A lot of Poop!?!?

[atowncorgi]

I have a 6-month old Corgi that we took into our home about 3-months ago. She is doing great, and always has been on the small side. However, I am now starting to wonder if she is small because she is pooping out all of her nutrition, haha. We have been feeding her Science Diet Puppy Small Bites along with a little bit of cooked ground turkey. She poops about 4-5/day. For a dog that is about 20lbs, thats a whole lot of poop. Should I switch to a new food??? Any suggestions?

[Checkers]

I am personally not a fan of the Science Diet products, so my personal opinion would be to look into switching... especially if she is pooping that much. I am currently feeding Nature's Recipie and have been happy with it... but my general rule of thumb when picking a new dog food is to inspect the ingredients. I insist there is no corn in the food (useless filler that will go straight through and has almost no nutritional value)... also I look for a pure meat source to be listed as the first ingredient (no by-products). Finally, at 6 months, since you are looking to change foods anyhow, it would be a good time to go ahead and take her off the puppy formula and do the transition to adult food. These are just my opinions... best of luck and hope your little one does well with whatever you decide!

-Cheryl

[Chip's Mom]

I tried Chip on the Science Diet little bites and he didn't do well either. When I looked at the list of ingredients, meat was not the first one and I was really surprised because Science Diet is not cheap. I switched to another dog food and Chip is doing great.

[darci]

I have to agree as well, Science Diet is not a great food.
Below are the ingredients.

Ingredients
Ground Whole Grain Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, Soybean Meal, Animal Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Dried Beet Pulp, Chicken Liver Flavor, Dicalcium Phosphate, Brewers Rice, Fish Oil, Flaxseed, Soybean Oil, Iodized Salt, Choline Chloride, Potassium Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, vitamins (L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract.


Compare with Nature's Recipe

Ingredients:

Lamb meal, cracked pearled barley, oatmeal, ground rice, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), lamb digest, tomato pomace, sodium tripolyphosphate, flax seed, potassium chloride, taurine, minerals (zinc proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, iron proteinate, copper sulfate, copper proteinate, manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, calcium iodate, sodium selenite), vitamins (vitamin E supplement, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), inositol, niacin supplement, vitamin A supplement, d-calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, beta-carotene, riboflavin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, menadione sodium bisulfite complex, vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement), choline chloride, yucca schidigera extract, rosemary extract.

Or Compare to Natural Balance

Chicken, Brown Rice, Duck, Lamb Meal, Oatmeal, Pearled Barley, Potatoes, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols - source of Vitamin E, Citric Acid, and Rosemary Extract), Natural Flavor, Tomato Pomace, Canola Oil, Brewers Yeast, Lecithin, Choline Chloride, Carrots, Potassium Chloride, Whole Ground Flaxseed, Dried Kelp, Sodium Chloride, Parsley Flakes, Calcium Carbonate, Zinc Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, Vitamin B-12 Supplements, Ascorbic Acid (vitamin C), Taurine, Yucca Schidigera Extract, L-Lysine, Manganese Sulfate, Niacin, Riboflavin Supplement (Vitamin B-2), Copper Proteinate, Copper Sulfate, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Acetate, Inositol, Folic Acid (Vitamin B-9), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B-6), Thiamin Mononitrate (Vitamin B-1), D-Activated Animal Sterol (source of Vitamin D-3), Biotin, Ethylene Diamine Dihydriodide (source of Iodine), Cobalt Sulfate, Vitamin K1 Supplement, Sodium Selenite.


You get the picture, just start to look at the ingredients listed on each bag.
So many times food that are grain heavy will inturn produce more stools.
You want a meat based food.
Also look through our many nutrition threads on this website. There are a lot of links on canine nutrition for you to learn more about this subject.

Good luck to you and your pooping puppy.

[Chip's Mom]

Cindy - you are too funny. I love your last sentence.

[darci]

[Dillydoodle]

I have to agree that science diet food is not optimal food to feed. A 6 month old dog should not be going quite that often. At that age Dillon was going about 3x a day at most. I would look to switch your pup to adult food ( no puppy food at that age) and to a high quality dog food that does not have corn, wheat, soy, meat by-products, sugar, salt, artificial colors or flavors.
There are a lot of human grade ingredient dog foods out there ( wellness, solid gold, merrick, natures balance, wysong, timberwolf, oh and there are lots of others that are really quite good).

The other thing i would do is probably take your pup to the vet for a check up to make sure there are no worms or other issues that could be causing issues.

Emilie

[glencorgi]

Originally Posted by atowncorgi

I have a 6-month old Corgi that we took into our home about 3-months ago. She is doing great, and always has been on the small side. However, I am now starting to wonder if she is small because she is pooping out all of her nutrition, haha.

Well actually that could be possible, although 20 pounds at six months is pretty much on track. I would suspect she isn't doing well on the food - it's just not working for her, and that's "contributing" to your problem. A vet check up just to make sure her fecals are clear of parasites wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Debbie

[Hayashi_eri]

I agreed that if your dog is pooing that much, most of the dry food contains grains (I believe)
On average they shld only poo about twice a day.
4-5 times is abit too much....

[jprechel]

Gee, I guess I won't worry about Ace not pooing for me any more! I am always a happy momma when Ace poos. That to me says things are working right! Silly I know! Jim laughs at me because I always ask when Ace comes in from pottying, "Did he poo?" So I should be a happy momma with 2 to 3 poos a day then? Okay, I'll try not to worry so much!

[milosmom]

I agree that Science diet isn't the best...and judging from Milo, it isn't the tastiest stuff either. I think if your Corgi is getting good quality food (meaning very little fillers in the food) his body should be absorbing the nutrition and that means less poop. Milo does a doodle 2x a day.
I read that you should look at the first ingredients and they should be chicken, lamb or beef, etc. and not grains or meat by-products.

[milles2]

Sad day when Poo becomes an important part of our day.....

I switched both Tuck and Lulu to Eagle Pack primarily because there was so much poo (from canidae, another good food).

But here's another question.... On nice weekends like we've had lately, my two are outside w/ me most of the day. They stop and Poo more frequently. On days when they are house bound, they poo before work, sometimes after work, and then sometimes before bedtime.

So.... do they poo more when they are outside because "they can" ? Now I'm curious.

[corgimom]

Are they more active when they are outside, versus maybe snoozing more while inside? -all that activity outside may get the bowels going