Feeding variety and sensitive tummies?

Laurelin

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#1
So this is sparked by a radio segment on the local radio station where people were calling in and telling what 'people food' they feed to their dogs. The hosts were talking and both were saying that they can't feed their dogs anything at all other than their dog food or they get sick.

Made me think of our dogs. Beau gets sick so easily. Bernard and Rose do too. Summer and Mia have stomachs of iron and I feed them everything. I'm notorious about feeding them bits and pieces of my food and they've also been on every brand of grain free kibble out there as well as four different premade raw brands and then raw of course. I also buy wet food and feed that every now and then. I've never had to mix their food when I switch brands or proteins. I just start a new bag. They've had the runs each maybe once or twice. Never seems food related.

My dad's dogs and Beau have all been on the same kibble for years and don't get scraps ever at all (Beau of course is getting a few now but I don't want to overdo it too quickly).

Am I reading too much into this or have you noticed the same thing?
 

Emily

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#2
I've certainly noticed the same thing... I feed my dogs raw but they also get grain free kibble for treats, some wet food sometimes for various reasons, cheese and hot dogs for treats, and my dogs almost never have upset stomachs. I have to think there's some connection.
 

Toller_08

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#3
I think I just posted a similar thread a couple weeks ago. For me and my dogs, there is no correlation. I've tried giving them all sorts of different things and the Dobermans just can't do it. Doesn't matter if it's different types of dog food (kibble, canned, raw) or people food. Chances are huge that they are going to get sick for a couple of days. They're been this way since I got them, though. It's ridiculous how many different foods both of them have been through in an attempt to find something that worked. They receive all sorts of training treats too with training, and those often make them sick also. Dance is a little less sensitive and can eat more things than they do, but even she reacts to different things sometimes. All of my dogs prior these three though could eat whatever with hardly ever an issue. Not sure why these guys can't. It's really annoying.

I was kind of hoping that I might be able to make sure my next puppy can eat anything and everything, but the consensus seemed to be that giving them lots of different items/foods doesn't necessarily mean they'll be able to handle it. Some dogs are just sensitive. With that said, I will still try and feed the next puppy as many things as possible in hopes that it might help deter any sensitivity.
 

Shai

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#4
I really can't say...I feed my dogs just about anything healthy and they are fine. They get a wide variety especially as training treats, etc. Kim used to have allergy issues but as far as I can tell they've mostly disappeared.
 

Laurelin

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#5
My dogs are on raw most days now, but this weekend we house sat for my dad so I just fed them kibble for two days (which isn't the same kibble that my dogs usually eat for kibble either). Tonight they had raw. Last week they had canned food two days just because the can was about to go bad. Maybe I'm just lucky with them.

I was really hoping it wasn't just luck because Beau's stomach issues are really bad and really annoying for me since I'm used to just feeding whatever I have or can get my hands on and not ever worrying about stomach upset with the girls.

Now Summer's first 3 years was straight kibble pretty much (and not good kibble either) but since I've had her she's been on too many feeds to name. However she never tummy problems even before I got her.
 

Shai

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#6
Laurelin, I don't know how much you saw/remember with regards to Kim's stomach issues when she was younger but she is the reason I switched to raw. It could well be her early ditch-hood that started it all, I don't know, but we tried everything for the first two years and even if we found something that worked, a month later she'd be sensitive to it.

Then she was on raw for two years and all those issues cleared up. No rashes, no hot spots in the fall when environmental allergies seemed to compound things, no tummy upsets.

One dog. One experience. And there are certainly dogs who do not thrive on raw or who are 50/50. But hopefully Beau will reap the same benefits.
 

CaliTerp07

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#7
No correlation here. I've tried feeding Lucy anything and everything but she gets horrible, horrible diarrhea if I deviate at all from the "safe" foods. 1 kind of kibble, 1 kind of people food (cheese), and only salmon or peanut butter based treats. I've tried novel proteins, tried sneaking teeny tiny bits of other meats into things, and tried just sucking it up for a few months to see if she'd build a tolerance, and every experiment was a disaster.
 

JacksonsMom

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#8
Yeah I've noticed that. Jackson's always been fed a variety of dog food and treats as well as people food and always been pretty tolerant. He'll have softer poo on certain things, but he's very rarely had any kind of watery diarrhea or anything and very rarely thrown up.

One night he did get into trouble after I took him to a family BBQ and he literally was like a walking garbage disposal - god knows what he got into that night, but the next morning he began throwing up and then off and on the rest of the day and then ALL thru the next night until it turned to blood. This was the first time I'd EVER seen him this sick, I was up all night. So he ended up in the hospital on IV's overnight. So that was literally the only time I've seen him that sick, but I'm pretty certain he got into sausages (from the pizza) and a chocolate cupcake, and some steak, and probably a gazillion other things. But anyways he's fine again with little pieces of human food here and there. I do tend to stick with lower fat treats now, and little bitty pieces of human food, just in case his episode was a pancreatitis attack, which it was initially diagnosed.

But my uncle never feeds his dog people food and when she got into it one night, she was having watery poo ALL night long. I know of a few other people who only feed their dog dog kibble and NOTHING else, and same thing... they get nasty poo/throw up if they eat anything else. I almost think it's because they've just never been exposed to it, but I DO think some dogs just naturally have a sensitive stomach.
 

PWCorgi

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#9
Frodo has always been fed a variety of foods, NOTHING gives him diarrhea. Even when he ate his fill of cat food that he had never tried before, pooped a lot, but none of it was even soft.

But he has allergies to like everything.
 

Michiyo-Fir

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#10
I have a theory that the more things you feed the dog as a puppy, the less sensitive their stomachs. All 3 of our dogs have been eating everything since 10 week old puppies, deli meat, meat from cooking, some odd bites of bread, cookie, veggies, fruits, different kibble, raw, etc. and all 3 can eat absolutely anything without any problems. No transitioning between foods, no transitioning between raw, any kind of human food, no problems.

So when I raise puppies I try to give them lots and lots of variety. That's my theory at least from our sample of 3.
 

Southpaw

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#11
I haven't noticed a correlation. Lucy never got variety in her diet as a pup (she still doesn't), but she's not sensitive at all. I never worry when we switch her kibble. I can't recall a single day in her life when she's had soft stool. It just doesn't happen with her.

Juno has always been fed lots of variety, but she can have a sensitive stomach. I don't usually do gradual switches with kibble, but I have to keep more of an eye on her poop to see what's going on. And it's not that she's the type of dog that CAN'T have new things without being thrown into a frenzy... I just have to watch how much of it she gets. Every once in a while I'll give her a meal of Sojos instead of kibble, and typically her poop is a little softer after that.

I used to have problems with her getting full-blown diarrhea all the time. Every time it would happen, we would end up trying a different brand of food, and the problem would go away. Not sure what the deal with all that was but thankfully she's not THAT bad anymore.
 

BostonBanker

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#12
I have a theory that the more things you feed the dog as a puppy, the less sensitive their stomachs. All 3 of our dogs have been eating everything since 10 week old puppies, deli meat, meat from cooking, some odd bites of bread, cookie, veggies, fruits, different kibble, raw, etc. and all 3 can eat absolutely anything without any problems. No transitioning between foods, no transitioning between raw, any kind of human food, no problems.

So when I raise puppies I try to give them lots and lots of variety. That's my theory at least from our sample of 3.
That was my theory until Gusto! No idea how Meg ate before I got her at age 1-ish, but she has an iron stomach. She's thrown up once in 6 years, and maybe had diarrhea two or three times - never bad. And she gets everything.

Gusto has had a sensitive tummy since I've known him at 5 weeks or so. It isn't horrible - I can give him a little bit of almost anything, but he can't indulge like Meg can or it is nasty. He's gotten a touch better as he's gotten older (or I've gotten more careful about what I give him) but it is nothing like Meg.
 
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#13
My dogs get a ton of variety in their diets - different kibble, cans, treats, raw, and "people food". They rarely have soft stools and never throw up. They also get probiotics and digestive enzymes in their food.

I do think that feeding a variety of foods, for most dogs, helps keep their stomach stronger.
 

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