# Good food too rich?



## SweetSalem (Oct 22, 2010)

The breeder had Salem on Purina One Large Breed Puppy food. Well I know that isn't the "best" food...so I have gradually tried to introduce other brands such as Blue Buffalo,Nature's Recipe, etc. Her poor system just can't take the "better foods". She is horrible diaherra for weeks on it. Vet told me to switch her back to Purina One Large breed Puppy food (Chicken variety). I did and within two days...her stools are "normal" again. 

Has anyone heard of a puppy not being able to digest "good" food? If so what did they do?


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## Emoore (Oct 9, 2002)

How slowly are you switching? 

Most people's definition of switching slowly is taking a week or two, but it can take a month.


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

Sometimes Blue Buffalo is too rich for their system.

My cousin had to take her Rott off of Blue Buffalo because it gave him alot of bad gas.


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## Denali Girl (Nov 20, 2010)

There are people on here that have had that same problem I think? The bottom line is you just need to feed the food that works best for your dog weather it has grains or not. 

My problem was trying to find a food that the dog would actually eat, her poops are fine though with the "richer" foods so far.


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## SweetSalem (Oct 22, 2010)

I switch over a two week time period.... She was on Blue Buffalo for two months...and still wasn't good. I have also tried "grain free" Chicken and Sweet Potato and Pumpkin...that stuff was horrible...she couldn't even control her bowls hardly even when switching 85% old food and 15% new "grain free".


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## GSDElsa (Jul 22, 2009)

How long have you been introducing the food? Go even slower if you have to. Also, have you tried to introduce pumpkin into the food to help firm up her stools? You can also try a mixture of water/slippery elm/pumpkin about an hour before you feed her to calm her stomach a bit.

It could just be you haven't found the right food to switch her to. Speaking from someone with a GSD of the weak stomach variety--finding a food can be a pain in the BUTT! But once you find a GOOD QUALITY food that works you'll never go back.

One food that I ALWAYS recommend these days is Natural Balance. It's certainly not the shining star of grain free foods, but it has worked amazingly well for me with dogs with weak tummies. It's a limited ingredient food--and I personally think the best on the market. They do a LID like no one else. If you get her on one of the NB foods then you can try switching over to something else that has similar ingredients down the road.

Purina is a really poor quality food...I always feel like the lower the quality, the harder it can be to switch to a better quality because their systems almost get shocked with the better food. So it can take twice as long to get them on a new food with consistent results.


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## GSDElsa (Jul 22, 2009)

SweetSalem said:


> I switch over a two week time period.... She was on Blue Buffalo for two months...and still wasn't good. I have also tried "grain free" Chicken and Sweet Potato and Pumpkin...that stuff was horrible...she couldn't even control her bowls hardly even when switching 85% old food and 15% new "grain free".


Are you talking about chicken/sweet potato/pumpkin home cooked meal? Or a specific food that had those in it?

If she had horrible poops on chicken I would think she has a chicken sensitivity or allergy. Purina has such a small amount of actual meat in it it could not be bothering her in that food.

Switch to a completely different protein. I would go with ground beef (boiled and RINSED) and sweet potato and see how that goes. Or try one of the LID foods with a novel protein she hasn't gotten (i.e. venison & SP , bison & SP, or fish & SP).


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## GSDAlphaMom (Jul 20, 2010)

Yes some food is too rich for some dogs. After 3 months of loose stool on Wellness and Orijen for my 5month old I finally threw in the towel. SHe isn on Innova LBP and finally has good stools. I tried the pumpkin, probiotics (which she is still on), perfect form, nothing helped until I got off them. She also eats much better.


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## Emoore (Oct 9, 2002)

Are you switching to grain free foods?


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## SweetSalem (Oct 22, 2010)

Thank you for the advice. I will try switching her over waaay slower than I have been and also try a different protein. I thought it was the "grains" but maybe it is the chicken. I just need to get her off the Purina....it makes her coat look horrible and her skin gets all dry.


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## SweetSalem (Oct 22, 2010)

Emoore...I tried to switch to Grain free...but the problem got worse. I am now thinking it is more the "chicken" than the grains....since that is the "constant" in all the foods I am choosing.


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## pmerandi18 (Jan 13, 2011)

You may want to also look at Innova Large Breed Puppy.

Pet Products - Healthy Dog Food, Natural Cat Food, Gourmet Dog Biscuits ? Innova Holistic Pet Food


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## GSDElsa (Jul 22, 2009)

Oh, it definitely sounds like chicken might be the culprit since she's got the dry itchy skin on purina as well (quite possibly a combo of chicken AND grains).

Since you're thinking allergy definitely consider a LID at least for awhile. A lot of the foods have so many ingredients if you are having a problem it can be hard to narrow it down.

The projectile poops sounds a lot like the issues we had with Elsa. She started getting runny poops on BB Wilderness. We went to a chicken and rice bland diet and it turned to pure liquid mess--it was absolutely disgusting. Within 3 days of going to beef & sweet potato bland her poops were almost perfect.


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## crboggs (Nov 13, 2010)

We just converted our GSD pup and adult yellow lab from Purina One foods to Blue Buffalo foods.

The pup is fine and putting on weight. The lab has horrible gas all of a sudden.

I think the lab is going back to Purina One soon.


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## ElvisP (May 19, 2010)

A couple of things:

1) The good, grain-free foods (we use Orijen LBP) are rich so it doesn't take as much food. Giving them too much of the good stuff will turn them into a runny poop machine. Elvis had this problem periodically until I pulled back on the serving.

2) Go slow on the switch ... it could take weeks. The slower the better and you might have to regulate it. I switched Elvis over about 4 weeks.

3) Multiple servings - We were giving Elvis 4-5 servings per day ... they were smaller servings. The fewer but larger servings could also produce the "poop runs." Elvis is now 9 months old and we still feed him 3 times a day to make sure he doesn't eat too much of the good stuff all at once. 

Good luck.

Edit: I'm adding # 3.


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## BlackthornGSD (Feb 25, 2010)

You might try switching her to Pro-Plan's Sensitive Coat and Stomach formula first--it's salmon based, so you'd move away from the chicken. It's actually quite a good formula (although, it's fairly heavily grain-based), and I've had several people say it made a huge difference for their dogs.


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## SouthernNdN (Nov 17, 2010)

I bought a sample bag of Orijen LBP to try out, and started out with 85% old food 15% Orijen, I noticed right off the bat that her poop had soften up a bit and was no longer coming out in pellet form but back to long form. LOL I do believe it may be a little to rich, however I will keep with this, since it's not runny or anything and see how she does. If within a few wks or so I see no difference, I will keep her on her regular food and try again in a month or two. Perhaps I'll just resort to adding a few supplements until I can find a grain-free kibble she'll be able to take and digest well.


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## momtoshadow (Jan 17, 2011)

We switched Shadow from the Eukaneuba the breeder was feeding her, over to Wellness Large Breed Puppy, it probably took 2-3 weeks to fully switch her over. Towards the end, she was picking the Wellness out of the bowl, and leaving the Eukaneuba behind.


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## PaddyD (Jul 22, 2010)

I had good luck with Wellness Super 5 LBP and Orijen LBP. There was a transition period of a week or so but the results were good in all respects. Now she is on Orijen 80/20 and she is more gassy (not real bad) and slightly soft stools.


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## crboggs (Nov 13, 2010)

BlackthornGSD said:


> You might try switching her to Pro-Plan's Sensitive Coat and Stomach formula first--it's salmon based, so you'd move away from the chicken. It's actually quite a good formula (although, it's fairly heavily grain-based), and I've had several people say it made a huge difference for their dogs.


We had lots of success with this food on one of our labs. Its the only Purina I'd buy these days.


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