# puppy food



## nolefan (Nov 6, 2009)

60 lbs at 6 months. How much are you feeding him per meal? Does he get extra training treats? I would switch to another pro plan formula and see how that goes (switch very gradually over a 10 day period).


----------



## Piper_the_goldenpuppy (Aug 26, 2016)

There are so many food options, its mind-numbing! My dog was on Fromm from puppyhood and then stopped tolerating it around a 14 months or so (first Gold LB puppy, then LB adult). Did you have stools checked a couple times for parasites? Sometimes they can be hard to diagnose (especially after taking something like Flagyl). Anecdotally, I've also experienced that after needing antibiotics like Flagyl, its taken my dogs longer to recover than I would have expected. I'm not sure if its because of the antibiotics themselves, or just that inflammation in the gut takes a while to settle down. 

Have you tried adding a probiotic like Purina Forti-Flora? Or canned pumpkin as an added source of Fiber? Is your dog on the heavier side, or skinny (60lbs seems large for a 6 month-er, unless his dad was huge)? Training treats cause diarrhea often. Sometimes overfeeding can cause diarrhea. 

Piper ended up on dry W/D for a while, to let everything settle down. My vet recommended keeping her on that exclusively (its what she does for her Goldens, not for weight management, but for the high fiber content), but I couldn't put weight on her despite feeding her buckets of it. So we switched verrrrryy slowly (3 weeks) to Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach, and she's done incredibly well with it. Coat looks great, poops normal. After she did well on that, I started adding some Stella and Chewy's as a topper, and haven't had any issues there either. She'd started regurgitating the Fromm, in addition to having loose stools, and being gassy, and has not had any of those issues on the SSS.

I know people who have tried TOTW and had good success, and I really like Fromm as a food brand personally (it just didn't work for us). I don't think Piper would do well on a grain free, very high protein diet, just because I think it would be too rich for her, but its the right option for other dogs. 

So thats just what worked for us. My last dog had IBD and we tried a million different food brands, before she ended up on a hydrolyzed diet. Sometimes it just ends up being trial and error. Good luck!


----------



## usually lurking (Apr 21, 2017)

How much are you feeding him? Overfeeding can also cause soft stools. You could try something as simple as breaking his food up into more frequent, smaller meals to see if that helps, assuming he isn't getting too much food in general. Do you know what his body condition score is?


----------



## suzydee (May 7, 2012)

He does'nt look over weight at all. Just had him to the vet...said he weighed just right. I am careful with his treats . to break them apart as to not get too many. Plain cheerios works well too.


----------



## suzydee (May 7, 2012)

I actually give him half of his meal at a time..and he waits a few min. for the next half. He gets about a cup and half each time. No table scraps unless its green beans. What is body condition score??


----------



## nolefan (Nov 6, 2009)

suzydee said:


> I actually give him half of his meal at a time..and he waits a few min. for the next half. He gets about a cup and half each time. No table scraps unless its green beans. What is body condition s:core??


Here's a link to the Purina Score chart. 
Dogs and puppies are better off a little bit too lean than a little bit too heavy. https://goo.gl/images/uKfbfk

The way you wrote this is a little confusing - he gets 1.5 cups each time? Each meal - split between two servings? Or 1.5 cups everytime you put the bowl down? What is the daily total?

Also, the calories in treats and cheerios really add up if you train every day. If he just gets one cheerio for getting into his crate at night, it's not as important. You might want to measure them out and figure out how much he's getting. The reason we are asking is because over feeding dogs can cause loose stools.


----------



## ceegee (Mar 26, 2015)

suzydee said:


> I actually give him half of his meal at a time..and he waits a few min. for the next half. He gets about a cup and half each time. No table scraps unless its green beans. What is body condition score??


So he gets three cups per meal? If you give two meals a day, that would mean six cups per day, which is an enormous amount of food. For reference, my 2-year-old male dog, who is extremely active and competes in agility, gets 2.5 cups per day and is at a healthy weight (meaning that I can feel but cannot see his ribs).


----------



## usually lurking (Apr 21, 2017)

Additionally, if you are going to break up his meals, they should be hours apart, not minutes. A few minutes isn't going to make a difference. 

Additional reference points: When my dog was a puppy, he couldn't eat more than about a cup at a time without getting soft stools, but he was (and still is) a dog that had trouble holding his weight. I fed him a cup of food in the morning, a cup in the afternoon, and another in the evening for a total of three cups per day. He's currently almost two, and weighs about 60 pounds. He is very active and, as with ceegee's dog, I can easily feel, but not see his ribs. His body condition score is around 4-4.5 and he eats about 3.25 cups per day because, again, it is very hard to keep weight on him. Having said that, most of his treats are carrots, so there are few additional calories being added. My last Golden ate two cups per day and that was more than enough for him. Any more than that and he'd have been overweight. That's is why we are asking about body condition and total amounts. It varies from dog to dog and knowing where your dog is now helps us identify if he is possibly being overfed.


----------



## suzydee (May 7, 2012)

Thank you! I have used the pumpkin..I now keep a can on hand. It does seem to help, I switch off and use a T. of plain greek yogurt too. I ended up buying another bag of the Pro plan today because I just couldnt make a decision one way or the other. My husband was losing patience with me! ha.. But I thought I had it narrowed down to maybe the Nutro essentials and Science diet. Nutro also does an Ultra variety, but could'nt find it in a large bag of puppy formula. But today just stayed with what I know. ugghh, I don't like being undecisive.


----------



## suzydee (May 7, 2012)

No, you've got that wrong. He has 1-1 1/2 C. of food per meal. This puppy is no where near over weight.


----------



## Maggie'sVoice (Apr 4, 2018)

Over feeding will cause loose stools and gas. The dogs system is a bit reversed then ours. 

As far as food, I feed Precise Holistic Lg Puppy food. It's a bit higher quality then the Nutro/Sci Diet and one major feature of it is it uses BCI-30 probiotic. laymens terms is its an encapsulated enzyme that is a 2 stage release that makes sure ALL the probiotics arrive alive in the intestine. Because of this most dog transition very easily and much sooner then with other foods. On top of that the nutrition quality is very high and they're also one of the few that have never had a recall (knock on wood)


----------



## usually lurking (Apr 21, 2017)

Since you already purchased another bag of the same food, try feeding no more than 1 cup at a time and see if it helps. If you truly need to feed 3 cups per day, feed one cup every 6 hours. If you think you can cut back on the total amount, try feeding 1 cup in the morning, .5 in the afternoon, and 1 cup in the evening, or try feeding a total of 2 cups per day (1 cup 2x) for a few days and see if it helps. If any of that works, you'll have solved your problem and, if not, you can try switching foods. 

Also, be careful adding pumpkin and yogurt. Too much can cause soft/loose stools as well. If it was me, I'd stick to feeding kibble and only kibble until I had a handle on the underlying cause. The more things you feed - pumpkin, yogurt, treats - the harder it is to identify the root cause of the problem. Give kibble as treats for now.


----------



## suzydee (May 7, 2012)

Thanks for those good bits of advice. I will try that , I ll be very careful to not overfeed....even if tears start coming down his sweet lil face. lol He only gets a teaspoon of pumpkin or yogurt. And the cheerios,haha he may get 3 at a time. I 'll keep you updated. Thanks!


----------

