Food Question

LC Smith

Well-known member
I have an 8month old lab that recently has begun having more stools daily and has started eating poop. I feed Purina's Pro Plan Sport Performance and he likes it. Has anyone else experienced similar issues and what did you do to rectify? I’m thinking of switching his food, but not sure what to switch to. All input appreciated.

Jevon
 
My pointer is 9 and still does it. Only her own. I tried everything. My only recourse is to stay on top of it and pick it up often. That and not leave her out too long. Once she gets bored she looks for it.
 
How much are you feeding him? Been years since I have had a dog poop in a kennel run in for 20 years now, if I had any issues it was generally from overfeeding and not crate training when they were puppies. Once I started crate training 20 years ago I never had to deal with a dog messing a kennel run. My current dog is a 58 lb female. She gets 2 cups of Euk (26/16) a day, and I will bump to 2.5 in November through hunting season. She goes once a day. For the average hunting dog, I see no need to feed a 30/20 food. Make sure the dog is parasite free. I use Senntenial Spectrum, it gets everything. If the stools are soft, you could have giardia, which is tough to get rid of.
 
Last edited:
How much are you feeding him? Been years since I have had a dog poop in a kennel run in for 20 years now, if I had any issues it was generally from overfeeding and not crate training when they were puppies. Once I started crate training 20 years ago I never had to deal with a dog messing a kennel run. My current dog is a 58 lb female. She gets 2 cups of Euk (26/16) a day, and I will bump to 2.5 in November through hunting season. She goes once a day. For the average hunting dog, I see no need to feed a 30/20 food. Make sure the dog is parasite free. I use Senntenial Spectrum, it gets everything. If the stools are soft, you could have giardia, which is tough to get rid of.
He gets 4 cups a day for now. I know the eating stool is sometimes caused because they are not getting enough food. He is not confined in a kennel run. He has free run of our large back yard via a doggy door. He is crate trained but does not spend significant time. He stool is firm. I’m picking it up daily to try and avoid availability to him. I’m going to try Victor Performance and see if that makes a difference.
 
Sometimes some dogs just don't do well on a particular food. Not that there is anything wrong with the food. You might try another food. Unless the dog is extremely active and getting a lot of heavy exercise there is probably no need to feed 30/20 food. 26/16 is usually more than enough.
 
He gets 4 cups a day for now. I know the eating stool is sometimes caused because they are not getting enough food. He is not confined in a kennel run. He has free run of our large back yard via a doggy door. He is crate trained but does not spend significant time. He stool is firm. I’m picking it up daily to try and avoid availability to him. I’m going to try Victor Performance and see if that makes a difference.
Personally I don't think you will like Victor. My 91 lb male only got 3 cups per day. Might look at Dr. Tims or Euk. Dr. Tims is dense and you won't have to feed much at all.
 
I have a 6 year old pointer and a 2 year old Brittany. They both get fed the Purina 30/20. In 4 years my pointer never ate its own stool until the Brittany came along. The Brittany is a stool eating machine, but it has to be fresh. Now that the Brittany eats stool, the pointer will walk circles around the stool and slowly creep in and nibble it like she’s trying to keep it from the Brittany. They both are kennel trained, get full access to the yard daily and get full of leash running daily. I’ve talked to my vet about it and the vet says dogs grow out of it. Two years now and the poop eating continues.
 
There is a thing called Undesirable Self-Reinforcing Behaviors (see Labman, I remembered something from all your training). USRB usually involves chewing or eating stuff the dog (or horse) shouldn't. Sometimes they eat poop out of simple boredom. In fact in IMO, this is the primary reason gun dogs eat their own or their kennel mate's poop.

You can get an additive you put on their food which is supposed to make the crap unpalatable. I've had this work a couple times, but I had one lab that if anything she ate more. Same thing with my last horse, TJ. He had a boredom based USRB of cribbing (chewing on wood, usually his stall boards). The usual remedy is to put a substance called Sour Apple on the object the horse is chewing on. It was like giving a kid a caramel apple, he practically chewed his way out of his stall in a week. He also loved raw eggs and if a chicken laid any in his stall, he would sniff them out and crunch them down slobbering yolk the whole time. TJ was one strange horse...

Now cat crap and deer turds are another matter. All gun dogs seem to love these treats. The first lab I trained (Josie/Jacie's Dakota Gold), didn't eat cat turds, but loved to carry them around in her mouth like a chew. When she wasn't training or hunting, she usually had a fresh cat turd chaw in her mouth...
 
Last edited:
Back
Top