# More or Less Fiber Better?



## Lily's-Mom (May 31, 2012)

Once again I am considering switching Lily's food. I am considering a couple of brands, depending on what is available in the store. She is currently on Wellness Super5 Mix. I was wondering if going grain free, which seems to provide lower fiber content, would be beneficial for her since she has a tendency to have loose stool (although that has gotten better recently with the addition of Greek yogurt) or would that possibly make it worse. Thanks for any input.


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## caroline429 (Mar 5, 2012)

A dog's reaction to fiber is very individual. In some dogs, the extra fiber can firm things up, in others, extra fiber can cause diarrhea. The only way to know which way your dog will react is to try it and see....just go slowly in case you don't get the reaction you're hoping for!

If your dog is prone to soft stools, I'd also pay close attention to the fat content of a new food. With the exception of omega 3, fats tend to be proinflammatory and can make loose stool much worse. I'd look for a food with a fat content similar to, or lower, than what you currently feed.


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## Lily's-Mom (May 31, 2012)

Thanks. I just checked and the Wellness Core I switched her to has 16% fat and the Wellness Super5 mix has 12%. No wonder her poo is getting even worse. Thanks for the info though, I know what to look for when I look for different new food, or I may just switch her back to Super5. 
Also, she just began having some drippy eyes over the past week, since I introduced the new food, so hoping that that goes away when I take her off the Wellness Core.


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## caroline429 (Mar 5, 2012)

Something else you might consider is looking for a kibble with novel ingredients, things she has never, ever eaten before either in a kibble or in treats. They have kibble now that contains different meats like kangaroo, duck and buffalo to name a few combined with unusual carb sources like potato, quinoa or oats.

Poodles are prone to allergies of all kinds and it may be that a food allergy or two are playing a part in the loose stools. Wellness foods are good quality but they do tend to contain an awful lot of protein sources and while dogs can be allergic to anything, it's usually the meats/fish/dairy they become allergic to most often because of the higher protein content.

If you go looking for a kibble like this, be sure to read the ingredients. You'll often find something labelled, for instance, as duck and potato, also contains chicken and wheat if you read the small print! Make sure it only contains one novel meat and one novel carb and is low in fat. I'm not familiar with a lot of kibbles but I understand that kangaroo is pretty low in fat. 

If allergies are playing a part, if you keep using multi-ingredient kibbles, your dog can end up allergic to so many things you'll have trouble finding something truly novel at some point in time. I know of one dog who had such bad allergies that he'd eaten just about every source of meat known to man and ended up having to eat frogs' legs! Luckily this was a small dog whose owner was a chef so could source them, but you get my drift. LOL

I feel your pain. Cali has been having trouble with soft stools for the past few months. She has scratched more than normal since the day I got her and the breeder told me there are allergies in her line so it's not exactly a surprise. I didn't want to fool around with the diet too much while she was a puppy and since the scratching wasn't out of control, I just left her on the kibble she came with which was chicken and rice. I noticed a definite increase in scratching and eye/ear goop if I also fed chicken-based training treats so I'm pretty sure chicken is one of the culprits.

She's just over 10 months now, so I'm switching her to an adult home-cooked diet to try and get to the bottom of this. I started out with beef and rice and she doesn't scratch as much but the stools aren't much improved. I'm going to transition her to beef and pasta and see if that helps. She's been tested for just about every parasite and bacteria out there and keeps coming back negative, so I'm left to focus on diet.

I spent the last 15 years dealing with Rottweilers who had inflammatory bowel disease and numerous food sensitivities. Although I managed to control the symptoms with diet and kept them off meds, I was really, really hoping to have a dog this time around with an iron-clad digestive tract. I feel like I'm walking around with a sign pasted on my forehead that says "all dogs with digestive problems, come on in!".

Sorry, didn't mean to highjack your thread, but I guess I just needed to vent.:embarrassed:


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## Lily's-Mom (May 31, 2012)

Thanks for all the info. I was looking for a different protein source in a new food, but seems that every one I looked at had very high fat (16% - 20%) and since I was looking for lower fat, I decided to go with Wellness Core reduced fat formula (10%). Hopefully this will work out, or I will try yet another brand


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## faerie (Mar 27, 2010)

all my dogs did well on wellness supermix 5.

i never fed grain free because my guys were fine on this.

but now i'm feeding them all raw and they are fine on it too!


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