Diamond naturals and soft serve

J

Jakeismydog2

Member
My setter Oxford is about a year old. I have had him on Diamond Naturals since he came off puppy food. He has always had more of a soft serve stool than I would like. I switched him over to the 32% protein Diamond recently. I figured with the season fast approaching it would be good to switch over. I also thought it may help with the soft serve issue. It has not.

I know dog food can be a bit of a touchy subject around here. Has anyone else had issues like this on diamond if so what did you find that worked?

(It would not be such a big deal except that I have to immediately pick it up at my apartment complex)
 
Use Diamond Maintenance in the off season and Hi Energy during cool/cold weather. The stools will be fine and so will your dog. Don't worry about what the Cargill (Purina) fans think.
 
Well it can come from a number of things. But as stool goes, I have no issues at all with the chicken and rice naturals. Are you feeding the lamb? is the dog getting other snacks?

Some people have fed table food or biscuits raw hides etc along with the food, then wonder why they get loose stool. stop all the extra snacks if this is the case,maybe it might clear up.;) Also I have learned a bunch about pro and pre biotics this last year. If a dog has had some vet visits where antibiotics were used. It can kill good bacteria in the digestive tract as well. More so with some dogs then others. Some recover faster then others. So you need to replace some good flora or good living bacteria in his digestive tract.Which break down the food. In this case order some Dogzymes MAX or similar "GOOD" product, and it will clear right up in no time. To me it has been a God send product.:thumbsup: And I love the Naturals as well.
 
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Oxford gets no table scraps, and the only "treat" he gets is ice cubes. He does have a rawhide bone he chews on regularly. No antibiotics.
 
Over feeding can cause this as well. With this food, they will hold weight well. I feed my 50 lb dog 2-3 cups a day and he does well. But thats with excersize a bunch. Lady gets 3/4 cup a day, thats it. And she is not slim at all. She is the house mouse.
 
Certain wormer's even can disrupt the system along with other stress's. I was told this by a good vet who got me going on this stuff. I would give a small tub a try and I think you should be fine. If not the product just dont mix with your dog the best. I had this problem with one dog in particular, and it really helped. You sprinkle a 1/4 teaspoon over the food and it lasts forever. I do it at any sign of trouble and it clears up. They eat all kinds of garbage out there LOL.
 
Ahhhh, thats it I suspect. Athleate. Try just going to the 30-20 regular adult. Thats plenty of oomph. The athlete is over kill unless your training and trialing 3-4 days a week. And yes, that is the stuff. I had the same trouble on athlete, and not running.
 
My lab Ruby is a soft-serve specialist. Over the past 8 years I've discovered that she's sensitive to high-protein foods. I keep the protein concentration down to 25% or so unless I'm supplementing with raw meat. As some mentioned above - overfeeding is another cause of soft stool for her. I also avoid corn/wheat/soy in her feed/treats, but I honestly believe that it has more to do with the high protein - she just can't seem to process it well.
-Croc
 
He has been on the standard chicken and rice since he came off puppy food. I switched him to athlete a couple weeks ago. I was hoping the higher protein might firm him up, as well as add a pound or 2 before the season starts.
 
I have found that Native food works well for me. It is labeled 1,2,3,4. Each with a different protein and fat content. When we are hunting I feed 4 in the off season usually 3, as they get older I can move down to 2 with even less fat and protein. The beauty is that it is the same food, you are not changing all the time.
 
About 40 or more dogs I know in our group had huge bloody stool issues with Native. They fired the nutritionist, asked one of our training guys who is a animal nutritionist to help, lied to all of us. Never made it right $ wise. And is still awall in my opinion. I will not trust them for quite some time. We bought a bunch of that whole sale. The pro we know who was the prostaffer also dropped them.
 
I fed Diamond then switched to a brand manufactured in North Texas, Muenster Natural, and am now feeding Purina Pro Plan Performance. I tried going back and forth feeding the "athlete" "hi protein" "performance" formulas during hunting season then switching to the maintenance formula in the off-season. In my opinion it was more trouble than it was worth. Always had bouts of diarrhea during the transition period. Now I feed ProPlan Performance year round, adjusting the amount of food based on activity level. Occasionally, one or more of the dogs will have a soft stool, it's rare that it occurs with more the one dog at a time and it never lasts more than a day or two at the most.
 
Dog Gun Time said:
I fed Diamond then switched to a brand manufactured in North Texas, Muenster Natural, and am now feeding Purina Pro Plan Performance. I tried going back and forth feeding the "athlete" "hi protein" "performance" formulas during hunting season then switching to the maintenance formula in the off-season. In my opinion it was more trouble than it was worth. Always had bouts of diarrhea during the transition period. Now I feed ProPlan Performance year round, adjusting the amount of food based on activity level. Occasionally, one or more of the dogs will have a soft stool, it's rare that it occurs with more the one dog at a time and it never lasts more than a day or two at the most.
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I agree with your statement about finding the food that works for you and then instead of switching between the "maintenance" and "performance" formulas just adjust the portion based on the level of activity. That is exactly what I do in feeding NutriSource. I feed the Adult formula year round and adjust the portion accordingly. I tried the Performance but with 2 spayed females I found it more difficult to control their weight with the Performance.
 
FCSpringer said:
About 40 or more dogs I know in our group had huge bloody stool issues with Native. They fired the nutritionist, asked one of our training guys who is a animal nutritionist to help, lied to all of us. Never made it right $ wise. And is still awall in my opinion. I will not trust them for quite some time. We bought a bunch of that whole sale. The pro we know who was the prostaffer also dropped them.
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Springer that is interesting to know! I have never had an issue and they have always treated me really well at Kent Foods. I also promote it to my puppy buyers. I will do a bit more research and see if any of my people have had that issue. When did you have that problem? What do you feed now?
 
Agree with much that has been said, overfeeding, too much protein etc...

You can also increase fiber content by sprinkling a little ground flax seed meal to their food, which should bulk up the stools some. Not only good source of fiber, but rich in Omega 3's and great for skin and coat.

On a side note I just want to plug a new food I recently switched over to from Native called American Natural Premium, which is made in Wisconsin :

Ingredients are as good if not better than Native and $12 less per 40# bag. I paid 35.99 for 40#. Downside is that at the moment it's only seems available retail wise in Mn, Wisc, Illinois. Not sure if they ship or not. Right now I'm on the original formula (25/15), but they have several and one for highly active dogs called "Endurance Plus 30/20". So far so good.

Check it out.http://americannaturalpremium.com/
 
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goldenboy said:
Springer that is interesting to know! I have never had an issue and they have always treated me really well at Kent Foods. I also promote it to my puppy buyers. I will do a bit more research and see if any of my people have had that issue. When did you have that problem? What do you feed now?
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Diamond naturals adult chicken and rice. 25 bucks a bag for a 40 lber. When we first were on native, I loved it to. I find this very similar. But even if they have it straightened out, they put the price point way to high again. Many dog food companys are price gouging right now for no real good reason. Cost of shipping? sure but when it goes up a dollar a bag then another, and another, and another and another, its gouging. we started at 29 $ a bag, and it hit 38 whole sale. Thats ridiculas. I can feed eggs bread rice and steak cheaper,LOL. The good news is many companys are doing similar lines like Naturals and that may help bring others back to earth. Cripes I bought a bag of pro plan the other day and it was 42 dollars at fleet! for what 34 or 36 lb.:eek: Too much 8$ a bushel corn in that I guess,LOL. I have my eye on Diamond with the now past recall out east. But it did not affect us in the Mid west. And so far I am just as happy as I was on Native when things were aok. Bird shooter I may look in to that one. I always dig around for reasonable new quality products. Well good luck to everyone with which ever food you feed. Its a bummer when things dont go well with one for your pooch.
 
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