[Liya O]

Hi everyone,

I recently took in a small (12lb) stray and decided to adopt him for good. I’ve been feeding him my large (57lb) dog’s food, Acana. He likes it but he poops every 2-3 hours and it’s kind of soft some of the times. I can’t walk him every two hours because I’m at work so I’d like to try and change his food to something more appropriate for him and see if he needs to go less times a day.
Any recommendations for small breed dog food that’ll help with this issue?
Thanks very much in advance

p.s. My large dog has been eating this food for a long time and goes about 2 a day

[anonymously]

Maybe you are feeding him too much? As long as he has no medical issues and your vet approves, you could try feeding him one meal a day in the afternoon, then walk him every 2 hours and at bedtime, first thing in the morning.
Just leave fresh water. Same for your other dog.

PS: Check general guidelines for tips http://www.homeovet.net/dynamic/php/downloads/dog-c8470f2c75dbe4b683205c3919ee2310/dog_diet_complete.pdf

[DogFoodie]

How much are you feeling him, Liya?

How is his body condition?

[Liya O]

I’m totally feeling him 😉
As for feeding, I give him the proportional amount as mentioned on the food bag, but it’s a big breed food type I think.

Not sure I understand what body condition means, but he seems fit and healthy and not over weight

[DogFoodie]

OK, could you look on your bag and see if it says how many kcals per 8 ounce cup the food he’s.

Here’s a chart that’ll help you determine your dog’s body condition score. If he’s been to the vet recently, your vet likely noted it on his paperwork. Has he been very checked and cleared in good health?

What’s his age and his activity level also?

[anonymously]

With a small dog it is easy to weigh once a week. Step on the scale and weigh yourself, then get back on the scale holding the dog and subtract your weight from the number.

This way you can keep your eye on any changes and adjust the amount of food accordingly.

PS: In the morning, after elimination and before the first meal, same time every week, is best for accuracy.

[C4D]

Hi Liya O,

I think DogFoodie might have forgotten to link a copy of the body conditioning chart. Here’s a link to it:

https://www.purinaveterinarydiets.com/media/1209/body_condition_chart.pdf

I don’t know how long you’ve had him, but there generally is a transition time for the dog to adapt to the food, especially if he was eating a lower quality diet. I foster a lot of dogs and they need to be transitioned to better foods. It could also be that you are feeding him too much food. I have a small dog that’s about the size of yours and I feed her slightly less than recommended on the food bags, depending on the calorie count of the food. The other possibility is that there is an intolerance to the protein in the food you are feeding.

Just to add some other possibilites, since you don’t know his history, you might want to run a complete fecal check on him that’s sent out to a lab. He could possibly have some parasites conritubuting to the stool problem.

[Susan]

Hi Liya, change the brand of food, some kibbles can make a dog poo more then other brands, some kibbles make my boy poo less, some brands make my boy poo heaps more, try him on another brand like “Wellness” Wellness have a few different kibbles & see how he goes, what is the fiber % what is the protein % in the Acana ……..

Sometimes a higher protein kibble can make them poo more, my boy was doing 5-6 poos a day on 30% protein & real soft poos, I ended changing kibbles back to a limited ingredient kibble with less ingredients & 4% fiber & around 23% protein….

a lot of these rescue dogs are use to eating real cheap crappy kibbles & when they start eating a really good kibble they do sloppy poos, diarrhea etc so I slowly started my boy on foods that were 3 stars kibbles cause the protein is lower & I’ve found Patch is back to his 2 or 3 poos a day…..
http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/index.aspx

[Arby A]

Liya,

Can you tell us which Acana recipe you’re feeding and what type of treats you may be giving him?

Whether or not the current food is the culprit, you should get him to a veterinarian if you haven’t already done so, especially since he was a stray.

[Author]

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