What should I be feeding my dogs?

Chocolate can cause hyperactivity in dogs. You might want to contact your vet if it continues more than a few more days. As for diet, my daughter has a dog with severe digestive issues. She has been giving her apple cider vinegar in her water which helps balance her system. Since she started on the new program, the dog has been healthier (fewer visits to the vet).

You can do a search for apple cider vinegar in pets; there are many out there. To get the best results, use raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar you can get it in the health food section of your grocery, or at a health food store. Some people put it in their pet’s water while others put it in their food. There is no fast rule regarding how much to use, but my daughter uses about 1 tsp twice a day in food for her 50 lb dog. I suggest you experiment a bit to see what works. Many animals love the stuff, but some don’t care for it. A little experimentation and patience can do the job…start out with just a little in the food or water, and build up slowly until you have the right amount would work.

ACV (apple cider vinegar) will help with intestinal health (may be part of your dogs’ problems), especially if their intestinal flora has been destroyed because of antibiotic use. For that reason, I recommend using probiotics for dogs. Here’s a link.

Let me know if I can be of further help to you.

Be careful with bouncing around with different diets – any sudden diet changes can cause diarrhea. Any high quality diet should be fine, although I am not a fan of canned diets.

I would not expect diarrhea in a 13 week old puppy to be food related – there are many much more likely causes (coccidia, whipworms, hookworms, roundworms, etc). Even if all tests have been negative, I would talk to your vet about a prophylactic treatment of metronidazole or albon.

And yes, chocolate may still be an issue.

Canned pumpkin can help a lot with diarrhoea as well as constipation. Make sure you get canned pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling. Mix with food.

I suggest switching your pets to a BARF raw food diet. You can buy it prepared. It will completely clear up diarrhea and stomach discomfort.

Feeding a dog dry dog food will prevent it from overeating and becoming overweight. They may reject it at first but will switch to it when they become hungry. And they’re not like humans —they prefer to eat the same thing rather than have variety.

I’m curious why you’re feeding your older dog food that may be making him uncomfortable, when it was your puppy that had the issue to begin with? Am I missing something?

One of our dogs (Chihuahua) ate an entire box of dark chocolate raisinettes and Whoppers a few months back and not a thing went wrong with him aside from a day of hyperactivity. Grrrr. We took the two younger dogs off wet food completely and switched them to the dry kibble Canidae my older dogs eats. The youngers ones trimmed down so nice and have had less runny poops or gas. They used to just sniff their bowls of food and then eat through the day but now they really look forward to feeding time. My mom was so happy with the changes that she switched her cat to Felidae and her cat has had way less smelly poops and eats more than before which is good for an older scrawny cat.

I’ll make it simple:

-Chocolate is very dangerous for dogs, and gradually turns them blind.
– Company treats are exceedingly inefficient, and do not nourish them, it only keeps them more hungry, and crazy for more.

Always be sure to make their food at home, and DO NOT overfeed them, because it might affect their health rate as well as life span. Three meals per day are ideal. Always walk your dogs and frequently take them for their vaccinations, and all should be good. If you want more information from professionals, you should search on the internet. Hope this helps!

-Luiveton

I’d say yes, the new diet is drastically affecting the other dog’s bowels…..

“and gradually turns them blind.” What?!?

Thank you for the helpful responses :) Much appreciated.

I may mix the rice, vege and meat portions in with dry food. It is difficult feeding each dog separately so a consistent regime will be hugely beneficial.

Chocolate is certainly not something I want them getting into and was an unfortunate mistake on my part. The stress on myself and my partner was immense as a result!

The puppy is currently on antibiotics and a worming treatment to cover all bases (as the vet put it). Her diarrhoea has turned into soft stools which is an improvement.

(We should put your puppy and Knitfroggy in the same room…..with newspapers on the floor!)

There is “chocolate candy” that looks like chocolate, and tastes similar to chocolate candy , but really has very little actual chocolate in it (think tootsie rolls). Then there is the genuine chocolate that killed my chihuahua mix. If your dog ate a great deal of chocolate for his weight, and there was no significant problem, then you probably got lucky and he just got into chocolate candy.

Also, if your dog does eat a lot of real chocolate, and throws a lot of it back up, that’s a real blessing, because that might be enough to save his life. When I was a child, my dachshund dogs got into a 5 lb box of chocolates, and that’s exactly what happened to them.

@snowberry Sorry to hear about your chihuahua!

Chocolate contains theobromine, which is a substance that is highly toxic to their systems. See this article in the Dog Owner’s Digest for more information on the side effects and amounts generally found in different types of chocolate.