I fed our beloved Tory of 13.5 years Nutromax and she was super healthy all of her life. So when we got our new little pup we decided to stick with the Nutromax. I began to do some research on the newer brands of food and decided to go with Innova. I've been slowly adding Innova to Sophies NutroMax for about 1 1/2 weeks. She is a 17 week old black lab, weighing aprox. 38 lbs. We also just went from 3 to 2 meals per day last week also. She is currently getting 2 cups of Innova large breed puppy twice a day and 1/2 cup of NutroMax twice a day. We gradually tapered the mix to get to this point. She seems to love the food...no prob. there. My concern is her stools are quite loose and LARGE. With the Nutromax her stools were more formed and much more compact...indicating to me she was utilizing more of the food. However, she will be receiving more of the Innova 4.5 C/day vs. NutroMax 3.75 C/day. Should I just wait it out and give her time to adjust to the Innova? If so, how long is reasonable? Are the loose, larger stools ok? This AM she went out as usual and did one large, loose poop then moved to another area and strained to poop out another small amt of soft stool. I have also noticed some gas that she had not had before. Sorry for such long, detailed poop concerns.....I appreciate any help. Thanks!

Give it time and the Innova web site will tell you the major reason for loose stool is over feeding. The gut needs time to adjust and Innova doesn't have stool hardeners. The gas should go away in time. Some dogs can take change overnight, others need longer to produce enzymes needed to digest the new food. Innova is a great food, but some dogs find it rich... My Lab actually does better on Healthwise because it's a more simple food.
Good luck in the switch.

I just switched from Nutro Natural to Innova large Breed Puppy by mixing the food together for a one week period. It's funny, my boy looks at his food bowl for about 20 seconds before he takes the plunge now. He seems to like it.

the reason I switched -- and I don't know if you knew this or not -- is that the Mars candy company just purchased Nutro recently. I'm not going to wait for them to screw it up. I figured it'd be good to get him off it now.

I didn't know that but did read on the boards that some kinds of Nutro may be available in grocery stores soon so who knows what will be happening....Your Bodie is sooooooo cute!!!!!!!!

First of all, at 17 weeks your puppy should be fed 3x's per day and her system probably needs smaller more frequent meals, she's still a baby. You can decrease to 2 feedings/day at 5-6 months. You're feeding 5 cups/day for a 38lb. puppy, that sounds like too much. When transitioning between 2 foods it can be hard to give the right amount of food as you are mixing 2 kinds. If your puppy has soft loose stool then feed her a little less the next feeding. It's better to feed a little less than a little more.

I didn't know that but did read on the boards that some kinds of Nutro may be available in grocery stores soon so who knows what will be happening....Your Bodie is sooooooo cute!!!!!!!!

Yes, I read the same thing. If they don't change the ingredients it will be nice to have the convenience of buying a better food at the grocery store