puppy poops all the time

[Nicole L]

We have had Buddy for 6 weeks now, and he continues to poop 5-6 times a day (he is now 16 weeks old).  He is eating NurtiSource Chicken and rice for puppies small/med breed.  Is this normal?  It makes house training hard since he has to poop nearly every time he goes out, but he doesn't always want to because he wants to play.  Stools are normal, not to hard, not to soft.  Help, do I just have pooper???

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The food you're using is a decent food, but it has an extremely high fiber content, 66% higher than most other puppy or adult formulas. That might be contributing to the problem. You may want to consider switching to another food, especially a grain-free formula. You can check the Food Group's main page for a list of recommended brands and grain-free formulas.

[Gina and Finn]

Does he eat at specific times or does he eat all day long? I recall reading when Finn was a puppy that if he is eating constantly he will need to poop more often. Finn was a frequent pooper early on but grew out of it. We fed him in the morning then took it away if any was left and he had a second meal around 4 or 5. It evened out (the frequent pooping). Now he is 2 and we leave his food all day but typically he will eat half when he feels like it and later the rest. His bowel movements now are once a day.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Peri pooped 8x per day the first month or two. No joke!  It slowed down considerably after and now she only has 2 per day.  I really wouldn't worry, but you could try another food as Karen suggested.

[Taylor & Huff]

Huff was eating NutroNugget (from his breeder) when he was a puppy and he pooped 4-5x per day. So we changed him to Natural Balance thento Blue Buffalo ( had to switch him because he farted too much) and then to avoderm = I didn't pay much attention to how many times he pooped then but it was less. Now we feed him boiled chicken and rice and he poops 1-2 times a day.