Yay! Is he better on cooked or raw? Or the same?

Sirloin, huh? You're one good mommy!! LOL.

Yeah really he's a lucky guy!

I have had experience with Diahrea, but it was only from Rambo getting into the cat food. Dogs have a hard time digestion cat food, due to the protein content.

Oh trust me he's only getting the Sirloin because the meat is temporary thing plus he didn't do good on the cheaper stuff..LOL.!

I started giving him mostly cooked (not fully fully cooked...but pinkish) with a lil bit of raw. Now he's at about 1/2 raw and 1/2 cooked and he seems to do ok with both. My only thing is that he doesn't poop too much. He goes about 2-3 times a day, but something is very little. He's also having his carrots. He loves those things!

Oh, and I got samples of THK in the mail!!!

Yay for THK samples!

I was once told that dogs should poop at least once a day. Sometimes Ginger poops only once a day. And sometimes she has little turds. LOL! Size of their poop depends on their diet.

I believe Val's boy (55 lbs) who is on a partial raw diet has smaller poop their her Chihuahua girls! And if I'm not mistaken, small poop means they are absorbing the nutrients in their food more effeciently....I'll leave it to other to confirm if I'm correct on that.

That's good to know! I was a little concerned that I wasn't giving him enough food! Mya's poop is pretty big let me tell you! Perfectly formed always but BIG! LOL!! She goes about 3 times a day also

Yep. Less poop means more absorbsion of nutrients (less waste) which is typical for dogs on higher protein diets. A healthy dog can have significantly more protein than most commerical foods provide.

Melissa, I'm so happy to hear you've got formed stool! What formulas did THK send for you to try? One of the things I love about THK is that it can be fed alone, or in addition to raw or cooked meat or kibble. I swear by THK for helping clear all my dogs up of loose stool and my most sensitive girl MUST have Perfect Form digestive aid (from The Honest Kitchen) to keep her regular, without it her stomach goes on the fritz.

I would stick with what you're doing for a few more days and if everything stays the same or gets better then think about adding something else to his diet. That something else can be whatever you feel comfortable with (green beans, sweet potato, Honest Kitchen, etc).

Claudia is absolutely right, the more they absorb from their food the less they will excrete. However they will also have higher stool volume if they are overfed as their body will be getting more than it needs in a case like that. Since raw meat is such a bio-available food their bodies can utilize a lot more of it, hence you get tiny stool as a result. And yep, my 55 lb husky when on raw food has smaller stools than my 6 lb chihuahuas on kibble! Talk about tiny poops!

Melissa, just curious, how much is Mya eating per day? 3 large BM's sounds like a lot of stool! Can you remind me again what Mya eats? On grain free kibble, my sibe had 1, maybe 2, small BM's per day. On THK he had 2-3 fairly large BM's but that's because of the high fiber and veggie content in THK.

LombardoCC1 wrote:

Dogs have a hard time digestion cat food, due to the protein content.

This statement is a bit misleading. Dogs do not have a harder time digesting cat food than dog food, and if one did, it certainly would not be due to protein content. Dogs and cats are both carnivores, they're built for meat heavy diets which will naturally be high in protein. There are plenty of high protein diets out there for dogs (like Orijen and Evo for example) that are higher protein than most cat formulas. If your dog, or anyone else's dog, gets stomach upset from eating cat food it is because something in that food doesn't agree with them and has nothing to do with protein content.

Hi Val! I know, I'm so happy too!! I think i want to try the samples of THK with him. Do you think that's a good idea? They sent Embark and Thrive. From what i remember the Thrive has chicken in it and the Embark has turkey so maybe go with the Embark since he didn't do 100% well when I tried the chicken with him before.

Mya eats Blue Buffalo Wilderness and I feed her a little under a cup in the morning and in the evenings. She also gets the carrots are treats and now that I think about it she's been pooping more since the carrots.

I think trying the Embark is a good idea. Did they give you many samples? I would mix in just a little bit to start. The sample packs I think are only 4 oz which is 1/4 cup = 1/4 lb of prepared food. Maybe mix in 2 tablespoons of Embark the first day you feed it with his beef.

Wow, Mya doesn't eat very much...that's weird that she has such large BM's. I can't imagine carrots would do that much. I give my dogs carrot as a filler but it always comes out the same as it went in. From one end to the other it doesn't change a bit! lol

There are sample packs which are 1 oz of THK....and then there the travel size which are the 4 oz packs. The last time I checked last week, they didn't have the 4 oz size yet as they are re-packaging it.

I like the 4 oz size because it's great for travel, or sample for a few meals. The 1 oz size is really just a taste... At one point, when they still didn't have the 4 oz size packs, I bought several of the 1 oz packs, but they're only $1, I think...

OH!
Ginger does REALLY well on THK - even with chicken and turkey when she can't tolerate past a certain amount when there's chicken in kibble.

She also does REALLY well on Orijen 6 fish formula AND the chicken formula...but once I go past 50/50 of fish and chicken with Orijen, she starts to go soft.

On THK, she can tolerate so much more chicken outside of kibble form.

Just my 2 cents worth...

Yep Claudia, the samples are 1oz...not very much at all. They sent me 2 of each.

Val, this is the supplement that you use for one of your girls?

http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/products/perfect-form/

If Kody does well on the Embark then I'll order it when I order the food! I'll probably switch Mya to THK too...might as well.

Sorry girls, you are correct! I just checked my HK samples and they are 1 oz. But the 1 oz sample packs make 1/4 lb of rehydrated food so it's not too bad. I would still try 2 tablespoons of Embark mixed with 2 tablespoons of warm water and feed that to Kody with his beef and see how he does. If he does okay (stays the same or better) then try 4 tablespoons of Embark the next day.

Just remember to rehydrate the HK before mixing it with his meat. It only takes 5 minutes, super easy.

Yes, that is the Perfect Form that I use for Faith. If you look at the reviews on their website you can see the review I wrote on PF too. It's on page 1, comment number 7, if you care to look for it, dated May 25, 2010. You'll see my name there and my comments about PF for Faith's tummy. Here's the link to the first page of comments, mine is #7: Perfect Form reviews

Our dogs are like Ginger, sensitive but when they are on THK they can tolerate more new foods that they could not tolerate on any other food. I mainly feed Keen and Force. Force has chicken but my dogs do better on Force than any other HK formulas. All my dogs do very well on Keen which I feed most often (mostly because it's cheaper), Keen has turkey and although it's not grain free, the grain in it is oats which is really good for them, adds fiber, and oats can be soothing to the tummy.

Just so you know Melissa, I have coupons for THK food that I can share if you are interested. They can be used in stores locally or online with the coupon code. Just send me a PM with your email if you would like me to send them to you.

That would be awesome Val. Thanks!!! I'll send you my email right now =0) Ok cool, I'll start the 2 tbsps today and keep you girls posted on his progress. FINGERS CROSSED!!!

Ginger seems to have a VERY sensitive tummy just like Kody so if she does well on THK then I'm super hopeful that he will also!

Ginger has expensive taste....she's on THK Zeal (fish)
She does well on fish anything! But of course, the fish treats I get for her are dehydrated raw and they are 1 or 2 ingredients only...in fact, all her treats are ONLY 1 or 2 ingredients. No preservatives or anything, and the chicken treats are range free and organic...but this is how she can tolerate more chicken in her diet.

I don't think Ginger is as sensitive as Val's furbabies....

Wow Vals are that bad, huh? Aww poor things! Thank god they have the mommy that they do and that Ginger has you!!! Many other dog owners in this world wouldn't care that their furbabies are having tummy issues.

Lucky babies of ours!

Oh Melissa, you have no idea! My Faith alone can put your Kody to shame with her tummy. lol And no, I'm not proud of that either! Dakota has had two separate incidents within the past week that involved a very upset stomach. One incident involved a tiny piece of dehydrated fish no larger than a quarter and the other incident involved just a tad bit too much Nupro in his food. These tiny mistakes resulted in massive, yucky consequences. I got maybe 2-3 hours of sleep last night because of Dakota's diarrhea from a tiny bit too much Nupro in his food.

And I do agree, we do have very lucky pups to be with such dedicated owners.

MelissaI wrote:

.....I'll start the 2 tbsps today and keep you girls posted on his progress. FINGERS CROSSED!!!
!

Did you start a couple of tablespoons of THK with beef and carrots? Is he still doing ok?....I hope he is!

Hi Claudia! How funny...I just logged on to updated you girls and you had just written =)

YES!!! HE'S STILL DOING GOOD!!! I actually purchased the 4lb box of THK Embark and should be getting it Monday.

WOOOHOOOOOOO

Yay, I'm glad he's doing good so far! I hope the Embark works for him, for both his and your sake!

Huskyluv wrote:

Yay, I'm glad he's doing good so far! I hope the Embark works for him, for both his and your sake!

Glad to hear he's doing good so far!!!
I do hope Embark works!

I'm being very hopeful and I think he should do ok on it. I don't know if it's me, but since I've been giving him the lil bits of the samples his poop has firmed up even more. It could be him getting used tot he meat or the THK. Not sure, but we'll know once we get it. I can't wait for it to arrive! I never thought I'd be looking forward for dog food to arrive so much

MelissaI wrote:

I don't know if it's me, but since I've been giving him the lil bits of the samples his poop has firmed up even more.

Oh my gosh, Melissa, you have no idea how happy I am to hear that! I hope you will see continued improvement as you try out the new food. I'm so excited for you! Believe me I know how you feel, after 11 months of non-stop diarrhea with Faith, I was tickled pink for the first few MONTHS after putting her on Perfect Form as it is the only product that keeps her from having stomach upsets.

Keep us updated! I'm so happy to hear that you've seen some improvement!!! Yay Kody!