I never thought (or talked) this much about poop until we got Badger. Llamaentity and I even have special terms to describe poop quality (ewww). And we've also learned that what our dogs eat affects what comes out. One time, Badger pooped pure, undigested carrot chunks. We stopped giving him as many carrots after that.
 |
| A carnivore |
We found a food that works for both dogs, California Natural's Lamb Meal & Rice Formula. But I read somewhere that it was best to rotate foods to prevent dogs from developing food allergies. This month, our rotation experiment led us to California Natural's Grain-Free Venison Formula.
The amount of poop immediately skyrocketed. On Tuesday, we took Mushroom out, and she pooped twice. Not 15 minutes after we got back inside, she pooped on the carpet. On Wednesday, Badger pooped three times in one walk. (Wednesday was also the day I accidentally touched poop with my bare hand, cursed loudly, and turned around to find a 6-year-old kid standing right behind me. Oops.)
 |
| The Mushroom cycle: eat, sleep, poop, repeat |
So what have we discovered during our food rotations? Here's a table:
 |
| PowerPoint is fun (Click to enlarge) |
We cut down a little on the amount of food that Badger and Mushroom are eating for each meal, and it seems to have brought the level of poop back down to manageable levels. Although next month, it may be difficult to convince Llamaentity to try out another new food.
Do you rotate your dog's food, or did you find something that works and stick with it?
This made me laugh so hard I cried. Thank you. I needed that.
ReplyDelete(And for the record, I used to rotate Zoe's food, but now she's just on this hypoallergenic stuff, so for the time being, we don't rotate. Though I've heard it's what you're supposed to do! Ask your vet, maybe?).
Maybe we will ask our vet. I'm a little wary because the vet office stocks Science Diet.
DeleteHmmm. Yeah. In any event, thanks for the laugh. I showed it to K., who also cracked up!
DeleteWe had tried different foods due to Maggie's itchy allergies and have been feeding Natural Balance Sweet Potato & Duck since last summer. Her itches cleared up and she finally gained weight and has looked really good for at least 6 months.
ReplyDeleteProblem is, both dogs haven't liked the food out of the latest bag. It wasn't one of the flavors in the current recall, but Duke has had diarrea for the last 2 days! He's had to go out every couple of hours at night, he's so good that he barked at 3 am both nights to let us know he needed to go out(yay). The poor guy went right by the door before I came home 2 days in a row, so we had a vet appointment this morning. She gave us metronidazole and is going to test a poop sample.
I'm going to return the Natural Balance tonight & I think we're going to be making crockpot dog food. Aaaagggh.