[omnommunster]

It’s been about 2.5 weeks since I switched my 2 year old, 50 lb dog to raw. I’ve been giving her whole chicken cut into quarters, beef liver, and chicken breast to start out. She loves the food and seems happy and healthy… Except for her stools. She barely poops and when she has I believe the only satisfying one was induced by me giving her canned pumpkin. She hunches over to poop but nothing comes out. When she has its been like diarrhea. I’ve pressed on her tummy and felt around… She doesn’t react badly… I don’t have a job and I’m honestly embarrassed to tell a vet that I’ve switched her. I’m also worried they will take advantage of my worry and ask to do unnecessary things to her. I don’t know if she’s sick or I am doing something wrong. I have to no qualms on taking her to the vet if need be… But I am also told quite often that I over worry… BUT NO POOPS WORRY ME! Any help would be great.
She came up to me tonight, ears up and eyes wide and showed me to the door. We went outside and she ran to her poop spot, circled forever, finally squatted… And nothing. Maybe a squirt… She walked around squatting for a bit then ran to the apartment.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Is chicken quarters, chicken breasts and beef liver all you’re feeding her? How much of each? That’s really unbalanced. If you’re feeding too much of the bone-in chicken that could be causing constipation. She may also need some fiber if that’s all she’s getting.

Personally I would suggest checking out a book with balanced recipes (such as “Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet” by Steve Brown) or getting a pre-mix (such as The Honest Kitchen’s Preference or See Spot Live Longer Dinner Mix) and feeding the balanced mix as at least half of her meals, you can feed raw meaty bones and offal for the other meal or just feed raw meaty bones a few times a week supplementally. You may also want to get her on a quality multi-strain probiotic supplement. Loose and/or mucusy stools can be normal during the initial transition as your dog’s body is adapting and detoxing. My dogs didn’t have any issues at all switching to raw but I know some others’ on here have had problems so maybe they can give you a more detailed time frame of how long it should take the dog to adjust.

[pugmomsandy]

Maybe she needs more time to adjust. Do you still have her old food? Maybe one meal of her old food, and one meal of raw until her poop situation is stable. You can even (instead of using her old food) feed some canned food or feed her some dehydrated food (they generally have veggie matter that will give her fiber) with her raw meals or feed her pumkin daily. Raw poops are usually alot smaller and can be firm but it can be concerning when they seem constipated. The vet can also administer an enema. Does she chew the bones down or is she a gulper? If she’s a gulper, you might consider feeding ground food or tie the piece of meat onto something so she can’t swallow it whole or smash the bones with a mallet. I mostly feed ground but do give necks and pork ribs whole. And mine still eat kibble too.

[GizmoMom]

Fewer poop is normal, but I think it’s too soon to be giving liver. The liver is probably causing the diarrhea.

If you follow this guideline, organs should only be introduced at week 7.
http://preymodelraw.com/page/articles.html/_/raw-chat/how-to-get-started-feeding-a-prey-model-raw-diet-r19

• This reply was modified 12 years, 2 months ago by GizmoMom.

[Cyndi]

I agree about the liver. I just started feeding my dog raw 5 1/2 months ago and I started with just chicken backs & chicken leg quarters for a while and then turkey necks. I didn’t introduce liver (chicken) for about a month & even then I gave just small amounts with a few raw meals each week, and even THAT made her stools soft.

Maybe cut out the liver for a bit and see if her stools firm up and when you reintroduce it, do it slow, in smaller quantities.

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