Help changing from James Wellbeloved to another food - but which?!!

[Sarah71]

Hi all

Please can you give me some advice, we're tearing our hair out with our little pupster who is nearly 4 months old.

When we got him he was on Gelert Puppy Food, which is what the breeder gave us. However from us bringing him home he developed colitis, and the vet recommended putting him onto something else, and we agreed on JWB food. Dylan has been ok-ish on it, sometimes he's solid, sometimes he has sloppy poo.

BUT since starting on JWB food he's become a demon for eating his own poo  and it really makes me feel ill  It's not just that, he is sooooo windy and stinky it's really not very pleasant. He also is ALWAYS hungry (he's fully wormed) - he is on his recommended amount (235g a day) - every time I go to the kitchen he's by his food bowl, sometimes wimpering.

I have read some posts but am totaly baffled.....he obviously needs something that's ok for sensitive tummys, and also I need it to be easy to get from the local Pets at home as we don't have a garage to store large sacks of food in at he moment. I also can't put him onto a raw diet as again I am unable to keep stocks of frozen food as we again don't have much storage space. Ideally we'd like another dry food.

Please, any advice is welcome, we want to get our puppy wind and poop eating free, and also want to be able to pick his poop up!

Thanks

Sarah

[maccie75]

Hi

I am quite a new Cocker owner but my puppy was on Autarky Complete Puppy Food which was a herbal natural complete food
about £24 for a big bag. I have recently moved him onto JWB as feedback on here was very good for it, after having a disastrous run on Bakers which sent him absolutely loopy 



Debbie

[Jan/Billy]

Did you change his food gradually? How long has he been on JWB?


If the pooh eating coincides with the change of food, it could be that he is not digesting his food properly and that is why he is re eating it.

There isn't a huge choice if it has to be from a pet shop. Would you not buy on line?

Arden Grange, Burns & healthy paws are good and can be bought on line 

[drika]

I agree with the last post. Arden Grange is very good,my dog was fine on this. You cannot get this at Pets at Home here, but got mine from Pet Planet online.Comes in a couple of days,and free postage with orders over 30.00 I think. Hope this helps.Also, Arden Grange is  invery small bits which seemed to be more appetising for a young pup.

[Mudmagnets]

I thought of suggesting Burns too, or if you would consider a wet food, Naturediet is quite good. You can get Burns in 2KG, or 7.5Kg as well as the larger 15kg if you do not have room to store.

[mooching]

I'd suggest Hill Science, which you will be able to get from Pets At Home. And changing him over gradually to it, not suddenly.

[maddycakes]

i've just changed my 4 month old puppy onto healthy paws, she loves it, i phoned them to order it and it arrived the following day, the lady on the phone was very helpful and gave me loads of advice. 

I had my last dog on JWB and she didn't seem to tolerate it, either vomiting or the runs, i changed her onto Arden Grange and had no problems, didn't know about healthy paws then though.

I got a sample of healthy paws from their website.

[vikki.k]

I agree with the Healthy Paws, we tried to find something for Baja who has a sensitive tum and Healthy Paws has been perfect for him. Both of mine have it now and have great firm poo's which is a huge bonus, no other food we tried ever gave that effect.

Take a look at the website http://healthypaws.co.uk/shop/index.php?cPath=25&osCsid=555e4302e0e00cc460504163266183e1
If storage is a problem you can order four 2kg bags which could be easier to store if you don't have the space.

I found a pet shop who would order it in for me, I just send an email to the owner telling him when we are running out, he orders a 15kg bag and charges me exactly the same as Healthy Paws do, but I don't have to pay the postage. Definitely worth asking around local pet shops as that will also save you some money in the long run.

Hope you manage to find something soon 

[poppies]

Have to agree,Arden Grange is very good,if you have trouble getting it, you can ask if your vet will order it for you .
Mine does and i just pick it up the next day.

[Pudding]

I am not sure if this will help you but, i have had some problems with Bob's food with loss poo
( He dose eat his poo sometimes )  
i used Hill Science Chicken at first, someone told me that it has a lot of preservatives in it, so when it come out the other end as poo, it has not been digested properly so to the dogs smells like it did when it went in, so they re eat it. (i dont know if this is right)
i changed to JWB Turkey with not much change, so i then changed him to Barking heads Chicken, still not much change. i was then given some advice to try a differant flavour rather than brand, and to add
some bio yogurt to it. so i went back to JWB DUCK and added some bio yogurt and he now has much better poos, a lot of exercise can also make loss poo, Bob is now nice a firm in the mornings but as the day gos on he get loser, as he is out running a lot

[Sarah71]

When he was diagnosed with the colitis the vet gave us some tinned medicinal food, and told us to slowly reintroduce kibble mixed with the tinned stuff, and to make that kibble the JWB (I had been given a free sack in my puppy pack so she thought it was as good as any to try).

We have gone through 2 small sacks of Turkey and Rice, and last time I changed to lamb (by mistake but again still had around half a sack left of the turkey so just changed gradually). All of these have been JWB.

To be honest, the eating poo, although disgusting, I know isn't Dylan's fault. It's the wind and the constant hunger that worry me, I feel as though he's not being satisfied by his food.

I don't really want to order online 'cos it means I have to order a lot of food (or pay for P&P) and quite frankly I don't like to keep on changing his food all the time.

I have in the last week added pineapple to his food to try and stop the poo eating - and he's still doing it  Then again this is the puppy who LICKS the puppy training spray off the sofa......

I have noted down the names of the foods recommended to me. I will go to PAH later and have a look at Burns, and try him on that.

I just want a content pupster, and really feel at the moment as though something isn't right with him. I will also mention it to the vet nurse tomorrow when I take him to get weighed and wormed.

Thanks

[black taz]

poo eating is quite common.  taz did it when he was a puppy and i tried all the normal things, then added pineapple to his diet, still no change, then started putting stuff on the poo to deter him (rather than pick it up and him never learning) including tabasco - which he loved!  At that point i gave up, within a few months he just stopped himself and hasnt touch it since.

Kira on the otherhand (4 month lab) had never looked at her own poo (but does eat the cats sometimes).  She is on Hills Scientific - but i dont know whether it is the food that makes the difference.  her stools are fine.