[tonicoombs]

I recently converted Jasper's food to Orijen Adult. It's been a little over a week. I'm slowly transitioning him from his last food. I've noticed that his poop is darker and it's kind of sticky (sorry for the graphic description). Is this normal?

Thank you for your insight.

Toni

 

[princessre]

I made a, ahem, similar observation when my pups were on Orijen for a couple months.

 

[tonicoombs]

Sophia, did you switch them to something else? And if so, what is it and are you happy with it? Thank you for replying. =)

 

[princessre]

Hi, no problem! We switched back to home-cooked food. I was feeding Orijen to in order to free-feed Bijou when she was only 2 pounds. Now she is 3.3 pounds and Casanova does much better on home-cooked. So we are back to home-cooked 100%.

 

[Aarianne]

As long as the poop isn't very dark/black/tar-like (usually indicative of blood in the stool), I wouldn't be concerned. Food with higher grain content/less meat will typically be lighter, so if you switched to the Orijen from a lower quality food, then the colour change is to be expected. A little stickiness can be from mucous (normal)... as long as it isn't excessive, again not a concern. It's normal for the poop to be moist, but firm.

A while back I switched mine from Royal Canin onto either Go Natural Grain-Free or Orijen Adult (I forget which I tried first) and noticed a significant colour change. They also started drinking a little more water.

 

[LJSquishy]

I would either stretch out the transition even longer, or just switch 100% to the Orijen right away. It sounds like the stool is formed, just darker and more moist? If it is a little mucusy (just a little), that is okay, it is because your pup is just a little sensitive to change. If it is full-blown mucus, that is not normal.

I was feeding my two Orijen 6 Fresh Fish which was wonderful, but it turned out to be slightly too high in protein for my gang so I stepped down to Acana Pacifica (also rotate with Acana Grasslands) and they thrive on that. On a high quality food such as Orijen, you should notice that their poop is smaller and/or they poop less once they are fully transitioned to it.

I'm not sure what food you were feeding previously, but stick with the Orijen! You can give Acana a try if his poop doesn't firm up enough on Orijen.

 

[poochie2]

Acana is the same company as Orijen . Origen is too high in protein and Acana is a better choice.

 

[princessre]

As the OP stated, I think the poo just looks STICKIER with Orijen. What I saw wasn't actually mucousy-- it just looked almost encased in a plastic coating.

Whew! Graphic description over! I never thought when I decided to get a puppy that the words "poo" and "pee" would find themselves in my daily conversation so often, let alone these baroque descriptions thereof!!