I'm a newbie!

[NotanotherAlfie!]

  Hi there newbie to the forum.  First time owner of a Chocolate Roan working cocker, 4 months old, called Alfie.  Bundle of fun.  Housetraining going really well, had him off a lead several times and he is very obedient.  Only problem we have is he has very soft poo still, in fact we have never had a solid poo as yet.  He seems fine in himself, loads of energy, eating well, never seems desperate to go for a poo, just goes out when he needs to and does it, but it is soft.  It is a pain to be honest as in public it is very difficult to clean up.  Will have to take him to the vet next week to get him checked over, just wondered if anyone had any advice. 

[NotanotherAlfie!]

Sorry just realised this is in completely the wrong place on the forum 

[elaine.e]

Sorry just realised this is in completely the wrong place on the forum 

Don't worry, one of the mods. will move it to the right place.

Hello and welcome to COL 

Alfie sounds like a sweetheart. Look forward to seeing some bigger photos of him.

With regard to the poo, it's probably down to what you're feeding him on. Different foods suit different dogs. I tried William on a few different foods during the first couple of years, principally James Wellbeloved and Arden Grange, both generally regarded as good quality kibble. He always had slightly runny poo and for him a change to Burns (and nowadays Burns in the morning and raw food later in the day) made all the difference to his general health including poo.

[NotanotherAlfie!]

Thanks Elaine, we have him on Bakers Complete Puppy at the moment, but it has been at least 3 weeks since we slowly introduced him to this so was expecting a bit of a change in the poo (which can be like thick soup at times!).  What do you think to giving him a little scrambled egg?  A few friends have recommended this.  Not sure about it myself as surely it would only be a temporary fix.  Been worrying in case he has a problem with his anal glands.  Something I was completely unware of.

When I work out how to add photos I'll put some on!

[Jane S]

Bakers is probably one of the worst puppy foods out there but also one of the most widely available so understandably a lot of owners use it and while some dogs will be fine on it, others are not - the quality of ingredients is quite poor (very little real meat content) and it also contains artificial colours & preservatives. I would investigate better quality complete foods as you will probably see a huge improvement in your pup's "output" once you find a food that suits him. You'll find lots of recommendations for good complete brands if you have a read of this board

[NotanotherAlfie!]

Yes it is a minefield out there when it comes to food.  There are so many to choose from and really not sure which is best. I will get him something else.  Probably should have kept him on the one he was on when we bought him but to be honest he had runny poo then!  We thought it as down to having had his first jabs only a couple of days before.  Thanks for your help.

[dogsgalore]

Hi and welcome!

I have Skye, now 11 months old, blue roan.  We had the same problem when she first came home.  She came home with some kibble (can't remember the name) which I had never heard of and after a week of runny poo on the advice of the vet we changed her to James Wellbeloved.  The runny poo was still an issue (as you say, can't pick it up  ) so we took her back to the vets and she was given some medication (again, can't remember what it was - not much help, am I!!)  This sorted her out after a few days and she has been fine ever since.  It could be worth getting him checked out by your vet just in case there is some infection in his little tummy.

[september]

My mum got a rescue cocker last year who was fed on Bakers.  She was stinky and always did big sloppy poos, like you describe!

I finally got her to change to James Wellbeloved a few months ago and the change is amazing! She doesn't smell and her poo is smaller and firm!

I would try something with less colours and little meat content to soemthing more natural like JWB, Burns, Arden Grange there are lots. If you do a search some ideas will come up

[Sheryl]

As a general rule of thumb ( and before I had them on a holistic food/raw diet) I always steered clear of anything that contained the words 'meat or meat derivatives' along with 'artificial colours and preservatives' used for description of ingredients. .

[mooching]

I love your username!! (as the mum of a 13wk old Alfie!!  )

I'd echo everything that has been said so far; it's basically just about "anything but Bakers" will be better for him. What was he on at the breeders?

[Petepreston]

This may be a little late for you but may be of use to somebody.

We got Posie last week and she had already been weened onto 100% dry Beta Puppy complete by the time we collected her. although the first day or two she was a little bit wet, we put this down to anxiety. then she went a little bit too solid and struggled so we added two or three teaspoons of gravy to the 30grams of kibbles and she was fine after two meals.

She now has consistently good consistency poo and seems happy with this food. The only thing is that she seems to be hungry all the time yet we were told that the litter had a bowl of food out most of the time and there was no scoffing. We had her on 3 meals a day but the vet suggested we put her back to 4 for a few more weeks.

[mooching]

Petepreston

Just wondered if you are aware that, with Beta Puppy, the largest ingredient is cereals, and the "meat" content is unspecified - all they say is that it contain "meat and animal derivatives" - you don't actually know what meat is in there and where it's derived from (it's usually the junk parts of carcasses)? The cereals are unspecified too and also the veg.

It's your choice, of course, but it might be that Posie is hungry all the time because of the low quality of the protein content. My vet told me only yesterday that it's not so much the percentage of meat/protein, but the quality of it. You might find that on a better quality food, he might not be so hungry all the time.

[sharonmansfield]

I would go for James Wellbeloved or Burns mini bites, I raised both my pups on these with no problems. I hope his little tummy settles down soon. I must admit it was a bit trial and error at first trying to find something that suits them and that they will eat!!!!
One thing I do find is sometimes the odd treat gives them a dodgy tum not the main food itself. I have given both of mine a pale twisted chew stick this morning and they both did pale "slops" across the fields tonight, they wont be having them again!!!!

[ruraich]

Hi and welcome NotanotherAlfie!
All our dogs are on Skinners. the older ones are on skinners field & trial maintenance (vat free ) and my 13 week old is on the puppy (the field & trial version also vat free) they all do well on it. My daughters springer had awfull sloppy pooh when she got him at the age of 5 months (as you say difficult to pick up!) she put him on the Duck & Rice and it settled his stomach. It's a lot cheaper (because it's for working dogs it's vat free but you don't have to be working your dog to buy it ) than JW but it's good quality food. 

[ollie nathan's mum]

I to am a newbie, Mum to  a Blue Rhone cocker called Ollie aged 16 weeks.
I had exactly the same problem with Ollie and his Pooh. I tried JWB which didn't help, a trip to the vets showed that Ollie had two bacterial infections! He is now on antibiotics. We put him on rice and chicken for a couple of days which really helped. He is on Hills prescription food at the moment but at £18 for 2kg he can't stay on it long which is a shame as he seems to be doing really well on it (two firm poohs a day). I had thought of changing to burns but after reading some of the posts I have been put off. I don't know where to go from here.