@tanza said in Breeder and Family Intro to Breed:
It is not the same....
yeah... it actually is
Breeding Plans
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I have found that eating too much volume at a time can also cause diarreah. I usually switch my girls to a high cal food, like the puppy version of the food they normally eat, so that I can feed less volume and still get the same amount of calories. I also free feed the nursing girl so she can eat smaller amounts through out the day to prevent stomach upset.
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I hadn't chimed in previously because I don't have the experience in breeding. However; I remember reading an article about it and they did say that pregnant and lactating bitches benefit from eating a good quality puppy food. It does make perfect sense…
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I will be grabbing a bag and supplementing her when I get her diarreah under control. It has slowed already and is firming up. Her stomach cramps are lessening as well.
Lisa, she is getting the food in three - four meals a day. With the Kaolin and pumpkin inbetween.
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I will be grabbing a bag and supplementing her when I get her diarreah under control. It has slowed already and is firming up. Her stomach cramps are lessening as well.
Lisa, she is getting the food in three - four meals a day. With the Kaolin and pumpkin inbetween.
This may save a little money as well since you would feed less of the puppy food. You may want to choose puppy food in the same brand as the current adult food you are feeding her. That would probably make the transition easier.
BTW… Is IVOSS a LISA, too
Or were you referring to me??? -
Sorry, Yes, I was referring to Ivoss, she is Lisa as well. Guess I should have made that clear.
I will be going with the Nutro brand which is what she is on now.
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No, no problem… I just wondered and I like learning everyone's "real" names here. Sometimes I have a hard time remembering them though... Bella was on Nutro Natural puppy food when she was little. She also has had Nutro Natural Chicken, Rice and Oatmeal for sensitive stomachs. She did pretty well on it!
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BTW… Is IVOSS a LISA, too
Or were you referring to me???It's not an "I" but rather a lowercase "L". Lisa Voss is her name.
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Oooops :o sorry (of course that makes sense) now I feel silly.:rolleyes:
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Oooops :o sorry (of course that makes sense) now I feel silly.:rolleyes:
I always read it as ''i''voss as well
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Here are 11 day pics:
Puppy Pile
At the Milk Bar
Zorro and (Starr) now Indi
Talker -
Oh, What wonderful puppy photos…thanks for sharing
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They are getting big!! Look at those baby bellies..!
So cute!!
Thanks for sharing! -
I will be going with the Nutro brand which is what she is on now.
I am not a breeder & certainly not an expert, so go with what the breeders say first. However, I wanted to throw in my 2 cents on Nutro. We fed Booger Nutro puppy food & he did well. We switched to Nutro adult & he did fine. He did seem to poop a lot. We brought Lola home & started on Nutro puppy. She had awful bouts of diarrhea. I would cook chicken & rice for her for a day or two, get her stools firmed up & start feeding kibble again. Within 2 days, diarrhea again. I did some research & chose a new food (Blue Buffalo) & switched her cold turkey (I figured I couldn't upset her stomach much more than it already was) & she has never once had diarrhea since. We switched Booger over, too, so we could keep it simple with both of them getting the same food. His stools firmed up, he lost weight, eats less, coat is shinier, he has a lot more energy & is a lot happier all around. Switching from Nutro worked wonders for ours.
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It has been 10 years since I fed Nutro but my experience was very similar to Andrew and Carrie's experience. Nicky frequently had soft or loose stools on the Nutro food and I saw a huge difference when I switched him to California Natural back then. Now, I rotate between 3 brands of grain free kibbles (Merrick's BG, Evo, and Orijen) and a couple of brands of grain kibbles (California Natural and Prairie). This routine has worked well even with Rio who is my worrier and can work herself up into a belly ache.
With Rally's first litter they were weaned onto California Natural Puppy and her second litter got Wellness Puppy and Evo about 50/50. I think Wellness may have recently changed their formula because my dogs are not doing as well on it anymore so I have cut it from the rotation. My mom feeds TC's litter 50% of the meals Merrick's BG and 50% raw medallions. She started the raw medallions because she was worried TC wasn't getting enough calories prior to whelping and she could eat more raw without an upset stomach than she could kibble.
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I did some research & chose a new food (Blue Buffalo) & switched her cold turkey (I figured I couldn't upset her stomach much more than it already was) & she has never once had diarrhea since. We switched Booger over, too, so we could keep it simple with both of them getting the same food. His stools firmed up, he lost weight, eats less, coat is shinier, he has a lot more energy & is a lot happier all around. Switching from Nutro worked wonders for ours.
I can't argue that can happen… I definitely am not praising Nutro. I said she did "pretty well" on it. Toward the end I felt it best to switch because I thought there was a better food out there for her. I was just suggesting nomrbddgs keep her girl on the same line of food for ease of transition. BTW, my Bella had the diarrhea reaction to Blue Buffalo... goes to show, all dogs are different! I wish we all could have simple answers to the feeding issues. Right now I am considering switching Bella back to Canidae (I once tried it and she did great) or trying Wellness Super 5...
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Actually, I was thinking of switching them all to Orijen. Zina has done super well on it. And if I'm feeding her it, I should feed all of them it. (Zina is the one with allergies to all grains, including flax seed and I believe also stuff like lettuce). It would probably cost the same in the end, because they eat less of it. I did tell the vet I had Orijen and he said it was okay to start switching in some of the Orijen. If I could get this diarreah under control, it would be a lot easier. The stomach cramps are almost gone. The odd one or two, but the stools are still loose-firmer than what they were (liquid) but definitely not solid. At least they string together and not pour out of her. (Sorry for the visual).
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The puppies get cuter and cuter!! I would love to hold and snuggle one.
Re foods: We have always used Nutro Lamb and Rice - with our last 2 dogs and our current 2. While not the best dog food in the world, it is reasonably priced and of reasonable quality. And for some reason every dog we've had has tolerated it better than other brands. I once tried to switch our Lab to a different brand and she developed massive diarrhea. It was the one and only time she ever had an accident in all the years we owned her. She was mortified. We tried switching Cory and Jayden to Wellness Super 5 and Jayden especially couldn't tolerate it. We couldn't move past the 50 - 50 mix of Wellness and Nutro without Jayden getting severe diarrhe. So, We've stuck with Nutro and add some yogurt and Missing Link to it. We used to add canned pumpkin to it to see if we could cure Cory's chronic "stinky butt" but found that it didn't stop it. I LOVE to find a cure for the stinky stamper problem.
Pat
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The "stinky butt" is anal glands. Usually the anal glands become full and the dogs will have that smell if their bowel movements are not firm enough to express them. They can be expressed manually, you can have your vet show you how.
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I did Riley's glands the other day. The two times I've done Zippy's I conveniently had a stuffy nose. Not so this time.
:eek:
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The "stinky butt" is anal glands. Usually the anal glands become full and the dogs will have that smell if their bowel movements are not firm enough to express them. They can be expressed manually, you can have your vet show you how.
Oh I forgot to mention this was the other added benefit of switching Booger to Blue Buffalo! He used to have what I called "butt pee." Anytime we went to the park or hiking, he would have a solid normal poop & then run around & poop several times afterwards. All except the first poo would just be liquidy & not much to them. After we switched foods, we noticed his stools are a lot firmer, and every few days they're followed with a little burst of liquid (this is turning into the worst thread ever), which Andrew says is his anal glands expressing. We've, thank God, never had to express them & I attribute a lot of that to the food!
I never want to go down that road…..:D
