Canagan dog food

[eira.brewster]

Hi

I have been feeding my chocolate lab Canagan salmon kibble for the last 2 years and he has been great on it
I needed a food that he would digest all the goodness as he is a poo eater 
The stools are so hard and don't smell good so he ignores it
The last couple of months he has become interested again and we now have to watch him all the time (stools are now softer and interesting)
Any suggestions  or recommendations for a food that I can change him to please
I did wonder if Canagan had changed their recipe
Thanks
Eira

[Rebecca Forrest]

not sure if you want  to go down this route but raw will help with fewer non loose stools. With raw they produce harder stools. I hope this helps .

[Tinyplanets]

Raw is the only likely way I can think of to harden the stools too.  Other foods may well have the same effect on your dog but probably the only way to know is trial and error.

Manufactures do change the recipes at times or maybe change where they source their ingredients from. It is a shame that the stools have suddenly become more appealing when it sounds like you had it sorted.

[eira.brewster]

Tried the raw food and was working, but got a bad batch and it made him so ill I took him off it
Thanks for the advise though

[Dottie]

There are some good quality wet foods that mimic raw in composition and produce a stool very much like that of a raw fed dog. Natures Menu, Forthglade are two but there are more. You can search for them using the Dog Food Directory.

It’s odd that your dog has begun to have issues with Canagan, which is a good quality product. It would perhaps be useful to talk to the company about this. However, it may not be the food itself, maybe your dog has become slightly intolerant to something in it. This can happen when dogs have the same food over long periods of time.

I can’t think of an alternative dry food right now but you could consider examining the recipe of the Canagan version you are using to look for the most likely problem. If you want any help with using the Directory, please ask.

[Rebecca Forrest]

I am not sure which raw you tried, but I use Luna and me and they do patties and have not had problems with this food.

[Petmum]

A tip I’ve heard for dogs who eat their own poo is to add pineapple to their food. Apparently enzymes in it make it taste unappealing to a dog once it’s gone through their digestive system. May be worth a try?!

[Dottie]

I’ve now had a look at the Canagan Scottish Salmon recipe - link.
* Can’t say for sure why your dog’s poo has changed. Perhaps the pea and potato could be the issue so as a start to finding an alternative you might want to consider products without these two ingredients. You can filter both out under the filter  ‘Avoid ingredients’ on the Dog Food Directory.
* The other thing that occurred to me is over feeding. Are you weighing the food? Also, is anyone in the house giving your dog extras? 
* Coprophagia can cause loose stools so if your dog has been cleaning up without you noticing, this could be the reason (the chicken and egg situation).  Some dogs with coprophagia prefer soft, fresh poo whereas others prefer hard, older poo. Wondering if your dog has moved on to the latter because of the lack of the former. My experience is that once started, this habit is likely to be persistent. Before changing food, it might be useful to make sure that your dog doesn’t have the opportunity to snack. This does take a lot of vigilance so if you can’t watch/supervise him then maybe consider use of a muzzle.
* Food-wise, as mentioned before good quality wet food has the potential to give a small, very firm stool. Forthglade  have their ‘Just’ varieties which consist of meat, leaving the user to add vegetables, fruit and carbohydrate. This might be more acceptable for you as it mimics raw but without the risk of infection.