Dog Food

by Diana
(Toronto, ON Canada)

Hi There,
I've recently been advised by my vet to try changing my dogs diet. Seamus is a 70 lb Irish Wolfhound cross that we adopted last June.
He's healthy but his stools quite often seem too soft. Sometimes it will get harder but more often then not it's soft and difficult to "bag" and pick up.
I'm not sure exactly what my dogs stool is supposed to be like but my vet said it shouldn't be going back and forth or be too soft.
He's currently being fed Orijen's adult dog food. He gets 1 1/4 cup per feeding (two feedings daily). I'm not sure what to try him on as I hear that Orijens is one of the best foods out there.
My vet said he feeds Hills Science Diet but the first ingredient is ground whole grain corn and I thought dogs shouldn't be fed corn?
Also thought I would mention that we did a stool sample test to make sure our dog doesn't have any parasites. He came back clear and was also tested in September and came back clear.
I've read your top 10 recommended foods. I don't have access to ziwi-peak. I have access to Honest Kitchen, Acana, Before Grain, Fromm, Core, Innova, Now, Simple Solutions, Solid Gold Hound, Wellness and Wolf King.
We also tried him on Orijens red meat variety however we think he was allergic as he wouldn't stop sneezing and immediately stopped when we changed him back to the regular adult food.
Thanks very much for your help;
Diana
Toronto, Ontario

My Comment:

Hi

It is true Orjen is one of the best food available, if you look at the list of ingredients. But a good food should work well in the dog as well! That's very important.

I would suggest you try another type of dog food containing more grain. Some dogs can have a problem coping with Orijen.

The exact reason I don't know.

The "Orijen people" her in Sweden have told me that some dogs getting a soft stool can be better if given a bit smaller portions of Orijen. As a general rule you can expect to give 1 cup pr 20 Lbs body weight and per day.

That's about what you are giving him so I find it difficult to think it would benefit him to give lesser amounts but you might try if you like.

I would try to give him Acana for a period to see if his condition has anything to do with the food. Acana is still good quality but contain grain. In my experience some dogs benefit from this and can manage this food better than the more protein rich Orijen.

This is the first step as you already have done examination for parasites.

So see if this make his stomach better. If it does you can try to switch him back very very slowly on Orijen or just continue to give him Acana.

It is still far better quality compared to Hills in my opinion and it contain no corn /or any other cheep grain filler). So you don't need to feel bad doing this.

All the best

Per Schonbeck