I cannot get a normal stool! It's like chunks of poop, but with a bunch of liquidy stuff with it. I started with leg quarters because I couldn't get necks and backs. I just got necks yesterday so am doing just necks now with pro biotic powder (started powder three days ago.)

I've been up with my 12 week old puppy every morning at like 4am letting her out to poop (her last feedings is at 4pm.) I gave them a little pumpkin today in hopes that would help. I'm hoping the necks will do the trick because there is less muscle and basically no fat.

I just regret starting this. Now I have 80lbs of necks in my freezer. If it doesn't get better I just won't buy more meat and go back to kibble. Which I hate to do but I don't know what to do to clear this up. People have suggested getting a fecal sample done, but these dogs were perfectly fine the day before starting raw and I really don't have the money.

Puppy came to me with coccidia (AND NO DIAHREA) and has been on Albon for one week with breeder and 2 weeks with me. She had no diahrrea at all until I switched food. Bad timing, but too late now.....

Any suggestions on what to feed these guys? Right now 62lb male gets 1lb chicken necks & probio powder. 45lb female gets about 10-12 oz chicken necks and & probio powder, and 8lb, 12 week puppy gets about 6oz chicken necks and pro bio powder. Gave them all about 1 big tsp of pumpkin today.

I'm not sure I am understanding what you are saying....Are you only feeding chicken necks with no other meats now? No muscle meat, organ meat? No salmon oil or vitamin E? If that is the case, you are so off the mark on feeding a raw diet if you continue it will be extremely unbhealthy for your dogs. Especially the puppy who NEEDS a correct diet for a good start in life. These dogs need a variety of muscle meats & RMB's (Raw meaty bones) along with organ meats in the correct ratio to be healthy. They need the salmon oil for the omegas & the Vit E to process it so as not to deplete their limited vit E that their body produces. Please read the sample diets that Leerburg has posted on their site for ideas of a healthy diet. The key is variety & proper balance for a healthy dog. The probiotic is correct especially when making the switch to raw.

Vanessa,
Sorry you're having this trouble. I had the same problem when I switched my golden last year - he was about 1 year old then. But I
am soooo glad I stuck it out - he is so healthy and happy on this raw diet.

Leg quarters are not the best to start with, especially for 12 weeks old. Kasey still can not eat those without having looser stools! I gave up and don't feed those anymore. They have harder to digest bone pieces and more fat than what is good to start with. So the people on this forum had me feed only backs and muscle meat (chicken breast chunks) for at least a week. As soon as I started doing that, things started to get better. Also, don't feed too much - a leg quarter for a 12 week old might be way too much for one sitting! I would go with just a couple of those necks and a little muscle meat a few times a day and see how that goes. Sometimes you have to cook up some rice so it's really cooked, and mix it with some chicken muscle meat and do that until she stabilizes, then go with backs and meat. Don't give anything else until the pup has eaten that with no problem for a week, then add just a little something new once a week until you've built up to more variety.

I'm sure others will have more to add, but hopefully cutting back and switching to something easier to digest will help a lot!

I got screwed with the leg quarters, I ordered the chicken necks and backs and thought that I would only give leg quarters for two days, but my order got back ordered and I kept waiting because they told me "anyday" so they had leg quarters for a week and a half - 2 weeks and I finally ended up driving across to the other side of the valley and buying the necks somewhere else.

With the puppy, I've just been chopping it up into managable peices and weighing it, so she gets about 6oz. It looked like a lot but I was going off of the recomendation of Leerburg of feeding 5-10% of body weight. I did cut it back last night and this morning to just two necks which was about 4oz.

 Quote: anne jones

I'm not sure I am understanding what you are saying....Are you only feeding chicken necks with no other meats now? No muscle meat, organ meat? No salmon oil or vitamin E? If that is the case, you are so off the mark on feeding a raw diet if you continue it will be extremely unbhealthy for your dogs. Especially the puppy who NEEDS a correct diet for a good start in life. These dogs need a variety of muscle meats & RMB's (Raw meaty bones) along with organ meats in the correct ratio to be healthy. They need the salmon oil for the omegas & the Vit E to process it so as not to deplete their limited vit E that their body produces. Please read the sample diets that Leerburg has posted on their site for ideas of a healthy diet. The key is variety & proper balance for a healthy dog. The probiotic is correct especially when making the switch to raw.

I did read A LOT of info on this site before switching to raw and I was under the impression that I should not add any supplements until the dog was not having any problems with what I was giving it. From what I read on Cindy's e-book, I should start out with "chicken necks and backs ONLY for the first 3-4 days." It also says "Make sure the dog is digesting everything properly (no diarrhea or vomiting) before you add another type of food to the meals. Hold off on all supplements for several weeks. I would also wait several weeks before addign richer foods like liver, eggs or canned mackeral."

I have everything, the oil, the mackeral, eggs, livers.I even got some beef on sale that I was planning on chopping and just adding small peices. My friend is hunting and bringing me back venison. But if I'm getting up with my dog at 4am so she can go have diarrhea, I'm not going to give her oil, liver and eggs for breakfast.

I know that variety is the key to this diet and that's why I'm worried it won't work for my dogs! If they can't handle chicken how are they going to handle the other stuff? Poodles are known for having really sensitive stomachs. It's like it's too rich for them. They are not having frequent diarrhea, but when they do poop, which seems to be less, it's either diarrhea or chunks with liquid, like a thick beef stew.

Vanessa, Lori's suggestion my help your dogs adjust to the raw diet. They definately need muscle meat. Some of what your dogs are going thru can be possibly attributed to a 'detox' reaction. Many dogs go thru this for a few weeks while their dog's bodies adjust to the change from a kibble to a raw natural diet. My dogs have all been fed raw all their lives, so I never had this issue. But I know some friends that did when first starting out. I would be careful not to feed an unbalanced ratio diet for an extended time, as it would not be healthy expecially for the pup. I would feed the pup 3-4 times a day & the big dogs 2 x a day so as to spread out the feedings. Some of the organ meats can make the dogs a bit 'loose' so don't be surprised if this happens occasionally. I am sure that Connie will see this post & add her thoughts.

 Quote: Lori Hall

.... Sometimes you have to cook up some rice so it's really cooked, and mix it with some chicken muscle meat and do that until she stabilizes, then go with backs and meat. Don't give anything else until the pup has eaten that with no problem for a week,

Did you remove the skin for the first few days? Did you start with small meals (a couple)? This time around, we'll go that route.

Do both have diarrhea?

THe puppy has no liquid-only poops, correct? (This is important.)

And for right now, please give the puppy (both, if both have diarrhea) very very soupy overcooked white rice with a bit of white-only poultry in it (more rice than chicken), small meals every three hours today. By small, I mean 25% of what you would normally give.

The dog's gut needs to be de-inflamed before adding anything, but a puppy of this age cannot really fast on top of diarrhea. The puppy needs extra water in the rice. Keep the dogs hydrated, and please make it a top priority for the puppy.

Please don't add anything until you see a formed poop.

But with this baby puppy, this can't be indefinite. PM me or post if you need more than a day or so on the soupy rice for the puppy so we can add calcium.

These are the most common (by far) triggers for diarrhea when switching to raw: too much food, period, too much fat (skin) too soon, or too much organ meat too soon.

Regardless of whether it was too much fat (skin and globs of fat) or too much food per meal, the gut needs to be soothed first now. The most gut-soothing diet is the soupy overcooked white rice, and if this was not a puppy I'd skip the white no-skin poultry bits for a day, but with a puppy I would add it. (Kibble is not gut-soothing, either; I really would go with the soupy rice before starting over.)

You should see more a formed poop tomorrow. Please post back.

All of the ingredients the puppy (especially) needs can then be started, slowly, one at a time, over a few days, watching the poop. But please don't jump the gun; the gut will just react again with diarrhea.

I don't know if this would help Vanessa, but I started both of my dogs with Honest Kitchen first, then Nature's Variety patties and slowly introduced the actual diet I would be feeding. I took a couple of months at least.

Vanessa, if you are not seeing all-liquid or all-thin-pudding poops, and the pup is hydrated (do you know how to check?), then I think that a slow and careful re-start with no fat for a day or so after the white rice does its work is going to work out fine.

I want to stress that when I say soupy rice, I mean cooked to death. It should be almost-not-separate-grains. Rice has a binding effect, and the looser the rice, the better.

Did you have poop problems for awhile? Or like just a few days then it would clear up?

Mine are not having frequent diarrhea, so i'm not really worried about dehydration or anything, it's just when they do poop, it's not right.

 Quote: Vanessa Dibernar

Did you have poop problems for awhile? Or like just a few days then it would clear up?

Mine are not having frequent diarrhea, so i'm not really worried about dehydration or anything, it's just when they do poop, it's not right.

OHHHHHHHHH. That's much less worrying, then.

Are there any good log poops at all? How many a day, versus the ones with part water?

P.S. I would still do the gut-soothing small meals of soupy rice, as above.