My daughter was at a slumber party yesterday, so taking the dogs out after school became my son's responsibility. Unfortunately, after he brought them back in the house, he retreated to his room and let Suka roam the house without supervision. As a result, I came home to a mess of trash all over the floors from Suka raiding the trash cans around the house.
After cleaning up that mess, I gave the dogs their dinner. I knew something was up when Suka ate slower than the other dogs. When I let him out of his crate, he had left some kibble in his bowl (something he's literally NEVER done before). I thought he might've had trouble reaching it since I just bought them new bowls and his is smaller than the old one. I dumped it out on the floor, and he just sniffed at it and then walked away. I called him back over to me, and he didn't show any interest in the remaining kibble, so I let my daughter's dog, Jack, eat it. I was petting Suka and noticed his stomach was quite round and hard. I became really concerned.
That's when I realized when I was weighing the dog's
food, I had noticed the new bag had been tampered with. Suka had gotten into it and eaten his fill to the point of being uncomfortable. I kept an eye on him all evening, and I thought for sure he was going to have diarrhea. I was still in the process of switching all the dogs to the new
food, and Suka was only at a 3 to 7 ratio. I thought for sure this would cause some stomach upset because he had engorged himself on
food his digestive system wasn't used to.
Surprisingly, he didn't get diarrhea. His stools were a little loose, but it was more along the lines because he overate rather than having an upset stomach. That's when I started to put several pieces of the puzzle together about his
food sensitivities. (His
food sensitivities is why I've been switching his
food every month because I'm trying to find something he does well on.)
The first two brands of
food I had him on contained chicken as the primary ingredient. I had been avoiding beef-based foods because I know a lot of dogs have sensitivities to beef more than any other meat. I had to be super careful about what Suka was fed because he'd get diarrhea very easily, especially if he got a chicken nugget or unseasoned cooked chicken. I told his breeder about this, and she said her dogs get diarrhea as well whenever they're given cooked chicken. This new dog
food I'm switching Suka to (Victor) has beef as the primary ingredient, and it didn't upset his digestive system at all.
BINGO! Suka is very sensitive to
chicken!
You would think I'd figure this out sooner, but I kept thinking it was the fault of a filler or something else, not the meat source. I figured he got diarrhea from the chicken nugget because it was from McDonald's and I get stomach issues from that
food too (don't ask why I still eat it once in awhile, I have no excuse). It wasn't until he ate the beef-based kibble yesterday without any problems that the final piece to the puzzle finally slid into place.
I wasn't going to feed Suka breakfast this morning because he overate yesterday, so I put him in his crate and fed the dogs in a room where he couldn't see. But he got upset because he knows the morning routine and he wasn't being fed when he expected it. So I caved and gave him a half cup of
food. That was enough to settle him down. He's only getting half cup for dinner as well. He'll resume his normal amount tomorrow. I also rearranged the dog
food. Since the old
food is almost gone, I was able to fit it into a plastic bag and dump the new
food into the storage bin. The bag of the old
food was set on top and the bin sealed. So Suka won't be able to get into it again.
I'm glad I finally figured out what ingredient I need to avoid in his
food going forward. Now I just need to figure out if it's
all poultry or just chicken. I think I'll just stick with the Victor as their dog
food since he's clearly able to handle it well.