Puppy pooping too much

[shopsalot]

I have a 4mth old puppy (4mths today!) and slightly worried about how much he eats and poops. He eats 3 times a day and always finishes his food now that I'm mixing a bit of gravy with the dry food. So a tiny amount of Forthglade made into gravy, with Skinners puppy food. He was on Skinners at the breeders. He has always pooped a lot so no change when I introduced the gravy a few weeks ago.

Last week he was ill - not sure if it was something he had eaten, he didn't have a temp. But he was sick and had diarrhoea. This also happened to follow a day of a lot of cheese treats (recall training) so I have stopped any dairy to work out if it was that. I'm also now switching gradually to Skinners hypoallergenic.

He poops about 7 times a day - which seems a lot! I mentioned to the vet and she said it seemed a lot. Some poops were quite runny (not diarrhoea) but have got better recently after his poorly days and cutting out dairy. The vet suggested going down to one protein to make it simpler to work out what was ok or not.

I suppose I'm asking if anyone has been through this with their puppies - is it just a phase or am I doing the right thing trying to work out if there is something that disagrees with him (I do try and stop him eating snails, mud, grass etc but sometimes tricky). Any other ideas??

Thanks!

[SunnyUpNorth]

Could you be giving him too much food? Too much food can result in lots of poos and softer poo. It’s quite easy to over feed them as they are so small (I’m assuming your pup is small!) and even a little bit too much can have a big effect.

In misinterpreted the feeding chart on our food. It said for 5-10kg dogs to give between 125-250g of food per day. I took this to mean 25g of food per kg that they weighed. So as my puppy grew I was upping his food by 25kg per kg. He always scoffed it, he always acts as if he is starving, but he started pooing loads more and it was often soft. Add in the amount of treats puppies get when training, being desensitised to things etc it’s easy to give them too much.

I dropped back down how much I gave him and he generally poos 4 times per day now. Mine is nearly 6 months and still on 3 meals per day.

I also find meat gives mine a runny tummy, eg if I give him roast chicken for recall. So I now use tiny amounts for recall, small than a pea.

[shopsalot]

Thanks Sunny. I did wonder if I was feeding him too much but I had started a whole other thread a few weeks ago about him not eating enough.

He's a golden retriever so not a small breed but still a small puppy. I haven't been feeding the recommended amount because he just couldn't eat it - plus he has treats (chicken plus other) for training. And peanut butter and kibble in Kongs. So he's probably been fed enough but not too much - I think. He's a very lean dog at the moment. Maybe it's the chicken that is giving him runny poo. For the last few days his poos have been normal but 6 or 7 a day and quiet sizeable. Having said that - only 2 today. I'll keep an eye on him - we have a poo diary! - and see if his pooping decreases as he grows. I'll try and restrict his mud eating too!

[StillMedusa]

I found that too much cheese or chicken (for training) gave my pup the runs. Shame as she will do anything for those! Mine is also picky (she's a Eurasier and they are known for it) and will hold out on eating for 'something nicer' but I've realised she won't starve..she's nearly 6 months old now and misses the odd meal but will make up for it the next day. If she has the runs I feed her a bit less that day.

I've tried a few different foods, after speaking to our vet, he said it's ok to switch and I have mixed the older stuff in with new without much of a change in poo. However when I tried to switch her from 'ok rated kibble' to 'super sodding expensive' (Orijen puppy) it was just too rich for her and then she really did poo..and poo!
I'm still working on the perfect balance.

I find dried sprats are fab for training as they break up small and don't give her the runs. She also likes a side order of mud

[shopsalot]

I might try the dried sprats although they do sound awful! I am thinking about making liver cake as want to work on recall and want something irresistible but slightly worried what might happen to the poo....

[Kitsmummy]

I have a pug. He's two years old but has only been with us for a month. I was feeding him high quality kibble but he was doing 3 big poos a day and pooing overnight...when he needed to go, he needed to go!

I switched to raw food a couple of weeks ago and my god, the difference. Only one or two TINY poos per day and he's clean overnight now, it's brilliant!

[shopsalot]

That sounds great but I can't do raw food. Our freezer is tiny (fridge freezer) and there is no room for a standalone freezer. I was fine with just feeding kibble until we realised there was a lot of poo - very annoying now that I can't even consider raw!

[Coffeeandchocolate10]

Id definitely consider changing food, maybe skinners has lots of bulking stuff in it?

[Coffeeandchocolate10]

There are raw food companies who do raw dried kibble now

[Majorcollywobble]

@shopsalot
I make liver cake for my dog and his friends.
There’s a few recipes online but I’ve developed my own .
You can scale it up or down .
500g liquidised liver
500g dry fried minced turkey
6 heaped tbs wholemeal flour
3 med sweet potatoes cooked and mashed
4 eggs
2 capsful cold pressed salmon oil
Mix together and bake in greaseproof lined shallow tin for 20 mins at 170 degrees fan .
Cuts into squares , freezes well .
Hasn’t caused the runs yet - vet approved it -- my dog allergic to chicken .

[shopsalot]

Thanks @Majorcollywobble I'll give that recipe a try.

@Coffeeandchocolate10 can you recommend any companies? Otherwise I'll google! I have switched from Skinners normal to the hypoallergenic (puppy).

Poos are currently looking normal and seem to be reducing in number although I have stopped the poo diary over the last few days - need to start it again. Such a glamorous life.

[namechanged984630]

We have a four month old golden too and she poos three or four times per day. She, too, had a very bad stomach upset at three months and went a LOT in the days surrounding it. We put her into Hills ID food and phased back her kibble super slowly, and eliminated all treats. It was boring and made training hard but it seemed to reset her bowel and now we are reintroducing them slowly.

[shopsalot]

When my puppy was sick, I fed him Hills ID (cans) but after a day he refused it. And refused chicken and rice after a couple of meals of it. I let him skip a meal or 2 whilst hand feeding chicken and ensuring he drank water (including chicken water) but being so young and quite lean I really didn't want him not eating! So I went back to Skinners kibble relatively quickly. It's so tricky when they are young.

[swishswashswoosh]

Our dog loves Bella and Duke dried raw food. And agree with pp, a couple of small poos a day. 4 in a day would be loads for us. Dogs are all different though.