# 8 month old feeding



## Wiggins (Oct 26, 2016)

Hi there,

I'm looking for some feeding advice! Please forgive the tmi and the long winded history!

Our cockapoo is 8 months old and has always had very soft stools. They start normal, but the last part is nearly always very soft and/or runny. During a stage when it was completely runny a few months back, the vet told us that it could be an immature gut and that he will grow out of it. Whilst he was teething, it was always worse if he had any pigs ear type things to chew on. He doesn't have any now, and as all of his adult teeth are through he isn't currently looking for extra things to chew. 

When he arrived he had Eukanuba (spell?) food which he had had with his breeder. Very quickly he showed very little interest in that. We slowly switched him on to Barking Heads puppy days dry food. During 5-7 months he was almost inhaling his food and I was having to find ways to slow him down. He also had his biggest growth spurts at this time so it seemed logical.

Now at 8 months he shows very little interest in his food. To this point today, he hasn't eaten anything despite being given the opportunity. I have now started adding some of the Barking Heads wet food as a topper (mixing it in) to his dry food each evening. This is greeted with huge delight and gobbled up very quickly. I normally put some of this in a Kong in the freezer over night to give him when I am out during the next day. It is the small puppy sized Kong. He will most likely eat some of his dry food whilst I'm out too, which is around late morning/lunchtime.

To add to this, when we are out, he is a complete scavenger, and yesterday was trying to eat sticks and horse manure. He is also a chancer at home, and as he is big can jump up at the kitchen work tops on the hunt for any tidbits. He never has any as I don't want to encourage this, but that doesn't seem to put him off trying! 

So after this potted history, I suppose my questions are:

Has anyone else had a puppy with soft runny stools and it did improve with age or change of diet?

Is it normal for their food intake to reduce at around 8 months? 

Should I give in to his fussiness and add wet food to his morning breakfast - is he hanging out for his Kong - or should I be strict and he eats what we give him or nothing? 

Thanks for reading!


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

With soft runny stools I would be looking for a different food to try to resolve that - I would probably choose something with a different protein source to what he is on at the moment - so maybe fish based?

Have a look here https://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/

Food intake reducing - will depend pretty much on the dog I think.

For fussiness I am afraid I am of the tough love school of thought. Food down for 15 minutes or so at mealtimes and then lifted and nothing else offered until next meal time (or kong time) 

Hope you can get things resolved.


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## cfriend (Dec 22, 2016)

Hi my puppy was very similar. She loved food while still very young but at around 6 months (she is now 7) she has lost interest and kind of eats the amounts she feels like when she feels like it (sometimes eating hardly anything the whole day). We've gone to our vet about this a couple times and she said if her behavior hasn't changed significantly then it's nothing to worry about but she did say we could either try feeding a different food or switching to feeding 2 times a day instead of 3.


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## Lexi&Beemer (May 5, 2013)

I don't know if it's possible but I'd try a raw diet. Neither Lexi nor Beemer had a solid poop until we switched to raw. Beemer also had tremendous anal gland issues (the vet couldn't get them all expressed at one go because it was so bad). Now they poop solid. Only time it's not is when they eat something they shouldn't. And even when they do most of the time their poop remains solid. And no more anal gland problems. 

Beemer was also finicky with his eating. In addition to switching to raw and rotating proteins every meal, he also gets his in a flat ceramic plate and gave to take his and Lexi's tags off so there isn't a clinking sound as the tags hit the plate. 


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## Gaynor59 (Mar 27, 2017)

Hi Louis is 8 months and his poo is usually sloppy as well, embarrassing when he does it out on a walk as it's not easy to pick up, first one of the day not bad but runny after, seems happy and well though, he won't eat in the morning now so just has two meals a day, a mixture of dry dog food and fresh meat or fish, I must say his poo seems to be same colour as his food, am considering changing it to see what happens 


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## Gaynor59 (Mar 27, 2017)

He weighs 10.2 kilos now 


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## Laura H (Jun 22, 2017)

I too want to do the raw diet. I was mixing kibble and raw for a long time and he was doing well, but then when I added Sojos he had diarrhea. Ended up he had bacteria overgrowth, so no on antiobioitics. But I want to get back to raw diet. Any advice is welcome. He seems healthy and happy otherwise.


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