[Raffaele C]

I have been feeding both my dogs raw food for a while now and they have been doing great on it. But lately my groomer has been telling me that she had to express their anal glands because they were filling up. Their stools are not always hard but it’s never diarreha either; it’s in between. I’m guessing though that their stools should be firmer to help express the glands naturally. I was reading some other posts on the forum and some suggested Glandex so I was thinking about that. But my main concern was that I don’t want to buy a bunch of supplements when I thought that a raw diet should be providing the proper nutrients for my dogs to thrive. So before I go buy a supplement for this issue or start feeding pumpkin regularly, I just wanted to ask you all about your experiences with raw diets. Does a raw diet typically cause softer stool? Is chicken a factor?

[pugmomsandy]

Are you feeding homemade with bones (or other source of calcium) or commercially made raw?

[Raffaele C]

Commerical: Darwin’s. It has ground bones in it.

[pugmomsandy]

Some dogs who are sensitive to chicken (or other ingredient) and even to certain levels of fat (high fat diet or even marrow from a bone) can have softer than normal stools. If you don’t think chicken or fat is an issue since they have been on raw for a while, try giving them a RMB to eat a couple times a week like a chicken wing or a neck. The higher bone content usually firms up the stool. If you want to try non-chicken, then a duck neck split between them or a pork baby back rib (just one) should do. Generally speaking the amount of bone in a raw diet should be 10% but some do better on a little more. A whole chicken is around 30% bone. I’ve made a batch of raw food with 10% and 30% and none of the dogs had an issue and all their stools were firm. I did notice when they ate a RMB or a higher amount of bone from ground raw that their stools were firmer and more like large pebbles. Or you could try feeding another protein like beef incase they have developed a chicken sensitivity over time. My dogs have been eating raw for about 3 years and haven’t had any soft stool issues, not even after consuming the marrow from a marrow bone. For fiber, I’ve used pumpkin but then went on to use ground psyllium or chia seeds.

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