We've changed out 18 week old GR from Royal Canin Maxi Puppy Dog to the maxi junior dried food (on the advise of the vet). We've done it gradually over the last while until a couple of days ago he is now completely on the maxi junior.

However, his poo's are extremely smelly and are a bit soft (not runny but more like Mr Wippy icecream - sorry for the detail!!)  Sometimes he gets a bit runny towards the end of the poo.

Is this normal?

I don't want to change him from RC as I've heard so many people recommend it but want to do what's best for Cooper.

Thanks
Lisa

If my dogs were producing that kind of poo I would be changing their food ;)  I expect to see firm solid poos that are easy to pick up and non stinky :-D

I wouldn't expect to see such a big change considering you have only changed between Puppy and Junior Food   Is there a huge difference in ingredients/composition of the food?   It may be that the new food contains something that the old one didn't and this is causing a problem ;)

Overfeeding can cause loose stools. Have you upped the quantity? The guidelines on feeding are more than most dogs actually need.

I was going to post this but you beat me to it Lori - from the description of your boys poo Lisa (we dog owners are experts at poo describing aren't we ;-)) it does sound like you might be overfeeding. I usually feed less than is recommended on the feeding guidelines on the bag too.

What suits one dog might not suit another - I found my girls didn't do very well on RC so I changed their food and have never looked back. If you are not overfeeding I would look at changing his food. Does he get anything in the way of treats ?

I had exactly the same problem with my pup also on Royal Canin Maxi Puppy Dog when we changed up to maxi junior.
I stuck with it, on the advice of my vet, and after a couple of weeks things did improve.
That said he still has occasional problems and I am looking into alternatives.

Thanks for the replies.

I've been feeding him 300g per day (on the bag it recommends 335g for his age) - is this still over feeding or is this about right?  He still seems pretty hungry as he eats really fast.

I'll stick with it for another few days to see if anything improves.

Thanks

Lisa

Hi Lisa,

it's difficult to determine what exact amounts of anything dogs should eat - even same size/sex littermates wont necessarily require the same amount of food.  

If this were my dog I'd stop the the current food now, feed a bland home prepared diet for a couple of days instead (white fish or boiled chicken with stodgy rice or mashed potato) to let his tummy settle, then gradually reintroduce the food in smaller quantities and, yuk, poo watch intensely!  Any sign of a return to sloppy motions then I'd be inclined to suggest that for some reason this food does not agree with your youngster and look to introduce an alternative :)

If his system is upset or shooting this diet from one end t'other then he's not getting the true benefit of the food anyway and, if due to a sensitivity to any of the ingredients rather than too much quantity, it could have the result of making him intolerant to certain foods whether in the near future or further down the line.

regards, Teri

My Goldie boy Milo (now 6 months) was exactly the same- we stuck with it for 6-7 weeks with some improvement but only when cutting down his amounts drastically below what was recommended on the packaging.

My vet actually felt 32% protein was on the high side for a large breed pup so he is now on Eukanuba large breed puppy at 26% protein and his poo volume has halved and consistency is much better. It still gets loose towards the end of a poo so I'd still like to try maybe Eukanuba lamb and rice for pups.

So I wouldn't be too scared about trying something new like I was-my vet calmed me down a lot, I think I was getting quite neurotic in the end!!! LOL

Hope this helps
Monique

All

Thanks so much for your help yet again - sometimes I don't know what I'd do without this page.  Not only being able to post but sometimes just reading others posts can be a great help.

Just a quick update on how Coopers doing.  We've been on the Royal Canin Maxi junior for a couple of weeks now and everything is normal (touch wood!!)  The quantity seems to have drastically decreased and the consistency is back to how is should be (can't believe I'm describing poo!)

Thanks again.

Lisa (& Cooper)