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  1. #1
    House Broken Itstangy's Avatar
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    Pooping too much?

    Hello all!
    Spot poops 4-5 times a day, is this normal?
    He eats 3 times a day. Am I giving him too much food? He doesn't look overweight.

    He poops 15 mins after his last meal, plays a little bit and then goes to his crate/expen around 8pm. In the morning when we go downstairs at 530am, there is always poo.
    Is he eating too much?
    His poop is firm in the beginning and then gets soft. Also he has two piles sometimes when he goes.
    It seems like he is eating too much!? I feed him 1.5 cups/3 times a day.
    He is 3 months now and about 30+ lbs

    Any ideas? Or is this normal?
    Thanks!

  2. #2
    Senior Dog Jeff's Avatar
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    That's totally fine, it will slow down slowly over the next year.

    Pups don't really have a fully formed digestive system so what goes in must come out pretty quickly. It takes time to slow down. About 4 months maybe 4 times a day, maybe 6-8 months 3 times a day. Then they start to get pretty regular. At 4 years old my boy is 1-2 times a day.

    Oh and the night time, you need to go out more. So when my guy was a pup, it was first thing in the morning, before I even went. Get him out. After he ate breakfast before I went to work, probably going to be another. Lunch time another, afterwork or after supper, another. He wuold settle down around 9:00 p.m. before he settled down another trip outside. Then I went to bed between 11:00 and 12:00, he would go out again then. This was even on weekends. The morning I get up and let him out get him breakfast then go back to bed. It's all part of raising a pup.

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  4. #3
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    It is normal for puppies to poop more frequently than adults, but the firm going to soft and multiple piles at a time if it happens regularly can be a sign that he may be eating a bit too much. My two who are 4 months and in the 30-35 lb range are getting 1.5 cups too, but only twice a day and doing well with that amount. Maybe try lowering your pup’s food by a little bit - he’s old enough to be switching to 2 meals a day soon anyway, so maybe try cutting out 1/4-1/2 cup from lunch and see how he does?
    Annette

    Cookie (HIT HC Jamrah's Legally Blonde, UDX, OM2, BN) 6/4/2015
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    And our foster Jolie (Windsong's Genuine Risk, CDX) 5/26/1999 - 3/16/2014

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    Itstangy (10-13-2015)

  6. #4
    House Broken Itstangy's Avatar
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    Ok I see...how fast he was digesting after eating was a bit worrying to me. I thought he wasn't processing the food and getting the nutrients but he's growing like crazy!
    I guess pups are pooping machines!!!
    I need to set an alarm to let him out in the middle of the night so he won't make it a habit of going in the house...

    Sometimes when I bring him out and he doesn't need to go, he just looks at me like I'm crazy and then walks back into the house by himself w/o waiting for me =(

    I will also start to lessen the food and see if that would help with the soft poo towards the end...
    He isn't chubby at all, I see his body shape/curves I guess you would call it? I also feel the ripples of his rib cage and there is a layer of thick skin over it (it doesn't feel like fat or at least I don't think it does).

    Also, do they usually have loose skin? I can literally pull away about 2 inches of skin from his body.

    Thanks all!!!

  7. #5
    Senior Dog Abulafia's Avatar
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    My pup is about the age of yours (closer to Annette47's two yellows), and eats 3 cups / 2x a day (yes, she eats a lot; it is on breeder's advice). I don't recall her weight at 3 months, but at 4 months she was just about 40 lbs, so I am guessing she was around 30 at 3.

    Anyway, I think your puppy's evacuation sounds pretty typical, save the bit about loose stool. That might indicate that he is eating too much for his metabolism, or that the food isn't sitting well (though otherwise it sounds like he's growing well). Did you ask your breeder about this?

    Our pup wakes at about 6:30 in the morning, goes outside to relieve herself. Then breakfast, and more outside time. She will usually poop once or so in the morning.

    She spends time in and out throughout the day (she goes to work w/ my husband). She has dinner at around 7:30 at night, a final trip outside at about 9:30 (pee, poop), and then is in the crate for the night. She had to get up in the middle of the night for the first couple of weeks after we brought her home, but by 10.5 or so weeks, she was sleeping through. However, all dogs (like all babies) are different.

    One thing is that it sounds like your pup isn't crated at night if he is eliminating during the evening. Is that right? Dogs tend not to eliminate where they sleep, unless given lots of room to do so. Is he crated, or left in an open pen?

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  9. #6
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    I think 1.5*3=4.5 cups a day is a bit too much. Maybe you can downgrade to 4 cups? My puppy pooped 4 times a day until 6 months then 3 times a day til now (11 months).

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  11. #7
    House Broken Itstangy's Avatar
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    Will def. downsize his portions to see how he does...so I'll do 1.5 cups, 1 cup and 1.5 cups to bring it down to 4 cups.
    He is in an open crate/expen combo. I feel bad leaving him in just his crate the entire night, maybe I should try since technically he should be sleeping. I don't hear any sounds at night as far as I know, so I assume he is sleeping through the night. (He is left in the kitchen downstairs in his crate/pen combo).

    What about water? Do you stop giving water after a certain time? Like 1-2 hours before bedtime, he doesn't get any water? Would he get thirsty in the middle of the night?

  12. #8
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    Yes, they have TONS of loose skin at this age - perfectly normal. My daughters are always amazed by how much “extra” the puppies have. He is old enough to be crated at night. We had ours in a open crate/expen combo until about 3 months old mostly because we were all on summer break and didn’t want to get up early with them. They had been trained to a litterbox from about 3 weeks old and just used that at night until we started crating them separately when the kids went back to school - they adjusted within a night or two with no problems. We take them out one last time around 11 or 11:30 pm (right before we go to bed) and they get up between 6 and 6:30 when the kids get up for school. They don’t have water in their crates with them, but they have access to the water bowl up until bedtime.

    Hope that helps!
    Annette

    Cookie (HIT HC Jamrah's Legally Blonde, UDX, OM2, BN) 6/4/2015
    Sassy (HIT Jamrah's Blonde Ambition, UDX, OM2, BN) 6/4/2015

    Chloe (HIT HC OTCH Windsong's Femme Fatale, UDX4, OM6, RE) 6/7/2009

    And remembering:

    Scully (HC Coventry's Truth Is Out There, UD, TD, RN) 4/14/1996 - 6/30/2011
    Mulder (Coventry's I Want To Believe, UD, RN, WC) 5/26/1999 - 4/22/2015

    And our foster Jolie (Windsong's Genuine Risk, CDX) 5/26/1999 - 3/16/2014

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  14. #9
    Chief Pooper Scooper JenC's Avatar
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    Yup, puppies poop more than adult dogs.

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  16. #10
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    Yes, puppies poop a lot.

    Yes, puppies have a lot of extra skin.

    Yes, your puppy needs a potty break in between 8 pm and 5:30 am.

    8 pm actually sounds early for bed time. We used to pick up Kimber's water at 8 pm and put her to bed at 10 pm. There was a potty break around 2 am, and then she'd be up around 5:30 am.
    Stormageddon, Princess of Darkness, aka "Stormy"
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    Miss Kimber, CGC, 6/15/2005-1/27/2018 forever in our hearts



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