can we talk poo?!

[lainiekazan]

Golden retriever dog is in fine fettle, but does quite slimy orange poos.

He is 8 months old and has always eaten Royal Canin maxi junior. It has to be said, he is not vastly keen on it and frankly looks a bit depressed when he sees his bowl. He is otherwise extremely hungry and eats virtually anything, edible or not.

I am going to change his food, and have requested samples from Hills, Skinners and Burns.

Would these potentially "improve" his poo?

Mine are on Skinners (the Salmon one) and have lovely tidy poos.
I ran out last week and they had Harringtons due to delayed delivery and they seem to love it more but are doing more poos with it, still reasonably tidy ones though.

IMHO, and I am no expert, Skinners is about the cheapest good quality food. And it's cheaper than shit like Bakers. Really good value IMO.

My lurcher obv has a sensitive tummy as even on Skinners salmon. JB sensitive and a couple of other brands had soft poo.
We got a sample of Oscars at the game fair, and haven't looked back. Currently on mackeral and potato and lovely firm poos you can pick up easily which is a relief

I'm looking for firm poos! At the moment it takes about 3 poo bags to accommodate it all...

I feed Barking Heads ,poos are firm and infrequent ! Mine has either the chicken or lamb but they do some for big dogs as well .

YY on Skinners they are properly firm. If they were human you would consider a bit of lactulose, put it that way

Marginally softer on the Harringtons but still pick-upable.

Dogs are a young collie and a small crossbreed elderly terrier. The collie is a proper gannet, the little one a rather dainty madam.

We use Symply and its fine. Nice firm dark brown lumps !

In an emergency once on holiday we had ran out on the last day and bought a box of Bakers.

Oh my god… had never seen such a mr whippy piece of foam, took a whole tesco bag to smear it up

I would definitely try a different food - especially if the dog doesn't seem to enjoy it anyway.

Mine used to be on cheapo shit food - predictably, his poo was always sloppy, and he used to get problems with his anal gland getting blocked (the action of poo passing through squeezes the gland out to empty it. If they have sloppy poos, the gland doesn't get 'squeezed' and so gets blocked up. Results in dog licking its bum a lot, and nasty smell. Vet used to have to come and 'empty' it with a gloved hand every once in a while... nice)

Changed to Superdog Sensitive - he had lovely hard poos like pebbles, and never a problem with his anal gland since.

Temporarily changed to Hill's Science Plan - recommended by a friend as good quality food. He loved it, but his poo went back to sloppy. So we're back on Superdog and back to pebbles again

So yes, the food can affect their poos. Slimy orange poo is not normal, and could lead to a blocked anal gland, which believe me, you don't want.

Keep trying different food until he shoots pebbles!

lainie you must try feeding raw meat. It's so easy - work out 2-3% of your dog's bodyweight, he's past pupphood so it's much easier.

Raw chicken wings, drumsticks, carcasses, mince of any kind. If you have a butcher's nearby, get friendly and ask what they can get in or there are loads of companies that will deliver ready made blocks, (depends on how much storage you've got). I just use one small drawer of our under counter freezer and it's enough for about 10 days' worth (for 22kg dog). Bag up portions, take couple out night before (I leave in outhouse bit as cool enough there).

You will be AMAZED at the difference in size and consistency of poos. Third of size and much firmer.

Sorry, the must I used sounds a bit dictatorial - not meant to be, it just makes such a difference that it's worth a go.

They love crunching it all up and you can just chuck outside and they'll be happy, no mess inside.

An 8 month old retriever is still very much a puppy and not finished growing yet...so while raw feeding is still do-able, things like the amount are different.

My dog is loose on anything with any grains in it, it might be worth looking at something grain free, which obviously raw would be, but so are some dry foods.

Raw food is an ambition... but probably one not to be realised. I don't have an "outhouse" for a start !

So, what is grain free? It's a minefield out there, and if you just look at comparison sites, like the Which? one, it's obviously not breed or age specific.

I use raw but one of the complete raw foods from Natural Instinct. My collies poos are very small, firm and non smelly which is a definite plus. He also never seems to have wind. Very different to my previous dog who was on dried food.

Ah, the wind. Sometimes I see dog's tummy rippling in the evening whilst he's lying on my feet and know that it's time to don a gas mask.

Lainie, I have the smallest kitchen known to man. The outhouse is a tiny bit attached to the back of the house, has the combination boiler and the small under-counter freezer, because there's no room in the kitchen! So get very wet going to get my frozen peas! So you really don't need loads of room. Even half a drawer of a smaller freezer would be adequate. Look at Nutriment, Natural Instinct if you want it prepared, no fuss but I've found it pretty easy to pick up stuff every week or so. If you have a Morrisons near you, they do fantastic deals on stuff which is going out of date - I don't have one here which is a pain. Really worth trying

"Raw feeding Uk" is a FB group you could join, loads of people asking questons about what's good/not good, files containing all the info you need. It's very satisfying watching a dog get to work on a real bone...

I raw feed using our food freezer and I have no utility or outhouse either. I use human grade meat mainly (morrisons is great!) so non stinky. Green tripe is the exception but I portion and double bag in sealed bags, it is fine.

I take out the days food and something like a wing is usually defrosted enough for breakfast after our morning walk.

You really don't need lots of room or special equipment. It is no more expensive for me than feeding Arden Grange was and my dog has gone from sloppy to perfect poo

The facebook group Ladyturmoil recommends is great. I use it alot.

I feed James wellbeloved at the moment...I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with it as basically they've replaced the cereals with pea protein and I'd rather it be meat, but, he'll eat it (an issue with him), he's doing ok on it and I can buy it in a shop rather than having to order online.

I found raw feeding cost about the same or a little bit more than dry food, though to be fair, it'd be less than feeding Royal Canin, lol...I think you do need more freezer room than most people have going spare for a large dog though. Though that depends on what's usually in your freezer. If you're anywhere near West Lothian I've got a barely used chest freezer I can sell you, lol.

If I could get my stupid dog to eat any other meat apart from chicken I would have kept on raw feeding though as it was way better for his stomach.

Check out any grain free dry food Eden, Millie's Wolfheart, Wainwrights have started doing a grain free one too. www.whichdogfood.co.uk is a really good site.

My puppy is on Burns and poos are fine I'm going to switch her over to a grain free food once this bag is finished

We have a puppy, and the poo has gone from sloppy to firm once I started giving him home cooked food. Worth giving it a try.

But JKramer why bother to cook it? Just give it raw...