All Natural Doesn't Work For My Golden

[sintaks]

I have a 4 month old Golden, Sampson. I'm having problems with soft/loose stool. I've fed him nothing but all natural food since the first day I brought him home. The breeder had him on Purina Puppy Chow (ick) but his poop was great. I started with Blue Buffalo. At least once a day his poop was very soft. So I swapped it out for Royal Canin Sensible Choice. (My friend owns the sister and she does great on it.) His stools are still loose. Both of these foods have great ingredients and are holistic/all natural. Even the treats I give him are Nutro All Natural. I'm at a loss. I'm leaning toward trying a less rich, "main stream" type of food like a Pro Plan or Eukenuba to see if it stiffen everything up. Is this logic wrong? The vet says he's healthy. I can't believe that he has allergies. My friend's dog has food allergies and she gets rashes, etc. Any advice?

[Prin]

Hmm... The reason the stools are hard on the "main stream" foods is that there are tons of stool hardeners in them. It doesn't necessarily mean he's absorbing any more nutrients from it...

I'd try a new holistic food, but less of it. If you feed too much of a holistic food, the stool is loose.

[Prin]

BTW, this is a good example of a holistic food:
http://www.solidgoldhealth.com/produ...id=61&code=180

[mafiaprincess]

You have tried a few foods. Many of us have been through far more before finding one that worked. How long was the dog on the food? In some cases it can be months before you see the actual result.

[technodoll]

the title of your post confused me, you said "all natural" but you're feeding all artificial, LOL! there is NOTHING natural in dry bagged dog food. that being said, none of the foods you have fed so far are close to being of good quality (sorry), they fall in the "medium" range, if even that. Also, you cannot expect to switch foods on a 4 mth-old puppy 3 times in 2 months and see good results... it takes times for those fragile systems to learn to digest all those grains and processed stuffs. if you choose to continue feeding an artificial, bagged dry dog food, then research one that is at least better than mainstream, and stick to it for at least a month, if not two or three. you can give your puppy digestive enzymes 30 mins before feeding, and add probiotics to the food, to aid digestion. eventually you should find a happy medium - good luck.

[sintaks]

This is my first puppy, so please be patient with me. I truly thought that both Blue Buffalo and Royal Canin were high quality foods. Are these really only medium grade?

I haven't been overfeeding him, so I'm good there. But I am guilty of not giving it enough time. Maybe I'll just let it go for a month or so to see how he makes out. I feel a little better knowing that I'm not alone in my battles. Great forum. Thanks for all your help.

[mafiaprincess]

They aren't bad foods, but there are better.
I've been through 4 great foods, 1 horrible food and one mid grade one in my search for dog food.
Has only been in the last week after waiting 2 months after my switch that our poop is truely happy.

Just take a deep breath. The world of dog feeding is vast.

[rainbow]

There are better foods than Blue Buffalo and Royal Canin. I believe they both have menadione sodium bisulfite in them. Please peruse the different threads in this forum....there's lots of good information here.

Whatever you decide on, please change over gradually from the old to the new food. And, once you're totally on the new food, give it at least two months to see results.

[Prin]

You should lurk around the dog food forum. You're definitely not alone. So many dog owners have gone or are going through this. It's hard to find a good food, and it's hard to separate the truth from the sneakiness of the dog food companies. It's hard to figure out what a really good food actually is in comparison to a bad one or not-so-good one. I think as a group here, we've found a few brands that stand out (they're posted everywhere in the dog food forum...).

Good luck!