GWPSage
Trained
Back in the saddle again
Posts: 201
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Post by GWPSage on Dec 30, 2005 10:34:24 GMT -5
I have been feeding Jade Innova puppy for a couple of months, I switched from feeding him EVO because it was making him gassy. Now he has really loose stool, and his coat is dull. Poor guy looked better on Pedigree. I started him on missing link a couple weeks ago. Still no progress Any suggestions. Hes really not thrilled about eating raw, and I am not really thrilled about feeding a strictly raw diet anymore. I have considered adding pumpkin but I would really like to find a good kibble. The shop I buy my food at has a brand of kibble called Canine Caviar, I have been reading about it and I am considering trying it. Anyone have any experience with this product? Wishing everyone a Happy and Safe New Year!
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Post by sibemom on Dec 30, 2005 22:04:08 GMT -5
BOY CAN I TELL YOU ABOUT KIBBLE PROBLEMS I swear I tried every brand out there for Willow and then even went back to raw and NOTHING was helping her. I did the digestive enzymes you name it I did it Now we are on to something that Loey told me to try, and that is Iams Large Breed, just plain old Iams. At first I put the pumpkin in just to be on the safe side and then after about 10 days I took it away and just fed the straight Iams and YOU KNOW WHAT FINALLY we have a winner ;D I even tried the EVER SO SPECIAL ROYAL CANIN GSD FORMULA 24, OH MY GOD that was HORRIABLE, even my BC who can EAT ANYTHING and who is on primarily raw, I gave him just a couple of peices for a treat and HE PUKED. So you can try the pumpkin, but what I am finding at least with Willow and her funky stomach is that the BETTER FOR YOUR DOG BRANDS are the worst for her. The other one the does promote a nice firm stool is the Canidae, I would be careful of designer brands YOU KNOW the ones they lable with PRETTY NAMES
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Post by Nicole on Dec 31, 2005 8:32:29 GMT -5
Innova is a bit rich for many dogs. Sunny had a similar problem with it...loose stools. But Natura is probably the best kibble manufacturer out there. The ingredients are excellent, high quality, whole ingredients, no by products at all. Have you tried the Calif Natural (Chicken or Lamb)
Most low end foods have artificial stool firmer (beet pulp for one) which is why you usually will get firm poops with the lower end foods. But you also get lax quality control, by products, poor quality meat, lots of grain.....etc.
There are many decent kibbles out there. I looked at the ingredients of the Canine Caviar and it looks pretty good.
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Post by ladyarya on Dec 31, 2005 9:06:48 GMT -5
With Karma's sensitive stomach, Buddha's horrendus anal glands, anda possible allergy going around, my search for a dog food they could both handle led me to Eagle Pack's hollistic duck formula and they're both doing the best I've ever seen.
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GWPSage
Trained
Back in the saddle again
Posts: 201
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Post by GWPSage on Jan 9, 2006 11:34:51 GMT -5
Well still no results, I did switch him to Canine Caviar. I tried adding pumpkin. But I ended up takeing him completely off kibble for a few days and I have been feeding him cooked brown rice and plain "natural" yougurt. Hes holding his weight much better than on the kibble and his stool is much better. This weekend I went and bought California Natural Lamb and rice puppy. Wonder if I should try switching him to an adult formula? Thank goodness for 5 lb bags. ::sigh:: Is 6 days long enough to see give kibble a try before giving up and switching? Thanks for all the feedback
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Post by willow on Jan 9, 2006 15:34:22 GMT -5
Hi Sage,
I have not tried Canine Caviar, but I did look it up to see the ingredients in it, and while it is good that there are no by products in it or fruits/vegs, which I personally do not like a food to contain, there are quite a few that made me uneasy. They are:
Rosemary extract. (What purpose?) Alfalfa (often causes allergic reaction) Flaxseed (often causes allergic reaction) Beet pulp (added as a stool firmer) Brewers yeast (a lot of people/animals are sensitive or allergic to it) Rose hips (? what purpose? Vit. C?) Yucca (Probably won't hurt, but again....for what purpose?)
How did Jade do on it?
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GWPSage
Trained
Back in the saddle again
Posts: 201
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Post by GWPSage on Jan 9, 2006 19:47:01 GMT -5
I didnt like the results I got with the Canine Caviar, I saw the beet pulp too and wondered why on earth would they need to add fiber to a high quality kibble. The alfalfa also concerned me. It appears as though it is some sort of an allergy his eyes are not as runny, he has stopped scratching and his stool is much more firm. I am slowly adding the California Natural into the rice hopefully he does okay. If this doesnt work I will try him on strictly raw, I seem to have a hard time finding the balance with raw which is why I am so hesitant to start it with him. My dogs seem to be a bit on the thin side . I am kinda bummed tonight was the first night of puppy class and I didnt want to drag him out. I hope he feels better soon. Poor lil guy .
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GWPSage
Trained
Back in the saddle again
Posts: 201
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Post by GWPSage on Jan 10, 2006 22:54:30 GMT -5
Okay we have a winner! I can not believe it took so many days to get things right. I am hopeing to get him off the brown rice, and yougurt. But he seems to be doing much much better on the California Natural, thanks for the suggestion Nicole . Now he has developed a little behavior issue of pottying in his crate but I'll fix his wagon. Anyone know if you can buy crate dividers from Petsmart? He gets out several times a day and still leaves me a pressie when I get home from work. I was partially relieved it was pretty firm, but getting very very frustrated.
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Post by Nicole on Jan 14, 2006 10:09:26 GMT -5
I am glad the CN lamb is working well for you. Sunny loved the lamb but that was too rich for him too. He does super on the chicken.
I don't know about the dividers from pet smart, but you can probably make one yourself..a proper sized piece of plywood or thick card board. He probably started doing this when he was having the stomach upset and it became a habit. Make sure that you clean the crate and bedding with an enzymatic cleaner to get rid of the stool odor. That will help as well.
As far as cleaners, Natures Miracle USED to be good but they sold their name to company who uses an inferior product. Of course they didn't tell us that. Natures miracle then started a new product under a different name. Isn't it amazing how companies just continue to deceive us. Anyway, "Eliminate" extra strength is good if you can find it.
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Post by willow on Jan 14, 2006 12:05:45 GMT -5
Although I prefer to feed my dogs raw, I was hoping I could feed some kibble so in case they had to be taken care of by someone else, they would do o.k. on it. All I could get was the CN L&R. Kara did fine on it, although more and bigger poop. The same with Buddy, but like with all other kibbles I have tried, he goes a day or two with nice firm stool and then diarrhea again. I tried it for over a week and although I read that it is common for them to have some soft stool or diarrheaat first, until they get all the residue out of their system from the "crummy" dog food, I would think that by then he should have been o.k. I have not fed any kibble for several days again, and Buddy is not having any problem, but is back to nice small firm stool, so I am about to give up trying to feed kibble. Is anyone interested in (almost) a full bag of CN L&R?
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Post by Nicole on Jan 15, 2006 11:37:02 GMT -5
Oh Loey...Sorry it didn't work out. Are you mixing it into the diet slowly or did you just give it all abruptly. The lamb gave Sunny diarrhea as well. You can try the chicken..that is much less rich than lamb. Natura does not add fillers or stool firmers so the dog can either digest it or not. Many dogs have issues with this which goes to show that without artificial stool firmers, kibble is not a good digestible diet for dogs. What I mean is that while it may seem like the dog is doing well...firm poop, the dog may not in fact be digesting properly. Sunny even had soft stools on the chicken. Not runny but not firm. He has firmer stools now that I add the home cooked.
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Post by willow on Jan 15, 2006 12:26:45 GMT -5
I did introduce slowly, but it's so hard to mix kibble with raw.....I mean.....I could not give an all kibble meal, because you are to introduce slowly....so I would give them some kibble and the rest raw, which some say should not be done because they digest at different rates, which can cause digestion problems. I will say they did not have this problem with the Evo...I mixed it with the raw right from the beginning and it worked fine,.... at first! No diarrhea, but Buddy tends to do that with every kibble I have tried. He does fine at first and then starts to have several good days of firm stool, and then bad days with diarrhea. I tried again yesterday by giving them a little less raw at regular meal times and then giving them about 1/8 cup of the CN by itself between the raw meals, so we'll see how that works. I have also noticed though, that they get itchy when on kibble and Kara licks her genital area a lot, which leads me to believe that is the source of her problem when she has yeast infections. She did the same thing on the Evo and the Iams.
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