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Archived Message

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:
by Carole W.

When we brought home our Munchkin at 10 weeks, we fed him IAMS puppy food twice a day as the breeder had been doing. Munchkin seemed constipated, had difficulty moving his bowels and produced very dry, hard movements. I then gradually switched him over to NutroMax. Not only did his constipation disappear, he seemed to like it more. He was having anywhere between 5 and 7 pooos a day, which I was told was normal for his age. However, he is now almost 6 months old & still pooping 6-7 times a day. My vet recommended cutting back on his food (I was only giving hims 1/3 cup 2x day). This has done nothing except make him ravenous. I've been told that Eukanuba is a very healthy & dense food & should cut down on the number of poos a day. I know this is something that has to be done gradually. My questions are:

• how gradually - over 5-7 days??
• should I cut down & feed him jut once a day, or is he still too young?
• should I stick with puppy food - or go to adult

DISCUSSION:

I can only say I had great success with IAMS. I don't care for dog food from the grocery store because of so many fillers, etc. Look for a "good brand" with maybe a little less protein than IAMS has since sometimes to much protein can cause constipation. For my maltese I had a bowl of dry and a separate bowl with a small daily amount with added bottled water. Syrus liked it this way the best, the moist food worked excellent and he had regular bowel movements. Like humans, if there is poo-poo in the colon, it's the best thing to be able to get rid of it. I wouldn't worry as long as they are normal and not runny, etc. Have you also checked him for worms/paracites?
-Sheryl McGee

I gave my pets the best dog food I could buy. My vet told me they highly recommend Pedigree. Top breeders highly recommend this also. I tried it (added a little at a time to food they had been eating then just the Pedigree over a weeks time). They love it and only have 2 bowel movements a day which is good. 5-6 times usually means the food is going right through them. A good firm stool is best. The dry Pedigree can be found in grocery stores and k-mart, Walmart etc. at reasonable prices. I always thought you had to pay a high price for dog food for it to be good but thats not true with Pedigree. I wouldn't use any of the other store brands except "One" that has rice and lamb. I prefer the Pedigree myself now and thats all I use and my babies are doing great!
-Pat