Hi
I have got a beautiful chocolate lab. bitch how is now 13 weeks, the problem is she has runny stools, my vet has recommended Royal Canin sensitivty chicken and rice, but this doesn't seem to be helping and is very hit and miss when see passes.
What would you recommend to feed a 13 week lab? can anyone help

i only have a cavalier but i know the eukernuba dry complete food specialises in larger breeds. good luck

hills do a food called 'sensitive stomach'. a bitch i bred has always had problems and her owner has recently changed her to this with great success.

Before you start chopping and changing her diet have you checked your  are feeding the correct ammont
Over feeding can result in Runney stools, did your vet ask thease question before recomending new food? and as labs dont have a full gauge puppys can over eat-Jo

Hi, Thanks for the info everyone its the first time I've joined a forum and I'm please to see how friendly your all are.
To be honest I've never understood the feeding guide on the tins, does the weigh guide mean actual current puppy weight or end result adult weight ? I've been feeding her approx 1&1/2 cans a day over 2-3 meals (Baked bean size cans) based on puppy weight.
When down at the vets they gave Murphy (Yes she's a girl, but looks like a Murphy)a jab to kill all bacteria in her body and told us to feed the Royal Canin also a tube of healthy bacteria. This helped for about a week but then she goes back to runny stools, and the vet just advised the same and gave more jabs.
I've read on here about owners giving a raw diet, does this actually mean raw uncooked meat/Chicken with veg, I'm not worried on cost I just want to make sure little Murphy has the best start in life and stays healthy.
On a lighter note, I've also read on here about giving chicken wings as a treat, again does this mean raw uncooked meat on the bone as I've always been under the impression not to give dogs Chicken bones as they are brittle.
Thanks for your help. Tim

Hi Tim,
Yes, many people feed their dogs entirely on raw food - raw meat and vegetables. The important thing to remember with bones is that all cooked bones can be lethal, but raw ones are much softer and generally safe - though of course dogs should be supervised with them. The younger the dog when introduced to them the better they learn to chew them and not gulp them whole!
:)

Hi Jeangenie, Thanks for the reply, sorry but I'm a bit of a worrier and just like to be 100% confident, but in time could I change her diet (Over a course of 7-10 days) to raw chicken / lamb / pork etc just diced with chopped veg. as my last lab used to have roast dinner on a sunday with us, but of course that was cooked.
Also re chicken wings, its ok to give these straight from butchers counter (So to speak) raw with bones as long as I supervise until she used to them ?
Would the natual raw diet be the best for a dog or should I stick to more commercial shop brought diet ?

There are other people in here with far more experience of raw feeding than me - I'm one of the people who feeds a mixture of everything - some raw food, some commercial complete, some leftovers ... anything going! (Mainly because I don't want to be in a situation where I've run out of the only type of food my dogs are used to!) But I understand raw vegetables should be pulped in a blender rather than just chopped because dogs' digestive systems aren't long enough to cope with them otherwise.

But yes, I occasionally give mine raw chicken wings (Value bags from Tesco) and hold one end while the dog crunches and breaks the bones before I leave go and they take them away to chew up and swallow.

If you do a search on here (top right corner of the screen) and type in 'BARF' or 'raw feeding' you'll find loads of threads about it. Good luck!
:)

Hi Timausten,

I highly reccomened probiotics for diarreah,you can put a good size dollop of plain "live" yogurt on her food daily OR buy the probiotic capsules from the healthfood shop,you would have feed a few tubs of yogurt per day to get the benefits of one of these capsules :) Bearing in mind that there is nothing else wrong with your pup,if it's just bad bugs in the tum then probiotics wil definately help.

I feed a dry food called eaglepack holistic chicken,it has much better ingredients than royal canin, you can check it out at http://www.postalpets.co.uk

I also feed raw,you must never,ever give cooked bones of any type,ever! I give my guys chicken wings,necks,carcasses.Lamb breast,ribs.Pork ribs.Green tripe,pretty much whatever the butcher has going at the time.

If you want to feed raw veg you must always give it either pulped from a juicer,cooked and mashed or whizz it through a food processor.If you give whole chopped veg it will come out the other end the same way it went in.Dogs can not break down the cellulose in raw veg it must be broken down by us first or cooked.When wild dogs eat a prey animal,the veg matter has already been broken down or cooked in the preys stomach :)

Hi All, thanks for your advise over the last couple of days. Well I've tried Little Murphy on a raw diet and she absolutely loved it, last night she had lambs liver with veg (Carrots, cauliflower, broccoli) mixed with a little of her normal food and Yoghurt for dessert, and this morning some chicken breast with veg, again mixed with a little of her normal food.
One thing I am a bit worried about is I also tried her on half a chicken wing last night (the smaller wing tip end), again she adored it, but the only thing was she didn't really chew, I held it while she chomped on it so I let go as she was being sensible with it, but guess what as soon as I let go the whole thing went in her mouth with a few seconds of chewing and she swallowed it in one.  Can anyone tell me if this is normal ?
Thanks for your help, Tim

If you've heard the bones inside the wing crunching and breaking then it doesn't matter if the wing goes down in one, because dogs' stomach acids are much stronger than ours and are designed for digesting large lumps of meat rather than smaller mince-type pieces. You could always chop the wing up into smaller pieces and give it in her bowl with the rest of her food for a while till you get your confidence (trying something new is always a little worrying!).
:)

Hi, if your worried about feeding whole bones then you can get minces from some companies with ground bones in, if you want more info i can find out where to get them from as a friend has just started feeding her dog a raw diet :-D

Tin dog food contains between 70-80% water is probably the worst kind of feeding
Type on the market .Complete food dependent on the make contains about 10% with
the quality end of the dog food market such Arden Grange, JWb, and a few others
the main ingredient is meat I use a firm called Trophy they do a home delivery services and the agent who delivers it is trained in animal nutrition and will supply feeding guides and advice on feeding all free of charge.If you check their web site they can direct you to an agent near you www.trophypetfoods.co.uk .By the way natural yogurt contains
All the friendly bacteria to deal with most tummy upsets just a tea spoon will do.
Be interested to what the vet charges for his tube,but its probably cheaper in Tesco -Jo 

Hiya,
Before you change her food make sure she's not eating anything from around the house/garden, I have a 13 week old lab who has just had to be put on antibiotics because unfortunately labs have a habit of eating EVERYTHING including rocks, plant, poo, dust and anything else they can reach. Not sure if this is the case with you but at first I was told to change food and then I found a vet who had a lab puppy himself and understood!

Sarah

Dogs do not chew, they do not have molars with tables like horses and cows.

Neither are they designd to process grain, they do not have the correct digestive enzymes in their saliva for that.

ALL commercial dog foods are at least 50% if not considerably more grain, meat MAY be the SINGLE largest ingredient but when you add up all the others you will find %age wise it comes way down the list.

Wet foods are not necessarily worse than dry foods, to compare the 2 you must first remove the moisture from the equation; thus you will find for example that Naturediet although 75% water ACTUALLY containds circa 45% protein ;)

All animals do best on a species appropriate diet; one of the best for "sensitive tummies" (if you actually believe in this) is Naturediet being only meat, rice and carrots.

It is also a lot cheaper than some of the overpriced "hypoallergenic" diets which contain the same ingredients as regular ones but priced  much higher! ;}

Natural yoghurt will help firm up stools and correct the gut flora.

HTH

Just to say good to see you back tohme.

why thank you ;)