Not Thrilled to Eat and Pudding Poo

[bellabri287]

Okay, so how long on the new food before her stools should firm up? We are on week 2 of 100% Wellness Puppy and she is still having pudding poo... she is taking probiotics.

Also, she is not eating very much. We break it up 1 1/2 cups am/pm, well for the past few days she does not eat much if any of her am, and neither the pm. She also does not get excited about dinner. The ONLY time she was ever excited was when she was getting boiled chicken and rice, with the Pro Plan CR and LR, no excited hungry puppy, she was excited for a few days with the Wellness after the had no more boiled CR, but now I have to dance like a luncatic around the food to get her to come eat. I will set the timer and after 15 min its gone, but it makes me concerned. Could she just not like the Wellness? I hate to do another food switch so soon, but if she doesnt like the Wellness... her coat likes the Wellness, its getting softer and shinyer and thicker every day! I want her to be excited and happy to eat... not like its a pain in the arse like it seems to be now.

What do ya'll think?

[shellbell]

Hmm...that is a tricky one. Was she excited about eating the Pro Plan, or did she not eat much of it and act similar to how she is with eating the Wellness Puppy?

If she ate the Pro Plan more enthusiastically than she is eating the Wellness, I would think that it is a possibility that she just does not like the Wellness. Sometimes dog's just don't like certain foods. I was all excited for Tux to start eating Innova, but he just didn't like it. He wouldn't eat it, and I'd never seen him do that before. So I concluded that he just plain did not like Innova. And I didn't want to make him eat something he didn't like, especially if it looked like he wasn't even going to eat it.

And I would think her stools should have started to show something of an improvement by now...even if they still weren't 100% good, 100% of the time, I would think you would see some firmness.

When I tried to switch Tux to Innova, only to find that he didn't like it, I went back to the food I had previously been feeding him, since I knew he liked it and would eat it...this happened to be Blue Buffalo. I kept him on that for about a month, and then tried to switch him again, this time to Wellness....which he liked, and is currently thriving on.

I was trying to get him off Blue Buffalo in the first place, b/c his stools were soft on it, and I was not comfortable with the way they manufactured their food, and the fact that they had products included on the 2007 pet food recall. Just wanted to mention that, so people weren't wondering why I was determined to switch food....

[bellabri287]

The poops are not 100% pudding, they begin soft/formed, and end pudding, in a way that she has the walking poops daily, she thinks she done... but shes not and walks around the yard in the poo hunch till she gets that last drop is out.

This morning she ate none of her breakfast and tonight she ate maybe 1 cup. Could the wellness guide be grossly off? I am debating cutting her to 1 cup am, 1 cup pm, but that doesn't seem like much for a 6 month old 30lb dog.

[ZoeysMommy]

how was her appetite on the pro plan?

[bellabri287]

The same, a little better when we added some wet food to it, we are only using water with the wellness... maybe we should try adding a little wet food instead of water?

[ZoeysMommy]

i dont see anything wrong with mixing a little wet food in, I do that with zoey

[labby]

She's telling you she prefers the ProPlan. Why'd you switch? It's a good food and Labs do very well on it.

[DarwinsMom]

Where does she eat? Puppies have ADD, so I feed them in their crate so they have nothing else to pay attention to. Wellness is very rich and doesn't work for a lot of dogs.

[Random Gemini]

You know... it's really sad that she doesn't seem to like wellness and you SHOULD be seeing firmer stools by now.

It sounds like you're either going to have to get her interested in wellness or switch. For getting her interested, I see no problem with dropping a couple tablespoons of canned food on there... with Mugen I used a teaspoon of yogurt or unsweetened applesauce. Then I wound it back to just a couple carrots on top of the food... now he just eats the kibble no problem.

Something else you might try is getting a bag of jerky treats. They SMELL really strongly. I use them for training in dog school.. break one of the strips up into maybe a one inch piece and then split that into three pieces and let Star watch you do this.. then drop the pieces onto her food and have her sit and give her the bowl. Mugen was having an odd day last week and didn't want to eat lunch, so I broke out the jerky treats and tried this... and he bent over backwards for that bowl of food.

For switching, I really love the results that I'm getting with California Natural. It is spendy. But IMO... it's worth it. If you can get a sample bag and maybe use it as training treats... that might tell you if she likes it enough for you to buy it (and you could try this with any food that you plan to switch to).

Good luck!

[LadyBuckeye]

It's only been two weeks and that, by all my reading is not long enough to see if it works or not. If the poo starts out firm and then goes soft it may be because you are feeding as little as 1/4 cup too much. To go from 3 cups to 2 cups may be too drastic. Consider cutting back a 1/4 cup at a time for a few days to see the response. Good luck!

[Baffle]

Originally Posted by LadyBuckeye

It's only been two weeks and that, by all my reading is not long enough to see if it works or not. If the poo starts out firm and then goes soft it may be because you are feeding as little as 1/4 cup too much. To go from 3 cups to 2 cups may be too drastic. Consider cutting back a 1/4 cup at a time for a few days to see the response. Good luck!

Yes.

Or....Wellness contains both flaxseed and garlic....some dogs can't tolerate these ingredients. It also contains probiotics...if you're adding more probiotics on top of this, the extra bacteria could be the culprit.

Danny couldn't tolerate Wellness. Anytime he's had a problem with a food for any reason, it's resulted in his not being enthused about eating. Sometimes we haven't even had soft poo or gas to give us a hint.....but he's felt bad enough to want to avoid eating.

Barb

[bellabri287]

Well, as far as why we switched, I liked the ingredient list better on the Wellness, and liked that it was holistic. I also thought if I wanted to put her on CORE after she turns 12 mos, maybe it would be easier having her on there Super 5 mix prior.

We had the same problems with the Pro Plan, I switched form Chicken to Lamb thinking she didn't like the taste, it was always the same. Wet food made it a little better but not much. She has always had poops that start from and go soft, even on Pro Plan.

I didn't know Wellness has a probiotic in it, I think we'll stop giving her more and see what happens.

We are adding a couple tbsp of wet and she is a little more into eating, but we need to cut down on the dry because she is not finishing her food and I think the addition of the wet is making it too much.

I would love to try CalNat but its 30 min drive to the first place that carries it, and its a Kennel, not a pet store. I'm not going to do that, I'll try everything I can get at Petco/PetSmart and such first.

We use dehydrated Duck Breast treats for training so maybe I'll put some of that in the bowl like you said, make sure she sees me.

Star eats in the kitchen... I tried feeding her in the crate and she would stake some food and run out and repeat, usually not eating more than a few mouth fulls. If I closed the crate door... I doubt she would eat at all.

Could it be that because shes a mixed breed, found as a stray and adopted from a shelter, that she cannot tollerate premium foods? I wouldn't stoop to pedigree level (which she LOVES ) but, maybe preimum just doesnt sit well with her?

[bellabri287]

Another question.... could it be the PUPPY food? She is 6 mos, 33lbs. She could be switched to adult food, maybe its the fact that its puppy food that not sitting well? I look at the Wellness canned Puppy.... it looks rich I love that I can see carrot pieces but its very creamy. BF wants her on puppy food as long as possible so she gets big... but if shes not eating the puppy food its not going to make her grow! Thoughts?

[LadyBuckeye]

Take a breath...she is not going to be a large dog. I understand your desire to feed Wellness Core after 12 months of age, however, that really does not need to influence, imo, what you feed her now. It really does sound like you may be feeding too much. Consider backing off the kibble and continue to add the canned topper if you want. I personally do not think that there is absolutely no correlation between her being a mix bred dog from a shelter and her inability to eat "premium foods."

Natura products are not sold at Petco/Petsmart type stores...just at specialty kind of places. It's really up to you, but after trying to cut her back and she still has issues, I'd personally recommend trying the California Natural Puppy Lamb & rice...it's extremely simple formula will give you an idea of what works and what does not. I have to say though that because she's been having soft poo on several different brands, it sounds like you are trying to feed her too much.

Good luck!

[Annette47]

Just want to add that feeding her more, even if she eats it, will not make her grow any bigger than her genetic destiny. All it will do is make her fat, which is not good for her.

I'm not that familiar with the foods in question but if the new one is a "premium" you probably do need to feed less of it than the Pro-Plan to end up with the same number of calories ....

ETA that I re-read your original post and 3 cups total in a day of a rich food for a 6 month old 33lb dog sounds like alot to me. My not quite 5 month old pup is about 40lbs and gets less than that of Eukanuba.