My Goldie puppy is 11 weeks old, fed on Wainwrights salmon and potato and has 300grams a day, but has large cow pat poo's. I divide his food into three meals and have read that he should have a poo for every meal but we have loads. What am I doing wrong ?

What food did his breeder have him on? Was it Wainwrights or have you recently changed?

Breeder had him on beta puppy and I  changed him over a period of a week, I changed him over because of the same problem, but have  seemed to achieved  nothing. Wondered if he is having too much but he eats it in seconds and licks the bowl .

Hi, it could be the barley, i cant see much else that could upset him in the ingredients, just barley is a possibility if he was reacting to grains and suchlike in his previous food he may need a completely grain free food such as fish4dogs puppy and if you join their puppy club you will get a good discount. My goldie did really really well on it and loved it. The other possibility is..what treats are you giving / using? It could be something in those. You must also be wary of following your puppys self measure guide re feeding...some pups will have you believe they need large quantites! Licking his bowl clean isnt an indicator that its the correct amount..it could still be too much!

God I'm more paranoid over Bailey than ever was with the kids the only treats he has are wainwrights puppy treats and not many of those, think tomorrow I am going to cut out a few grams and feed four times instead of three to see if that helps if not will think about changing his food , many thanks for advice.

Mine couldnt have wainwrights treats, they upset him too...may be worth cutting them out even though he doesnt have many. The puppy ones have rice in dont they? That could be the problem too. For sensitive dogs as yours may be..it only takes a bit to tango! And haha yes, I know what you mean re kids etc!

When our sadie was a pup she did cow pat poos her tummy only calmed down when I gave her half meat and half complete,and she stayed on that for the rest of her life,she never enjoyed dry food anyway,but what suits one dog doesnt suit another ,when she was 8 weeks she had two meaty meals and two milky meals {ewes milk} must of done somthing right as at 16 weeks she refused her lunches and suppers  which is natures way of saying I am full weaned now,no more milk and eggs for me lol

Sheila

> Wondered if he is having too much but he eats it in seconds and licks the bowl .

I wouldn't be guided by his apetite.
When Buster was a pup, about 14 weeks old, I was measuring out the food for his first meal of the day, I don't know what came over me but I had a complete brain shut-down and fed him his entire days ration in one meal (he was on 4 meals a day). It never registered in my head that it was a huge amount, he ate it up as quick as usual, inhaled it in the blink of an eye! It wasn't untill after he'd eaten it, and his belly looked rather full that I had realised what I had done!!!! I was a nervous wreck for the rest of the day, on high-alert to the signs of bloat, but the only ill effect he had was a lot of wind and a sloppy poop.
Anyway, to sum up, just becasue a pup will lick the bowl clean does not mean you are not over-feeding.

Personally, I'd cut the amount of food down slightly and see if that helps.

I've always found Busters poops to be firmer if he is on 50% kibble & 50% wet (either raw tripe, white fish or tinned food such as Chappie or Butchers).

Thank you all for your advice cut his food down today no treats so am going to see how he does over the next day or so. So glad I found this site with all you lovely people.

I'd still be feeding 4 meals rather than 3 at this age.  I'd also suggest you double check your amounts with his breeder - if they kept a sibling it might be a useful comparison (although some pups can need very different amounts).

I find that puppy poo is always more loose than an adult as it just doesn't have as much time to form.  It can also be caused by overfeeding at mealtimes, too many treats, or 'rich' treats.  IF you think it's over feeding then you can drop each of his 4 meals by 5 grams to see if it helps.  Usually an adjustment of 5-10g's per meal will sort it out.  Don't forget that on the days you do a lot of training - particularly training classes - to drop the meal sizes to compensate for all the extra treats.

Treats are good, and necessary, but you may need to experiment with what he can tolerate as well as what motivates him!!  Cheese used to go straight through one of my dogs but hot-dog sausage worked for them all :)

I would suggest that if the stomach doesn't settle down then maybe a sample to the Vets is called for. Campylobactor is notorious for producing cow pats. A simple course of antibiotics would help.

Update on Bailey,went back to the vets a few days ago on antibiotics and being feed on chicken rice and fish, poo back to normal and introducing wainwrights again slowly,hope he settles on this as don't want to have to keep changing food and besides have a 15 kg bag to get through lol.Many thanks to you all for your advice.