Orijen and loose stools

[sriley]

Within the last 2 weeks, I've switched my two boxer pups from Royal Canin Large Breed Puppy to Orijen Large Breed Puppy. My vet told me that because I was going from a lower quality food to a higher quality food, I didn't have to do the typical slow, gradual transition and was advised to mix the two foods for one day before just feeding them a diet of Orijen. They absolutely love Orijen and I have no regrets, but I've noticed that their stools are quite loose. I don't know if the switch was just too fast and their bodies haven't had time to adjust, or if the higher protein content and grain-free kibble is causing their stools to soften up. Sometimes, their stools are nice and firm (and super easy to pick up), and other times, their stools are a thick, runny mess. They've been on Orijen for about 2 weeks now and I thought the loose stool issue would have resolved itself by now, but maybe the pups are still adjusting. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Daisys Mum]

Unfortunately I don't have any advice for you, however I did want to say that my 4mos old has been on the exact same Orijen as yours since she was 11weeks, and for the first month she did great. But in the last month, she has been having the exact same poos that you are describing with your little guys.

I have read on other postings on here, that we should not be giving our little ones "large breed" food, so I plan to switch her as soon as I can get to the city where I have an actual good selection of food (I live in a very small town, 2hrs away from a major centre).

I would be curious to know if anyone else has had the same experience with this particular Orijen formula...

 

[sriley]

I wonder what the logic is behind feeding (or not feeding) a large breed formula. I suppose it depends on what the definition of "large breed" is. Are you planning to keep your girl on Orijen and just switching to a regular puppy formula? I double checked with my vet about feeding regular puppy formula vs. large breed formula and she told me that my boys should be on a large breed formula. I've also heard of people feeding an adult formula to boxer pups, too. I don't really know what is best, but I do trust my vet who has recommended Orijen Large Breed Puppy for my fur monsters. They're going for a check-up and another round of shots on Wednesday, so I'll see what the vet says about this.

 

[Murp.mm]

Orijen does have a high protein content. I'm wondering if that is probably causing the problem. Just a guess.

 

[dsmit]

There is nothing wrong with feeding your pups the large breed formula. The issue with the loose stool is that the change was done too fast. It still has to be gradual over a 7 to 10 day period. I had my boy on Orijen large Breed but had to switch after discovering his allergy to chicken. I have him on Orijen 6 Fish now and he is doing great. He has been on it for almost 2 months.

It will take time for his stomach to adjust.

 

[sriley]

Thanks for the input. Maybe it's the high protein content or the change wasn't gradual enough. Perhaps it's a combination of both. I honestly don't know. If it is just a matter of them adjusting to the new food, how long before I can expect solid stools? It has already been 2+ weeks. Even though my vet told me that I could make the change within a day because of Orijen's higher quality, I wish I had of done a more gradual switch. I guess I'll know for next time

 

[johann]

How much Orijen are you feeding? It should be quite a bit less than what you were feeding before (based on the comments you made about poor quality). Too much food can cause loose stools. You could also try to some canned pumpkin to firm things up a bit.

 

[sriley]

My vet has recommended feeding them 3/4 of a cup 3 times a day. I've heard that canned pumpkin can help to firm up loose stools...I just might give that a try. Thanks for your help.

 

[HL Hendrix]

I had the same issues with my pup when I tried him on orijen puppy. I used the large breed when I was still ignorant to the fact that boxers are medium sized dogs and really should not be fed large breed food due to that.

I also see that your vet told you to do the switch over a day?? A switch should be done over a minimum of 1 week, and even that is really fast.

Furthermore, 3/4 3 times a day with a food of that calibre seems like a lot. Please read the feeding guide on the back of the bag as this food company would know best.

Please remember that with no offence to your vet, they are not trained at dog nutritionalists.

 

[jboboxer]

It's my understanding that the large breed kibble has ingredients in there to help try and prevent hip dysplasia, which seems to be somewhat common in boxers, but it's more common in larger dogs.
I've noticed that the large breed kibble from orijen is also pretty large in size and I was reading in bark magazine that there's been studies that deep chested dogs are more likely to get bloat when eating smaller kibble than larger kibble. I'm not sure if that's the reason the kibbles are larger, but I've read that the larger kibble takes the dog longer to digest, which there's belief that faster eating dogs tend to get bloat faster.
I believe it was the The Purdue veterinary research team that indicated that you should not raise a dogs food dish and prevent your dog from reading it's food too fast, which they believe large kibbles will do that if I'm not mistaken.

The second leading cause of deaths in Boxers is bloat, so if there's little advice like don't exercise your dog before and after eating, don't raise their food and split up the feeding time, instead of feeding them all at once and feed them a large kibble. I think these things are pretty easy to do to be honest.

The funny thing about boxers is that if you read about dogs that are most susceptible to bloat, it will tell you it's normally dogs that weigh over 100 pounds and have a deep chest. The weight seems to also be a problem with HD, yet it's not common for boxers to weigh that much. So I think a lot of people won't classify boxers as large dogs, which I consider boxers medium size dog. But maybe the large breed food is better for boxers than many people tend to believe.