Puppy food question

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Morwenna

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Apologies in advance if this is too much information! My new Labrador puppy has consistently soft poo. It’s reasonably formed but very soft and impossible to pick up cleanly. It also occasionally is what I would call mild diarrhoea. She was wormed the day I got her and had her jabs and microchip that day so I put it down to the general stress. She’s bright enough in herself and wolfs her food down and is drinking well. She can go about 8 hours overnight without having a poo. She’s on Skinners field and trial puppy which is what she was on at the breeders. I’ve started giving her a little bit of cooked sweet potato in a kong with some of her kibble but it’s not made a difference yet. Is this just likely to be stress or is there a better food for her or should I just accept it as part of the fun of owning a puppy. If it gets worse I will, of course, take her to the vet.
 
Dram was a puppy with a delicate tummy and delicate appetite I tried several foods and then settled on Canagan which he was happy on .
 
Clodagh said:
It’s a pretty rubbish food tbh. I’d put her on something high quality, mine have Millie’s wolf heart, I don’t feed puppy food.
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Millie’s wolf heart was one I was looking at. The breeders said she’d been fine on Skinners. It’s not one I’d have chosen but we got a bag of it as part of the puppy pack and I didn’t want to change too much for her at once but I think I will try her on a better quality food.
 
I think Skinners is perfectly adequate but when fed on it, on my occasional forays into economy, they always just look a bit dull. And poo a lot!
 
Clodagh said:
I think Skinners is perfectly adequate but when fed on it, on my occasional forays into economy, they always just look a bit dull. And poo a lot!
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I know a lot of dogs that do well on it but it does have a lot of fillers so the quantities are high and the protein content is lower than I was told to look for in a puppy food (only by 1%). I’ll have a look in the pet shop tomorrow, I’d planned to go anyway as part of her education (today was the village tea shop and they gave me free cake as she’s so cute).
 
Rule out what might be causing the problem. Consider the over feeding, I know that Skinners chicken puppy food is wheat gluten free, but consider the other ingredients in it - is it the beet pulp which causes the problem, or the oats? Are you feeding anything other than the food, if so cut that out and use the kibble as the treats, taking it from her daily allowance. There are plenty of really good food out there but you don’t want to be changing often when they’re very young. The only thing I would add is a spoon of live yogurt which might help balance the gut,otherwise I expect it will firm up in time.

After we sold our Oscar pet food franchise we fed F&T duck or salmon for years, we have multiple dogs so had to find a balance between premium price and thoroughly cheap and Skinners fitted the bill. They’re now on Essentials, and the cocker will still only have one decent poo a day, the rest are a product of being mentally and physically wired!
 
Spotherisk said:
Rule out what might be causing the problem. Consider the over feeding, I know that Skinners chicken puppy food is wheat gluten free, but consider the other ingredients in it - is it the beet pulp which causes the problem, or the oats? Are you feeding anything other than the food, if so cut that out and use the kibble as the treats, taking it from her daily allowance. There are plenty of really good food out there but you don’t want to be changing often when they’re very young. The only thing I would add is a spoon of live yogurt which might help balance the gut,otherwise I expect it will firm up in time.

After we sold our Oscar pet food franchise we fed F&T duck or salmon for years, we have multiple dogs so had to find a balance between premium price and thoroughly cheap and Skinners fitted the bill. They’re now on Essentials, and the cocker will still only have one decent poo a day, the rest are a product of being mentally and physically wired!
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Thanks. I cut out all other treats on the second day so she’s only having kibble and I cut the amounts back as I think she was being over-fed. I don’t want to change too much for her as she’s still settling in. My sisters dog is on Skinners puppy and junior duck and rice and she’s giving me some so if Penny’s still not right in a day or so I can try switching over to that. Good idea about the yogurt. My instinct is to leave it a bit longer with smaller portions (and now adding some yogurt) and see how she does before I change her food.
My local petshop does have a good range of foods, including some of the ones suggested here and they sell smaller bag sizes so I’ve made a few notes about what’s easily available if and when I do decide to change her food.
 
Mine were on a well-known expensive (but seriously crap quality) kibble that seems very popular with breeders, god knows why. I put them on better quality kibble but the diarrhoea was constant so swapped back to raw. Diarrhoea stopped immediately. The previous pair were put on raw as babies. None of them are loopy (well, I mean, they’re springers, quite lively!) This thread was invaluable when I first swapped. https://www.petforums.co.uk/threads/raw-feeding-everything-you-need-to-know.111437/

The big trick is to not overthink it and consider the 80:10:10 (meat, offal, bone-go very slowly with offal!) rule as a rough guide, not a hard rule. It doesn’t suit everyone, but it completely resolved the diarrhoea for my two. I am appalled that I was persuaded by cheapo offers to ever put them on kibble. ??‍♀️ I’ve gone back to a local supplier, but DAF deliver countrywide. https://www.daf-petfood.co.uk/select-site/
 
I phoned Millie’s Wolfheart after reduced portions and live yogurt made no real difference. They were really helpful so I ordered the sample bags of the two they recommended. She’s been on it for two days now and the difference is amazing. Now I just have to decide which flavour to order a large bag of! I’ve also made some dog treats so I know exactly what is in them. Thanks everyone for your help.
 
It’s always good to get an update. Thank you.
Everything from our 13 year old lab to the beagle pups are on Millie’s here.
 
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