Bathroom question

[TAYA COOK]

I have a 5 month old frenchie, he is the love of our lives. I am wanting to know if it is normal for them to poop 5 times a day?? He was on iams puppy and i have just switched him over to Natural Balance for puppies. He is fed one cup of dry and half a can of wet a day. Please let me know if this sounds right???/

[Tatiana]

Most importantly you want the puppy to be pooping firm stools consistently and not experiencing any diarrhea... IAMS really isn't a very good quiality food as it has a lot of fillers that are of no nutritional value to puppies so it's good that you've made a switch, but you should also do a bit of research at http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com and try and upgrade your dog to a 5 or 6-star rated food... Unlike large-sized breeds, French Bulldogs don't necessarily need a puppy-only food and can consume adult selections... At five to six months of age you can also feed your puppy his daily ration divided in two meals a day (instead of 3 meals), morning and evening, with a late-night snack before bed to tide him over...

To be perfectly frank, puppies do tend to produce an average of 4 to 5 stools per day... They're poop factories... And once you switch them to 2 daily meals, they'll usually produce 3 to 4 stools per day until they're about a year to a year-and-a-half. Most of my dogs produce an average of 2 to 3 stools per day as adults, depending on their meals and occasional snacks.

Hope this helps : )

[TAYA COOK]

Okay....thank you for your reply. I am now confused. I saw on here that the Natural Balance was a good food for them, but I then went to the site you said and it says differently. I only have a petco and pet supermarket in my area and can not seem to find any of the ones listed on the 6 stars or 5 stars list.

[jill]

We live in a small town and have limited access as well. If you ask for the store to order in a specific food for you they usually will. :)

[Tatiana]

I try and avoid naming specific brands because the fact is that there's no "perfect" food created for all French Bulldogs and every dog is somewhat different... What is more important is to find a healthy blend of food with no corn, no melamines, and no cheap fillers that provides your dog with optimum nutrition... The other criterias are that it has to be affordable and obtainable (within a reasonable distance)... What I can suggest is that you look around Dog Food Analysis and then Google the names of the different companies so that you can explore their websites... They usually have an on-line directory to retailers near your zip code... For example, I feed my dogs Taste of the Wild and while it's not available at any of the major national retailers (yet!), I do happen to buy it from a pet store that's a block where my mother lives... "Wellness" is another well-known brand that I do believe is found at one or another of those stores... Perhaps the "Wellness Core" line might appeal to your dog. The fact is that new and purportedly healthy pet foods are being introduced all the time... It's a growing industry... So enjoy your puppy, spend some time researching and pouring through dog-related websites, and find a formula that works for you and your particular dog. The only other good links to check are The Whole Food Journal and the Consumer Affairs website where pet owners tend to report food-related illnesses or suspicions of tainted food supplies: http://www.consumeraffairs.com (click on Pets and check name brands from time to time). Cheers!

[karin hamlin]

Lola is 1.5 yrs. old and still poops about 4 times a day. It was 5 or 6 up until 4 mos ago. Lola is on a good diet and on some good supplements but her little tummy just needs to go more often than most I guess. At least they are little poops!
Get yourself a snazzy little pooper scooper and "SCOOP ON"!!!!!!!!!

[Trish]

Not all dogs do well on the foods that are ranked as 5 and 6 stars. I spent an entire year, changing different foods, to try and feed something that was "the best" for my dogs, and well, it just didn't work out.

I consider Natural Balance to be a very quality food. My dogs have done VERY well on it. It may not be perfect, according to dogfoodanalysis.com, but it's what works for us. It ranks a 4 star, and I'm okay with that. Natural Balance has a lower meat content then a lot of the higher ranked dog foods. If you are concerned with your dog not getting enough meat in their diet, you can supplement some high quality canned food into their diet, to up the amount of meat content in their diet. Some good canned foods are Nature's Variety (Instinct) 95% meat, Wellness 95% meat, and Evo 95% meat. Merrick also makes a canned food called Before Grains, that is 100% meat. I've had the best of luck with adding the Nature's Variety (Instinct) canned food, into their dry kibble. I use the duck and also the rabbit. They had way too loose of stools with any of the other canned food. There is another canned food that they both tolerate well and it's just the regular Wellness Duck and Sweet Potato, or Turkey and Sweet Potato, which is not one of the 95% meat varieties, but is still a quality canned food. I just buy the small 6 oz. cans of the Wellness, but the NV Instinct cans only come in I believe 12 oz.

If you're using a 12 oz. can I would only add 1/4 of the can of food to each of the puppies meals, especially to start out with.. to make sure that your puppies stomach can handle the canned food. Even if my dogs can tolerate a canned food, getting too much of it will make them have looser stools than normal. Just make sure you refrigerate the unused portions until it's time to use them. I just use one of those little gladware containers, and scoop out the unused amount into it, close up the container and toss it in the fridge until next time. I split a 6 oz. can of food with my dogs, so each get 3 oz. of the canned food. If it's the 12 oz. can I give them each 1/4 of the can in the morning, and then 1/4 of the can for night feeding and then it's all used up.

I'm not aware of Natural Balance having a formula specifically for puppies. Natural Balance is an "All Life Stages" food which means it can be fed to puppies, adult dogs, and senior dogs. I prefer an all life stages food. If he's doing really well on the Natural Balance, I really wouldn't worry about changing it! :) But that's just me. A lot of people on another forum that I'm on go by a saying of, "If it ain't broke don't fix it!".

[Diane]

We switched our Poppy to wellness she did not do good on it. The vet said it must bt be rich for her. She is year old.

[TAYA COOK]

Trucker is doing amazing on the the wellness core dry and natural balance canned food. I guess for now, we will stick to that combination. He is 6 months old and weighs 22lbs.....