22 (Nov 30, 2008)

jem1013 said:


> Wow Thanks for all the advice, I think I will stick with just one protein source. I heard somewhere along the way during my research that variety was better, but I rather have my house smell good. I decided to do grain free because of the research I did on dog diets. It doesn't make sense to me to feed a carnivore a bunch of seeds (aka grains). I like the TOTW because it is protein, fruits, and veggies. I will try and stick with the lamb or salmon and see how he fairs, Thanks guys and gals
> 
> Ty's mom


Not to be argumentative, but if you ever looked closely at coyote or fox scat (I have, I have an inappropriately close relationship with everything belonging to Mother Nature) you would sometimes notice seeds, leftover berries, the like. Carnivores do eat grains and fruits - it's not harmful to them. Just food for thought!

As for the fart problem - what's your dogs poops like? Soft, pudding-like or nice and firm? If the former, combined with smelly farts I would assume the food is just too rich for him. Maybe try a different food that isn't so protein rich.


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## Nyahsmommy (Jul 23, 2011)

I was just at the vets the other day and she was telling us that it is very important that we don't switch up the food at all. She said the only transition we should be making is from puppy food to adult food at 6 months and even then stick to the same brand. She said that it is not good for them to keep switching and may give them stomach problems. She also said not to worry about the dog getting bored of the food because they don't.


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## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

I'm not sure if this is also true for dogs, but for humans I've read that meats sit and ferment in our digestive tract for days while they break down, and sometimes result in excess gas unless they are pushed out by fiber from fruits, veggies and grains. Some meats are worse than others. My dog needs the extra fiber in his diet to keep his stool firm and fortunately he doesn't have smelly gassy excretions as a result of that fiber, which includes grains as well as fruits/veggies in the kibble formulation.


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## Pointgold (Jun 6, 2007)

Nyahsmommy said:


> I was just at the vets the other day and she was telling us that it is very important that we don't switch up the food at all. She said the only transition we should be making is from puppy food to adult food at 6 months and even then stick to the same brand. She said that it is not good for them to keep switching and may give them stomach problems. She also said not to worry about the dog getting bored of the food because they don't.


 
Dogs do not have very many taste buds at all. They eat what SMELLS good to them. And what smells good to us may not smell good (or, at _much at all..._)All of the fancy flavors are the companies marketing to US. 
My dogs have happily and very enthusiastically eaten the same dry food for YEARS. And thrive on it.


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## Ranger (Nov 11, 2009)

jem1013 said:


> Wow Thanks for all the advice, I think I will stick with just one protein source. I heard somewhere along the way during my research that variety was better, but I rather have my house smell good. I decided to do grain free because of the research I did on dog diets. It doesn't make sense to me to feed a carnivore a bunch of seeds (aka grains). I like the TOTW because it is protein, fruits, and veggies. I will try and stick with the lamb or salmon and see how he fairs, Thanks guys and gals
> 
> Ty's mom


My guy was originally on Orijen 6 fish; high protein and grain-free with lots of "good for you"s like fruit and probiotics. He did well for about 6-9 months then they changed the formula to add more "good for you"s and his digestive system rebelled. Long before I noticed the brittle coat and dry skin, Ranger was having room-clearing gas. As in, you couldn't breathe for about 10 minutes if you were caught in the room when he let one slip. Turns out all those fuits, probiotics and "good for you"s were NOT good for him. Probiotics helped a lot but it didn't make sense to me to be feeding a food that obviously wasn't agreeing with him so we switched to another high protein, grain-free food that had a less complicated ingredient list. 

That being said, Ranger is a dog who needs to be on grain-free. He doesn't do well with oats or rice in his food. He can handle small doses in cookies but when fed kibble with those two ingredients in it, he gets ear and eye infections, gets itchy, and the last time he was fed it, he started vomiting undigested pieces of kibble from a meal he'd eaten close to 7 hours earlier. It doesn't matter if it's a grocery store so-called "bad" brand like Iams or a 'better' brand like Acana; he's still going to do poorly on kibble if those 2 ingredients are in it. Other dogs do just fine on kibble with grains and lots actually do better: poops firmer, no gas, lots of energy, etc. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that sometimes all the "good for you" things in the bags of pricey dog food is actually not that beneficial for the dogs. Sometimes the things people judge "bad" aren't that bad for a dog's health. While I still wouldn't feed a dog a kibble high in corn (that's MY preference, I don't feed my horse feed high in corn either), some grains are just fine.




Nyahsmommy said:


> I was just at the vets the other day and she was telling us that it is very important that we don't switch up the food at all. She said the only transition we should be making is from puppy food to adult food at 6 months and even then stick to the same brand. She said that it is not good for them to keep switching and may give them stomach problems. She also said not to worry about the dog getting bored of the food because they don't.


Not to purposely play devil's advocate here, but my brother took his dog to the vet last week due to hair loss and a rash on his back legs. The vet told him sometimes dogs can develop an intolerance to the kibble if they've been eating it for years. Granted, some dogs may be more sensitive than others but I think with anything it's good not to go too far either way. I agree it's not good to switch foods on a monthly basis but I don't think it's a big deal to change between different varieties within the same brand or even change food brands once or twice a year. Lots of people give a higher calorie food in the summer and a less caloric food in the winter. As with all things, moderation is key.


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