Verus

[JacksonsMom]

On a side note, how do you pronounce it? LOL. In my head, I feel like I always said it like I do "versus" but I realize it's got the apostrophe over the 'e' sooo yeah, anyone?

[JessLough]

Originally Posted by JacksonsMom

On a side note, how do you pronounce it? LOL. In my head, I feel like I always said it like I do "versus" but I realize it's got the apostrophe over the 'e' sooo yeah, anyone?

The e is pronounced like 'ay' if you're talking about an accent aigu.

[Beanie]

Originally Posted by JacksonsMom

Verus, like said above, is made in Maryland so it's at our local store. It's in pretty blue-ish colored bags though lol. Not plain.

No no, the sample bags are plain, LOL. Just clear plastic sealed bags with an orange sticker slapped on them. As opposed to other brand's sample bags which tend to look like a mini version of their normal packaging.

We have Fromm and considered that, but compared nutritionally to the TOTW it wasn't a better move. It's also really expensive here. We keep looking at it every time we try to figure out what to do and we're like "No, no, that won't work." The discussion of going high fat has come up but there's a possibility high fat will be worse for him; that's the one thing I'm not sure of on Canine Caviar, it's quite high fat. We are pretty sure if we went high fat, it will either make him gain weight... or give him the poos, LOL.

He's almost two, there's a possibility he will bulk out on his own, but I'm not counting on it. I was hoping after he turned one that we would have the magic Adult Dog Muscles and Fat!! but he's still skinny mini puppy. Sigh.


ETA: We said it like "Vair-us."

[JacksonsMom]

Originally Posted by Beanie

No no, the sample bags are plain, LOL. Just clear plastic sealed bags with an orange sticker slapped on them. As opposed to other brand's sample bags which tend to look like a mini version of their normal packaging.

We have Fromm and considered that, but compared nutritionally to the TOTW it wasn't a better move. It's also really expensive here. We keep looking at it every time we try to figure out what to do and we're like "No, no, that won't work." The discussion of going high fat has come up but there's a possibility high fat will be worse for him; that's the one thing I'm not sure of on Canine Caviar, it's quite high fat. We are pretty sure if we went high fat, it will either make him gain weight... or give him the poos, LOL.

He's almost two, there's a possibility he will bulk out on his own, but I'm not counting on it. I was hoping after he turned one that we would have the magic Adult Dog Muscles and Fat!! but he's still skinny mini puppy. Sigh.


ETA: We said it like "Vair-us."

Oops, my bad. lol. Missed the sample bag part.

I mean, I'd probably pick Fromm over both TOTW and Verus but that's just me (in terms of ingredients, company reliability, etc). I also have no experience with Verus... maybe I'll see if our store has a sample bag of it next time I go. Looking at it though, it does seem like Verus has a bit simpler of an ingredient list.

Fromm seems to be hit-or-miss with prices. Here, it's one of the cheaper options. I think our Gold 5lb bag was $9.99 which is about the same as TOTW for us. The grain-frees are more, but not any worse than Acana, and others.

Good luck! Stomach problems/loose stools/runny poos and all that are so not fun!

[AllieMackie]

Canine Caviar is amazing. Highly highly recommend it. They have grain-inclusive and grain free ones, and the grain-inclusive varieties are also super-high-calorie. You can feed pretty small portions.

[Beanie]

Update: So Payton refused to eat his green beans and was leaving food in his bowl to avoid them, so I stopped the green beans. Kept the amount of food the same, and he was pooping in the house again. So Tuesday I opened one of my sample bags and started feeding him the Verus. He likes it plenty and so far he has not had any runny poos, nor has he pooped in the house. In fact he seems perfectly capable of telling me even if I'm across the house, or in the basement, that he needs to go outside and can hold it and wait until I let him out (whereas before on the TOTW he seems to be like "OH GOD I GOTTA POOP *squats wherever he's standing*")

So far so good! The only downside is the slightly larger than usual grain-fed puppy poops. =P I'm not sure yet if I'm going to switch everybody over to the Verus or just him. I think I will just get a small bag and make sure he does fine on it, then maybe next round buy a big bag and switch everybody.

[Southpaw]

Juno lost weight on Canine Caviar. =P

Her poop tends to lean toward the looser side, when she was younger she had frequent episodes of urgent, liquid diarrhea. She seems to do better on grains? I don't have to be so super precise with feeding amounts... on grain free if I fed her a hair too much, it was apparent in her poop. Its tricky, sometimes you just have to try things out and see what works for him.

[Beanie]

Yeah, the possibility that he might do better on grains came up back when he had colstridium too. I think there are a few dogs here who do better on grains. So far he seems to be doing really good on it! If Verus came out with a grain free version, I'd probably switch and try that, but if grains are what it takes to get him to actually gain weight and NOT poop all over my house, grains it is!!

[JessLough]

Originally Posted by Southpaw

Her poop tends to lean toward the looser side, when she was younger she had frequent episodes of urgent, liquid diarrhea. She seems to do better on grains? I don't have to be so super precise with feeding amounts... on grain free if I fed her a hair too much, it was apparent in her poop. Its tricky, sometimes you just have to try things out and see what works for him.

That was Rosey, too.

[OutlineACDs]

Originally Posted by Beanie

Yeah, the possibility that he might do better on grains came up back when he had colstridium too. I think there are a few dogs here who do better on grains. So far he seems to be doing really good on it! If Verus came out with a grain free version, I'd probably switch and try that, but if grains are what it takes to get him to actually gain weight and NOT poop all over my house, grains it is!!

I was just about to say, Zen does better with a little grain. I feed Victor Grain Free (we did TOTW for a long time, but Victor is actually cheaper), I add a half scoop of pro-plan performance to his food. No more diarrhea. Since pro-plan is a bit higher in fat it helps keep the weight on him as well. He eats 1.5 cups/day 1 cup of Victor and 1/2 cup of pro-plan.

I tried probiotics before and they had minimal effect. Just a thought.