Hi, we have a 2 year old male blue and tan border terrier who is raw fed. He has an extremely sensitive tummy and we have learnt through trial and error what suits him. Everybody says raw fed dogs have less waste, not our dog, he poos about 5 times a day? Straight after eating he's outside for the toilet. We feed him natures menu loose minced meat with bone and add 2 of their fruit and veg cubes and a small chunk offal. He also has chicken wings and other suitable bones.  He is never full and always on the lookout for more food. He is a big border and weighs 10kg, very fit and active. Any advice please - we weigh his food out and he doesn't have treats.

Clearly something isn't right about the diet you are feeding - going 5 times a day when he should only need a BM as often as the number of meals he's having, perhaps plus one, is indeed abnormal.  I'm not into raw feeding, mainly because I've never felt confident enough to think I'd be feeding a balanced diet.   Mine are on Arden Grange complete (currently Chicked and Rice and previously their Sensitive food - fish and potato) fed at around 7 am and 4.30 pm and at most empty 3 times a day with good firm stools. 

Offal could make him loose, if he is?   I'd suggest whatever he is fed, is making his digestive system too active.

I would change to a grain free kibble.

I would change him to a complete raw food either nutriment or natural instinct. These are both better foods than Natures Menu.
I feed Nutriment and can really recommend it. You would not need to add veg or offal either.

I strongly suggest you join a Facebook raw feeding group - I'm a member of s few but BARF UK is the best by far, imho.

As others have said NM isn't the best and you don't need fruit and veg, if you do feed it, it should be on top of the meat bone and offal That can be a problem with Nutriment and Natural Instinct as it's included, so throws the balance out.

It does sound like he's missing the offal part of the diet, also oily fish and eggs that are great for their coat.

Have you ever thought about Malabsorption where the pancreas cannot absorb fats ..this causes large amounts of pooh..

If you want to stick with raw, I would suggest Nutriment too - but maybe trying their "Just" range - which is a single protein food.  Not to stay on long-term, but to try to isolate exactly what is causing this - he may be intolerant of some proteins or ingredients, so simplifying things to determine exactly what, would be good.

Thanks for reply. Our border doesn't do well with grains of any sort, he was on Burns for a while and became very thin and unhealthy. He looks healthy on the raw but obviously shouldn't be having this many BM's. He's not loose and the offal part of his diet only amounts to 10% overall.

Can you tell me why Nutriment is better than natures menu?. Just wondering what the difference is. Thanks

I actually do feed the fruit and veg on top of the bone and offal. I've calculated the amount of meat and bone/offal/fruit & veg and feed accordingly. I have tried natures menu complete but when it defrosts the texture is more like pate and nothing for the dog to chew. He has chicken wings for some meals too.

Nm arnt able to consistently  state the bone content  even when directly asked by many different people.they also include things like rice which is unnecessary  and not well digested by dogs. Also as debbo says it throws the true 80 10 5 5 balance out and possibly the extras arnt being digested and therefore increasing poo.  I prefer either to diy or use a better quality premade without extras.if needed I  an add them myself.   Also if u are have g problems I woild suggest barf uk .all of whom are feed and have masses of experience

U will find that nutriment and natural instinct are also pate like. Have  a look at the dogs butcher. Nature raw Henley or the dog and bone.  Also struggles online seems a variety of those above.

The natures menu I buy our dog doesn't have any rice or other fillers in, just meat and bone. I will look at Barf UK for ideas. Thanks

Thank you for those suggestions I will have a look on line. Our dog likes to chew his food not just swallow it down which he does with The pate type meals.

In which case either changing to diy or trying some of the others first without veg as that's iotuinal might help him .bit it sounds like the main issue is tweaking to sort poo

Like I said, trying Nutriment "Just" range which is pure meat (of one type!) and without the veg and other complicating factors, will help you determine what the cause is. 

Natures Menu 'regular' nugget range does have rice in it.  But their Country Hunter Superfood range does not have rice in it.  Which helps clarify that one.

However, Country Hunter also does not have organ meat in it (I don't think??) which many raw feeders consider important.  I also think that the added ingredients/nutrients for Nutriment are better - spirulina, etc etc.  The Country Hunter added ingredients are things like peas (which are just cheap extra protein) etc.  So - meat aside - I think Nutriment's added veg and extra nutrients are better than Country Hunter.

This was what I was thinking. One of my dogs never put on weight, the more I fed the more he pooed. Both my vet and I were concerned that he was very underweight. My vet suggested pancreatic insufficiency and that, as my dogs are raw fed, I add pancreas to his diet. I feed The Dogs' Butcher raw food and they also do pancreas. Within a matter of weeks he had put on three kilos in weight and only poos about once a day. My vet advised that pig pancreas had to be from the UK as some countries put something in pig food that is detrimental to dogs. Pancreas from other animals is ok. Dogs' Butcher pancreas is from pig but is fine to feed.

Yes it was the country hunter range we started our dog on, I read the ingredients very carefully to make sure there's no grains.I also added offal to this range if none was included.  Now he has the NM meat mince in either chicken or chicken and lamb variety and I add offal to it. He also has a teaspoon of Dorwest seaweed and Kale powder and a teaspoon coconut oil. Our border is not underweight. He does have anal glands that empty while he's being stroked usually sitting on your knee - yuk !!