As dog owners we are all in search of the perfect poop from our pets. Now phoebe has had what i believe to be perfect poop for years. Firm yet soft. formed, easy to pick up. Now after 9 days on the grain free her poop is still hard. It doesnt come as one anymore. Its a few hard logs. Would you say that is ok? is that normal for a dog on grain free? She drinks a lot of water so its not that. Just cant decide if this means the food is not the right one for us.
I have to admit I'm a poop fanatic .... I like to have a daily inspection of the "quality" of my girl's poop. Bit like Goldilocks and the Three Bears porridge, its got to be "just right" or I start to worry! From what you've said in another thread about the improvement of Phoebe's skin since changing her over to grain free I'd say there's nothing wrong with the kibble you're giving her ... just needs a little adjustment to get the consistency of her poo right. Try adding some fibre in the form of veggies to the kibble ... pumpkin is good ... but make sure you introduce them in small quantities at first to give her body time to adjust. Salmon oil added to her kibble will also help. Too many raw bones can cause constipation and hard poo, so if Phoebe has them regularly it might be an idea to restrict the size or number of bones she's given each week. Hope that helps!
Well to be honest I like my dogs poo to be firm and what you're describing sounds like a raw fed dogs poo. Mine generally do a few bits, I can;t say I'd call them logs more like pebbles. I'd say it's fine and the difference is due to lack of grain. Eta if she's not straining to go then she's not constipated,
Pereg also produces a few slightly elongated pebbles and she is also raw fed like Shirley's dogs. She does eat a lot of bone as her second meal is either turkey neck or a chicken back, but those bones are softer than, say, ribs, and she also has a lot of very lightly steamed vegetables, and she never has any problems straining to go. She also has grains, but whole grains only, never any processed grains, as I add a couple of heaped tsp to her "wet" meal. If her poo is ever soft I would be concerned in case something was not right.
ok i feel slightly better. She isnt straining to go atall, I would have worried then. I have to admit was pleased at first as its easier to pick up when she goes in the long grass. There is also less of it meaning its now a 1 hand job not 2. Im giving her a few more days to get used to it before i start the weekly egg, 2 times a week fish thing. also looking in to a new pro-biotic as i dont think i need the acidophilus anymore if were grain free and i dont even think its helping anymore so going to look at a all round pro-biotic. think with all that i should be pretty confident she has everything she needs.
@Pork1epe1 Phoebe doesnt have raw bones. She is a bit of a diva and wont even touch them. she loves a roasted bone but she only gets 1 a month and she drags it out a good few weeks after the initial excitement of smashing it to bits
Is that for dogs or for humans? Nothing there about the easily passed pebbles passed by raw fed dogs.
No 4 is not normal in this house that's for sure, in fact what mine produce is not even on that list. The closest to what mine produce would be No1 but it's not hard to pass it pops out as soon as they squat. That chart bears no resemblence to normal cr@p and whoever supplied it has no clue about dog sh!t. In my opinion.
I like my dogs to have hard poo as its easier to pick up, however K9 poo is so small I need a magnifying glass to see it.
The Bristol Stool chart is for humans but from what I can see searching online, is also used for dogs. Purina do a Fecal Scoring System Chart (1 to 100) which shows samples of actual dog poo .... don't watch whilst eating .... which is much better than the BSC. Georgie is fed a home cooked, grain free diet consisting of meat, poultry, fish, eggs, cheese and a large selection of veggies. She usually has raw chicken wing, necks or feet for her breakfast. Only very rarely is she given (grain free) kibble. Having fed previous dogs on a home cooked diet I know that #4 is the kind of poo I expect to see her consistently produce. She only has one poo a day and then not a large quantity which is normal for a dog fed on this type of diet.
phoebes poops before where like mr whippys. Any icecream man would of been proud. Now were number 3 on chart. she definatly didnt do any that look like 4 she would have to keep walking to do a poop in a line.
I dog's poos should ideally be nice and firm, that way the anal glands can empty spontaneously . Nasty wet poos (which often occur when a dog is fed on cheap food full of cereal) don't allow any pressure to be applied on the anus so the anal glands fail to empty and all sorts of problems can occur.
