[John L]

I wish there was an edit button here.

– Stool not all
– food not did
– refusing not revising
– food not good
– grams not Fran’s

Sorry about all that!

[John L]

You’ve selected a good food and an increase in all production is common when switching from lower quality foods. I would give it a month unless she shows other issues that indicate she doesn’t like the did or that is not agreeing with her. Revising to eat, vomiting and loose stools would be some of what I’d look for. One instance of vomiting though I agree, probably nothing to worry about there. I wouldn’t decrease the food amount to much, but I’d recommend measuring the good in Fran’s with a kitchen scale as its much more consistent than trying to go by cups.

[John L]

Generally when switching you need to do so gradually to prevent or minimize exactly what you are seeing now. I’d boil some write rice and chicken and start feeding half the normal amount of the new food and half chicken and rice until his stomach settles. You may want to go all chicken and rice for a day or two and start adding in the new food gradually, also an option depending on how lose the stools are. You may find the new food he simply won’t tolderate tho gh so be prepared for that. In that case you want to look for what is different between the new and old food. Maybe the new food has an ingredient that doesn’t agree with him, or perhaps the new food has more protein. Either of these can cause that symptom. Keep an eye on how he is responding. The stools and his appetite will tell you if you are on the right track. With loose stools be careful of dehydration. Make sure he has plenty of fresh water. Good luck!

[John L]

Not sure I understand but interesting question. Chewy provides a wide selection of food brands and does not have a “house brand” food that I’m aware of that they promote. Is the question related to the specific brands that Chewy offers and that those may be more favorably reviewed here? To me that logic doesn’t follow. It would be in Chewy’s best interest to stock a wide selection of the most highly rated and most often purchased products. Conversely it wouldn’t make sense for them to stock brands that are not considered high quality of that are purchased infrequently.

As for linking to Chewy from here, it could be for convenience or it could be Chewy has purchased ad space here. I wouldn’t see that as a conflict either myself. I’m still free to purchase what I want from where I want. Sometimes that is Chewy, sometimes not.

[John L]

Are you feeding the recommended amount of food based on weight, and are you measuring by grams? If you are measuring by cups, you could be of by a significant amount. I found this out awhile ago and have seen more consistent weight in our two labs since I switched to grams.

[John L]

Our two lab mix rescues are about a year old now and have been doing well in Acana. We alternate between Appalachian and Regionals.

[John L]

We were doing the same with our two, trying some of the top brands to give them the best we could. Besides the Orijen issue they wouldn’t touch Merrick, did like Nulo, and we had mixed results with some others. Being Acana is made by the same company as Orijen we’re pretty confident it was a good choice and they devour it.

We lost our almost 13 yo lab a year ago in August. She had been on Blue Buffalo for the last few years and did very well on it, but they had some issues in recent years so we looked elsewhere this time.

[John L]

We had the same issue with our two lab mixes and Orijen. It wasn’t an allergy or anything so extreme, just too much protein. We switched them to Acana (a bit higher carb and less protein) and they have been fine ever since. I thought of the allergy thing at the time but they have had no issues with chicken or any other proteins. In fact some of the Acana selections we’ve fed include several meat and fish proteins in the same kibble. Do have the vet check them out, but keep trying different foods until you find one they will eat and they produce proper stools on. Another tip – measure food by grams with a kitchen scale, not by the terribly inaccurate “cups”! You want them to get the recommended amounts of the kibble.

[John L]

I know this is not directly answering your question, however I thought it may be a good tip to share on the topic of weight control for pets. I stopped measuring food by cups for our two lab mix dogs since I found it to be terribly inaccurate. Instead I purchased a kitchen scale and keep it near the food and set to measure in grams, not ounces. Most bags of kibble we found have measurements in both cups and grams so it’s a simple change to make. If you already have a kitchen scale do a test yourself. Measure out a cup of food three times and check it each on the scale set to grams. I was rather surprised at how vastly different the amounts of food was in three different “cup” scoops.

[John L]

We have two six month old lab mix resucues that did well on Nulo, Acana and Orijen. They are off puppy now per our long time vet and on adult. Acana or Nulo seem to work best so far. Orijen was too rich it seems, diarrhea. Specifically they are on the red meat based Acana or salmon based Nulo. Good luck!

[John L]

We have had similar issues with out six month old lab mix pups. Very similar stool description actually. What we’re finding is Orijen seems to be too rich for them, at least that’s how I’d describe it. They are actually better on Acana or Nulo. We’ve also tried Merrick and Wellness with not great results, either diarrhea or they will not eat it.

[John L]

I usually consider whether the gas is bothering the dog or just me. If it’s just me I’m less concerned. Besides changing food again you should confirm if you are giving the correct amount as recommended on the package, consider if the dog is eating too rapidly or other things that could contribute to gas because the already mentioned issue of it simply not agreeing. Any gas caused solely by a change in diet I would expect to subside in a week or two after the switch.

[John L]

Correction, we chose Nulo (Freestyle), not “Nutro”.

[John L]

Thanks for the tips! I’ve definitely noticed a lot of people mentioning Zignature with high favorability. I’ll keep that on my short list. We ended up visiting a couple local retailers, one pet store and one natural food who was the local Annamaet reseller who had about a 5′ section of shelving dedicated to kibble and I think there was one bag of Annamaet along with Acana and Origen. At the pet shop we narrowed our choices down (since we wanted to start them on something else to replace the Pro Plan sooner rather than later) to Wellness and Nutro. Since Wellness still had chicken and Nutro did not we went with the Nutro. That may not be the long term solution but after a couple of days they are likely what little we’ve mixed in so far.

We also picked up a coconut oil based canine skin lotion the pet shop recommended. We’re on day two of that, plus the weather here is much improved from a dryness perspective, so hopefully we’ll see some results soon!

[John L]

Completely agree, seasonal weather here in NJ could have a lot to do with it, especially since these two were rescued from MS and have only been here a month or less. As for the protein we thought it was worth trying something different and the vet agreed, also it might help if there is some sensitivity to chicken.

The DFA analysis isn’t kind to Purina Pro Plan. I see Merrick is well liked but was bought by Purina. Seems they may not have changed anything though. I also had someone recommend Annamaet, but not something I can find locally.

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