Since switching to Burns two and a half weeks ago, my one year old cocker spaniel has constantly had loose bowels. Has anyone else had this problem?

How much are you feeding him. If you over feed it does give a loose motion. I would suggest calling Burns Nutrition advice line, they are pretty helpful.
Good Luck

Thankyou Dogmad. I am feeding the recommended amount and I spoke to Burns this afternoon and they suggested giving him brown rice and a boiled egg until his motions are firmer, and then slowly reintroducing the Burns. The other thing that bothers me is that since he's been on Burns he seems permanently hungry and he's also very unsettled. I'm wondering if it just is'nt right for him,although he loves it !!! So does my old Lab !!

I feed Burns and mine are also hungry all the time , but I think they always would be. They love it too. The only thing I would say is that they are very lean on it, so I have gone onto the active food for working dogs to try and get abit of body on them.I found that if I gave more they just got loose motions which is not desirable and gives an indication that they are not digesting the food properly anyhow.
Sounds like his digestive system needs a bit of time to get used to it, I would give it a while and you will get a feel as to whether it is right for him. IMO it is a very good food. I used to feed raw but it became hard work so I looked long and hard at the dried foods out there and this seemed to come up trumps.
What do others think ?

I think if my dog became excessively thin, had loose motions, seemed out of sorts, or I needed to overfeed it to the point where its digestion was effected in order to keep it at a good weight,  I would change the brand of food - even though it seems to me from the ingredients Burns is one of the better dry completes.

Burns Active to me seems to defeat some of the good things about regular Burns - it adds maize, a lot more fat (for the kalories I suppose), and sugar beet pulp.  Not saying it's a bad food, just that it then becomes more directly comparable with other premium dry completes. 

I tried Burns after my dog got the itches on JWB.  Unfortunately, she did not like Burns.   Now I feed Naturediet.

Stacey

If it isn't working for your dog definately switch him to something that does. Not all food works the same for all dogs, there could be something in it that he is alergic/sensitive too.

I have mine on Nutro Natural choice lamb n' rice and when I tried the chicken one it gave them the diarrhea real bad. I think the chicken was way to rich for them or something, switched back to the lamb by the second day they were solid again.

You just have to find what works best for your dog :)

I switched my 2 weimars onto Burns just a couple of months ago.  I remember Burns telling me that it is impossible to make a diet that will suit every single dog and therefore they say that it is not a problem to add extras to their food.  My male seemed to drop a bit of weight and I was getting a tad worried, they said he would drop slightly but then it should balance out, however if he continued to drop weight then add a table spoon of vegetable oil to one of his meals.  If that didn't work I was to call them back.  They also said it could take up to 8 weeks for the dogs digestive system to adjust.  I haven't had to add anything as he stopped losing weight and now just looks lean and toned.  Which for a gundog is what I want.  However, I would like him with more body but he's only 3 years old and has been slow to mature from day one so he could just be taking his time to body up.

My bitch looks toned but wouldn't say her weight changed at all on Burns.  I feed them both strictly according to the instructions, no loose motions at all. :-)

I think it is an excellent food and wouldn't be too quick to change just because of one or two initial problems.  I would speak to Burns first and give it a few weeks before making any decisions.

Oh and I would agree, my male does appear hungry but then its difficult to tell with him because he loves his food so much he would eat for Britain :D

Thankyou for all your opinions. Burns have jast sent me some samples of Fish and rice, so do you think it may be better to slowly reintroduce this, rather than the Chicken?? Burns said it was up to me, but just wondered what you all think?  Thankyou.

They told me to introduce their food over a longer period of time if I thought my dogs were likely to get an upset stomach.  I introduced it over the course of 7 days, perhaps I should have done it over 14 days instead but apart from the drop in weight which I was told to expect I didn't really have any other problems.  If the Fish and Rice is still Burns then I'm not sure if you need to worry about reintroducing it, particularly as it is made by the same company.  I guess it depends if there are major differences between the 2 foods. :-)

The fish and rice is Burns. When I say 'reintroduce it slowly' I mean only over a couple of days alongside the rice and boiled egg to hopefully stop the loose motions! It's just a matter of whether I re-try the chicken (which upset him) or try the fish and rice instead. Any ideas?  Thankyou.

I know nothing about dog foods and am only saying this as an observing bystander, but I would be slightly suspicious if your dog reacted differently to the new food, and they told you to feed brown rice and egg and try again in a while - they're not likely to admit their food isn't suited to your dog and lose your custom. Ditto for the fact that they are now sending you a new variety to try, a free sample to reel you back in - I know they have nutritionists on their helplines (although I expect you get put through to a call centre of people with text books, I suspected this when I rang JWB for advice), but if they have nutritionists to advise you, why did they answer your question about what to do with "its up to you"?  You were asking for their professional advice, its their job to advise you!

Like I say, I know nothing about dog food, and am merely looking at this from a general consumer who distrusts large companies point of view and am prepared to take any backlash I get from this! ;-)

I must admit when i was told 'it's up to you' I was a bit baffled! As you can tell! I must say apart from that one comment they have been very helpful.

I find Burns food very good for my 19month old Labrador. I must admit though, her motions are firmer on the fish and rich,lamb and rice or Venison and rice. No idea why this should be but I have noticed that when she's had the chicken version her motions are slightly less firm (certainly not loose though).

I think Poppy does prefer the fish and rice although she loves it all. She also loves the real fish Ocean Bites and the Kelties :-) The Ocean bites do pong a bit but they are good for them and Poppy goes mad for them.

By the way, I wish my girl could lose some weight on Burns :-) I was interested to read that some have lost weight. I wish I knew the answer with Poppy. I now only feed her 200g over two meals, which seems to little for such a big girl.

I definitely wouldn't switch from Burns. Poppy looks so much better since being on Burns ( a few months now ). Just wish she could lose a little weight :-)

Hope it all works out for you - I suspect the switch over should have been a bit more gradual (they do say over 5-10 days).

Take care,
Best wishes, and Happy Easter to everyone,
Val :-)

I recently changed one of my dogs (shar pei) onto Burns because she has sensitive skin. The first one i bought was the Venison & Rice, then we had the Lamb & Rice, now she is on the Fish & Rice & that seems to be her favourite. Her coat has improved no end & her itchiness stopped immediately, so it's doing great for her. Only thing i have noticed is that she doesn't keep her weight on the same as she used to, i presume it must be the food.     

It seems to me that the general opinion is that people think (myself included) that Burns is a good food, but it seems that dogs are lean on it. and seem to mature very slowly on it. what do others feel ?

Seems to me that those are bonuses - many dogs are overweight, and many grow too fast and have (hopefully transient) health problems as a result.

thanks for that. puts my mind at rest, there seems to be two schools of thought out there, and people seem far more concerned about slim dogs than they do obese ones !!

I must admit, i am finding this too. My collie is great on it, but my retriever started off well, but now she seems thin and constantly hungry, so i increased her food and now her motions are quite loose, but before they were incredibly firm, (so easy to pick up!!) I recently bought a my secong 15kg bag, but i bought lamb and rice rather than chicken and rice, which i started off on, and the change seems to have occured round about that time. Do you think it could make a difference?

Well my slow to mature male has been slow from day one and he's only been on Burns for 2 months so thats definitely got nothing to do with the food :-)  Burns have never disguised the fact that dogs may appear to lose weight and look leaner on their food, they print this in their food guides, perhaps like someone mentioned earlier we are just used to seeing overweight dogs ?!

When I telephoned them I didn't get the impression it was a call centre (I could be wrong tho) and when I spoke to them on their stand at Crufts they were very knowledgeable indeed and not a text book in sight :D

I wouldn't be impressed if they said "its up to me what I do", perhaps it depends on who you are speaking to and what kind of mood they are in !  Although that shouldn't be the case if they are providing good customer service.

Lamb is supposed to help increase weight but I guess if you are feeding too much food that is where the loose motions are coming from.

I agree that not all food is going to suit every dog and of course most companies won't say for you to try another brand, but I do like the way Burns admit that they can't make a food that will suit every single dog and that is why they don't mind you adding things in order to balance it out.  I got the impression from talking to them at Crufts that they don't expect you to have to add loads of extras to the food but sometimes something small like a tablespoon of oil can be enough to balance it out for your dog.

With regards to dogs being hungry, I'm just wondering if this has anything to do with the way the food is supposed to work.  Does it not say that the carbohydrates are time/slowly released or something like that ?  Also its lower in fat isn't it and we all know that fatty foods give a fuller feeling for longer.  I know they say that depending on what food the dog has been used to depends on how quickly you can introduce Burns, think they recommend some dogs to be introduced to Burns over a period of weeks rather than days.  I have to say though, if your dog appears hungry but isn't underweight then surely they must be being fed enough.  As I mentioned earlier its hard to tell with my male because he would eat all day if I let him :D

hi

i fed burns to my boxer for nearly 6 months she never settled and also seemed hungry and agitated and although a lean dog is healthier than a obese one my boxer never put an ounce of fat on her she's ribby and very pinched in looking so i have just changed over to nutro to see if it will put a bit of bulk on her, shes deffernantly alot more settled and satisfied after meal times, i think burns is a great food for dogs with allergies, digestive problems or ones that are prone to put on weight but for your normal healthy dog it does'nt satisfie them enough, also she has'nt had a season and i'm sure its because she is underweight i know alot of you will poo poo  that comment but i am sure that is a reason why she is late developing.

j

With reference to your comment about seasons my bitch of nearly 15months has not had a season, fed Burns from 5-6weeks old, very healthy but lean and immature in physical development. I know in people optimum weight has it's part to play in hormone balance, so why not in dogs ??

Hmm, but some dogs naturally come in late/early, again just like humans :D  Amennhorrea can of course be weight related.  Burns, like all foods is not right for all dogs as they, like us, have different, individual make ups.  Lots of dogs do incredibly well on it, just as some appear to incredibly well on foods at the other end of the spectrum looking judging by the many posts on various "pet" favourites.  This is, after all, what makes the pet food manufacturing business so incredibly profitable, with new foods entering the market on an almost monthly basis!

Just to keep you updated, the boiled rice that Burns advised goes in and comes out looking identical!! After a trip to the vet today, we have been advised to stop using Burns and try Wafcol salmon and potato. This doesn't contain any rice, which may be the cause of the problem.

Exactly! :D  It is not usually the "brand" of food that is the problem but rather one of the constituents which is why, when people change brands it may or may not work.  If the ingredients are the same, the chances are it won't (unless they are in different proportions) if the ingredients differ then you may have found your answer!

Dogs are just not built to eat grains I am afraid.

hi

after changing my bitch from burns to nutro she has instantly put on weight and today has come into season at 1 year old so it could be coincidence or my theory about not having enough fat on her to have a season could be right all i know is she looks a dam sight better on nutro

j

How long have you fed the Nutro for? What differences are there in the ingredients?What is the protein & fat percentages ? Just interested.

hi

must be at least 4 weeks she's been on it now and there's a difference already she's not pinched in and she's really beginning to mussle up and look more solid, the main thing is she has eventually began her season i know 12 months is not unusual for the first season but honestly she was so thin i am convinced this is why now she's losing her ribby look and her hips points are deffernantly more covered i will keep her on the nutro my friend has her boxer on it and he has a good muscler atheltic look about him and not at all under weight looking the protein is 22% and the fat is 13% they have a web site type in nutro on google its deffernantly worth a look

j

Nutro :)

Thanks for the info. Good to hear that it seems to be working for your girl.