Wellness Puppy food causing loose stools?

[RoyeBeth]

We have a new 11 weeks old, (got her a 9 weeks), I've been gradually introducing Wellness Puppy to her from what the breeder was feeding her (Purina Puppy Chow). After a week of gradually mixing in the Wellness we are now feeding her only the Wellness and her stool is a lighter color and very loose. Before it was dark and firm.

Could this mean she isn't accepting the Wellness, or that it isn't the right food for her?

 

[gmacleod]

Well, it may be that the Wellness doesn't suit her... no food suits every dog, after all.

Or it could be a side effect of too-fast switching. A general rule of thumb for switching foods is that you mix the old and new together, gradually increasing the amount of new food in the mix till that's all you're feeding. BUT you must hold off increasing the amount of new food if at any time the dog's stools start to become loose. And only resume increasing the amount after they've returned to normal for a few days.

If that may be a possible reason, then the best solution would probably just be to ride things out for another 2-3 weeks, and see if time/adjustment makes a difference.

Another thing to look at is the amount of food she's fed. The leading cause of loose stools is overfeeding. So if the amount she's getting is near the top or in excess of the Wellness guideline, then it is probably worth cutting it back a bit to see if that helps.

If neiter time nor reducing the amount of food helps at all, then it is probably reasonable to conclude that this particular food might not suit this individual puppy that well, and trying an alternative may be a better plan.

 

[RoyeBeth]

Thank you for replying so quickly. It has only been a week since we started giving her equal parts of the old food and the new. I read somewhere that it takes about a week, so I just started with all Wellness after a week. I could try to go back to a little less Wellness and more of the old.

And we are feeding her more because that's what the Wellness recommended. We were feeding her a half a cup three times a day, total of 1 & 1/2 cups. The Wellness recommended 2 & 1/4 cups so we're giving her 3/4 cups three times a day. She's growing and gaining so fast. She was 14.5 lbs last week, we weighed her yesterday and she's 19 lbs this week, that's almost 5 lbs in a week is that about right?

Thanks so much for your help.

 

[gmacleod]

Well, 2-1/4 cups does seem quite a lot. It could perhaps be worth cutting that back a little (perhaps lose half a cup or so?) and see if that makes a difference. Guidelines are a good starting point, but individuals do sometimes need a bit less (or more) than the average.

 

[johann]

We've had the same issue with Wellness.....it calls for such large amounts of food. :eek Johann is supposed to be getting (according to the bag) around 4 to 4.5 cups of food per day. He gets around 3 cups though.

We had better luck with him having firmer stools with the wellness large breed puppy. I know boxers aren't a "large breed", but the formula is basically the exact same except the large breed has less protein.

 

[RoyeBeth]

Thank you for your reply, I cut back the quantitiy a little and I'm giving her 1 3/4 cups now instead of the 2 1/4, she's doing a little better.

 

[Kayden]

We went through much of the same problems. It came down to two matters, none of which were the quality of the food. Problem one, slowly switch to new kibble over the course of two weeks. The stress of a new home and away from litter mates is too much to start a food switch so soon. Even though it's a crappy food, right off the bat was not a good idea. What did work is going to a bland diet of chicken and rice for a week, and then over a course of two weeks adding her kibble in. Two, feeding her too much. We all don't want to over feed her, but on the guide on the Wellness bag is just that. It's a guide. And each pups metabolism is different. Our pup does only gets 2 cups a day, even though the bag says 3.5 cups. Feed them to their look, not the bag. This was by far the number one (actually #2) problem We also added an enzyme to aid in digestion. Do a search of posts by me, you'll see all of the problems we had.