Hello, I’m hoping I might be able to find some advice here.
I have two (unrelated!) dogs with very sensitive stomachs. I have been trying to find the right food for them for years and years, but still no luck. The best they’ve managed on is Simpsons sensitive, and Royal Canin Sensitivity Control (vet directed after colitis, but no nutritional value I know!).
Neither can eat chicken, and both don’t tolerate grain well. I tend to stick to fish based food as it’s the only thing that never upsets them.
I’ve recently moved them (very very slowly) onto Cobbydog’s cold pressed fish supper food. This is the second cold pressed we’ve tried. They love it, but their poos are frequent, looser and smell awful. I know cold pressed is meant to be easier to digest but could it be that some dogs don’t tolerate it? Trying to work out if I should give up on cold pressed or if I’m doing something wrong. As I said, they were moved over very slowly over the course of many weeks, and I’m very careful about measuring amounts.
Any advice?
(I’d love to try raw feeding but unfortunately it’s not within my budget.)
Hello. Cold pressed food is often useful for dogs with a sensitive digestion. I would have asked about quantities because this type of food is dense, therefore it is easy to overfeed. However, you have said that you weigh the food so that might not be the case here.
As your dogs currently have a problem with their digestive system I would discount raw for the time being. To restore the gut microbiome it would be worth thinking about giving a canine specific probiotic such as YuDigest. Plain Kefir might also help.
I am wondering if you have the time to home cook for your dogs? You could do this in batches and freeze. However, it is advisable to seek out balanced recipes first because home cooked food for dogs needs to have certain additives, mainly calcium and omega oils. The best thing is to find a canine nutritionist who will provide you with tailor made recipes and also the correct additives. There are some suggestions in the Home Cooking section of the forum. As a start, this Facebook page might be useful.
If this does not help, good quality wet food is often easier to digest but it can be expensive. If you would like to discuss this further, the AADF Facebook group is here.
Thanks so much for your reply, Dottie!
Yes, I’m definitely not overfeeding , I give less than the recommended amount for their weight and I think if I went much lower they’d end up underweight.
They do get YuDigest with every meal, and it helps a bit because I definitely notice if we ever run out.
I haven’t considered homecooking beyond when they’ve been ill, but maybe it’s time I look into this more. And talking to a dog nutritionist sounds like a good idea. I’ll check out the resources you shared, thanks again!
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The thing about home cooking is that it can be tailor made to suit the dog. There are only a few companies who sell fresh cooked dog food but they tend to be expensive products because of the ingredients and time spent in preparation. The fresh dog food thread.
I know they tell you to move to cold press slowly, but I find this problematic with my dog (and logically). Cold press and kibble digest at different rates, and in my view, likely to cause digestive problems in dogs even wihtout sensitive stomachs. Have you moved completely off the kibble now, as once I did that for a few days the poops really settled down on the cold press?