Im new here so hello everyone! I have been feeding my Working Cocker Spaniel, Stanley Fresco freeze dried raw. It has a high rating and its full of good stuff but Stanley has had diarreah/ loose stools all the time he has been on it. I read on the reviews that it seems to do this with some dogs but I’m stumped as to why because Stan used to be raw fed and we moved across to freeze dried raw as we thought it would be the best of both worlds. He has had various meats in the range including horse and beef and salmon. Has anyone experienced this and was their dog better on a different flavour? Sometimes I’m limited because they seem to be sold out all the time. Thanks in advance!!
Hello and welcome to the forum. I haven’t come across this product. I see that it is reviewed on the Dog Food Directory:
Fresco Dry Raw Food and Fresco Frozen Raw Nuggets Plus. The former has a nutritional rating of 97%, the latter 99%. I assume that you are feeding the former as that is the air dried one.
Occasionally we hear of dogs who have loose stools when given high quality, high protein/fat products. Sometimes dogs need smaller amounts of these types of food. Overfeeding can cause loose stools so I am wondering if this could be the case with your dog. I haven’t seen this particular product but I recall feeding a type of food that was quite dense and I had to be very careful not to overfeed because the amount in the bowl looked tiny.
I would advise you to give the manufacturer a call but I see that the product is made in Germany. If there is a UK distributor, it might be worth contacting them. Alternatively, try reducing the amount by about 10% and see where that takes you. As your dog is a working Cocker Spaniel, keep an eye on weight though. Sometimes the addition of something like butternut squash or pumpkin can help to firm up stools.
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Hi Jessica! It’s great to have you and Stanley on board 
Dottie is spot on - 9 times out of 10, problems like this come down to feeding a little too much food. It’s very easily done with nutritionally dense foods like Fresco. As Dottie said, you should try to feed a little less for a week or two and see if that does the trick. If not, and provided Stanley is still holding his weight well, you could try reducing a little more and so on until you achieve results.
In most cases, this alone will do the trick but if not, it is possible that there’s something in the food which disagrees with him, in which case your only option will be to look for an alternative.
Either way, do please let us know how Stanley gets on
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Hello,bthanks for taking the time to reply.
Stan is on 1% of his body weight which is 160g a day/ 80g a meal. He does gave a rabbits ear or something similar per day. I’ll try reducing a bit but he does get hungry. I’ll knock it down to maybe 140g and see how he gets on. Thanks again!
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You’re most welcome!
That sounds like a good plan. As Dottie mentioned before, adding certain good quality, high-fibre foods (like brown rice, whole oats, butternut squash etc) can really help to stave off hunger whilst not contributing to weight gain and the additional fibre can also help to bind up any loose stools.
Our brief guide to feeding hungry dogs might also help.
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I forgot to say I have some tinned pumpkin which I have opened and frozen in small portions. He’s a fusspot with his food and doesn’t like much in the way of fresh veg but I’ll see what I can do
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