Can high protein dog food make your doh more restless

[springerspanielpuppy]

Genuine question I have a SS 18 months now. When he was smaller he was fed high protein food. He was a difficult puppy but has settled lovely this last 8 month.

When he was 1 the food shot up in price so we bought a cheaper one but his poo stinks so we went back to high protein OMG he’s reverted to hyper puppy, even the dog walker said she noticed a difference.

Hes back on the cheap stuff. However I do wonder is it true that different food can affect them so much?

Any recommendations on food for a Springer?

All about dog food is a great website to look at different food options.
Personally I'm a huge advocate for raw feeding as I think a balanced raw diet is nutritionally superior to any kibble based diet. I don't feed my dogs any kibble.
I would also look at food like butternut box and other cooked fresh foods.

In terms of your question about protein content then yes this can have an impact on dogs and their behaviour. I wouldn't necessarily make a leap from it must be the protein content that's the issue. I would look at what is in the food and if there could be any intolerances to specific ingredients.

The fact that his poo is really smelly would to me suggest that his guts are not happy with the cheaper food. It could be that he is more docile when fed that food because he has tummy ache rather than because the other food is hyping him up.

Thanks he was really poorly as a puppy and was on vet food so what you say about his stomach not liking the cheaper food rings true. He’s still active he has around 1 to one n half hours off lead in the woods a day plus on lead walks around half an hour and he does scent work.

He is quite chilled the rest of the day while I work from home. However on the high protein he is just looking for trouble all of the time.

He has a mix of wet and dry food. My daughter raw feeds one of her spaniels but not the other. I will look for that website.

It's definitely true that diet plays a huge role in energy levels.

What brand is he on at the moment?

He’s been on Butchers the last 7 month, stinky poo and sometimes soft, so I changed it to wainwrights, good poo but naughty puppy, but I’m on that website and actually Butchers is just as high protein as the more expensive foods. I need to look at ingredients but hope to stop myself spending the evening comparing foods, it is a really good website.

It could just be that the Butchers doesn't agree with him and that's why his energy levels dropped?

We have a Springer. We've been through so, so many foods and suspect she's intolerant to chicken, beef and grain. Most dog food we've tried has given her light coloured soft poo.

She was on Ci's Tickety Boo salmon for ages which was great but the price shot up to about £60 for 13.5kg. I did a lot of research and stumbled across Country Dog food hypoallergenic (fish) which is very similar in make up but £40 for 15kg so much more affordable. She's great on it so far.

That’s interesting as his poos are worse on fish. I can’t even remember what we fed our previous Springer he ate anything.

It’s not that he has no energy but when I changed his food he became impulsive and restless, a bit disobedient, not resting well, short attention when training and the zoomies.

I would give Burns complete sensitive a try. I moved my rescue lab away from s raw diet, and the Burns had been excellent. FWIW, poo is exactly the same as it was in raw and he isn't flatulent which indicates healthy digestion.

There is a lot of information on the Burns website too.

That’s interesting as his poos are worse on fish.

You need to review the ingredients with a fine tooth comb.

I've made the mistake of buying a hypoallergenic 'salmon' or 'fish' food only to discover in the ingredients that there's added poultry fat or 3% chicken meal which kind of makes it pointless for a chicken-intollerant dog.

Rather than the amount of protein I would focus on the actual ingredients in case there is an intolerance somewhere.

Just generally with Springers...one of the best pieces of advice I think I was given for overall behaviour was to NOT walk them sometimes. I think it's called emptying the cup...theory being they get so highly strung up from the constant walks, the high enrichment of adventures, being on the go all the time, that it's actually good for them to have a down day.

We do it probably once every 10 days or so - no walk at all. And it's surprising because rather than being wound up like we expected she is actually more calm and 'together' in the following few days.

Millie's wolfheart

I switched after lots of recommendations on here, lots of choices but we have started with Utility- to early to notice any changes yet but I'm hopeful it will live up to its reputation

www.millieswolfheart.co.uk/

*too

It doesn't play as much a role as you'd think but can be a factor. More often than not though it's the fact they are intolerant so the pain/discomfort can make them unsettled rather than the contents of the food.

I’m going to check the ingredients, thanks, because the change in him was clear.

This is the problem with feeding dry food to dogs, lots of ingredients that they don't need like grain, cereals etc I feed raw to all 5 of my dogs and I don't have any problems. It's worth it for the 💩 alone.

A good quality dry food should not have any unnecessary ingredients either. I'd heard all the same stuff about poo volume, flatulence etc. I've switched from raw to dry and there has been no difference in any of it.