JD's Lima Bean Challenge, An Experiment For All Food Groupies!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Before JD was diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease in December 2011, I used to add a little of my own dinner to his dinner bowl just about every night. A particular favorite was lima beans. He always knew when they were on the menu, and was even more eager for his dinner than usual those nights.

All that stopped after the IBD diagnosis, and it had been a long time since JD got lima beans in his dinner bowl. Not so much because there is any reason he couldn't have them, but I had just not been cooking them for myself much either since my family's schedules changed and family dinners are a rare occurrence here. And I had gotten out of the habit of giving JD some of whatever I was eating for dinner, since there is so little he's allowed to have. 

But last month, I cooked lima beans and gave JD about 2 tablespoons with his dinner. 

The next morning, his poop was the same as always.Ditto the evening poop. 

But on the morning of the second day after he'd eaten them, there were lima beans in JD's poop. 

Now, the fact that the lima beans had passed through undigested was not a surprise. That's par for the course, because dogs can't digest plant cellulose. (People aren't very good at it either.) 

But the fact that the lima beans showed up in the poop about 40 hours after he'd eaten them, and that he'd had 2 normal poops in between, did surprise me. 

I tried it again this past week, and same thing.

It seems to me that in the past, they would have appeared in the next morning's poop. But I don't really remember. 

I think maybe JD's food is taking much longer to pass through his system than is normal, due to the IBD, and maybe all the meds. 

But I thought it would be interesting and maybe informative to see how long it takes food to pass through a healthy dog's GI tract. So JD and I are looking for volunteers to participate in our Lima Bean Challenge experiment. 

The LB Challenge is open to all dogs over 8 months old who do not have any current digestive issues, who do not free feed (food is eaten at regular set mealtimes), and whose owners are willing & able to immediately inspect all poops from the time the dog eats the lima beans until said beans exit the premises.

Here's all you have to do. Over the next week, cook some lima beans (we use frozen baby limas). Set aside a small portion (1-2 tablespoons per dog) before adding butter, salt, or seasoning. Let them cool sufficiently and then add them to your dog's dinner. Make a note of the day and time that your dog ate the beans. 

Then watch the poop. Make a note of each subsequent poop (day & time) in which the beans do not appear. I do not think there will be more than one, if that, but that's the point of this experiment. And then when the beans do show up, post your data here. I'd like all results by next Sunday, June 29th, please.

Yes, this is very unscientific and maybe silly, but you will be helping me & JD, and we might all learn something besides. :)

Do I have any participants? 

[Vivian & Mojo]

Mojo gets raw in the am and grain free Origen in pm. I have seen some veggies in his poop in the past, I think it may have to do with gobbling it up so fast but we shall see. It was the baby frozen lima's.

[Lori, Daphne, Lucy & Pippa]

No beans for Lucy today either. I think I may have seen something that looked like a bean skin but I can't be sure. If it was, it was only one. I'm guessing they were mostly digested and gone by now since it has been more than 48 hours.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Well, that skin counts, lol. 

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

hhhmmm, now I think Sophie may have produced some bean skin now that I think of it. I was looking for green fully formed beans but there was something that looked like it might have been skin. I'll give her some more beans now and try again :)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Did the skins seem to be coming off the beans before she ate them? That might account for it. I think the canned variety might be softer and more easily digested than the frozen ones that are less "processed". But then again, quite a few doodles here also seem to have digested theirs, so who knows? 

[Adina P]

I should have done this every time my dogs ate cherries off our old tree, crayons, sidewalk chalk, and socks.  But I didn't always know when the naughty eating happened :/  I'll be curious to see what the results are!

[Adina P]

The human version:  http://www.mayoclinic.org/digestive-system/expert-answers/faq-20058340

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Well, this is very helpful. I've seen lots of articles that give you that initial 6-8 hours digestion time (for dogs, too), but this is the first one I've seen that gives you the time frame for the rest of the "journey". I don't recall ever hearing or reading it in school, either, but that was 20 years ago.

So if the total time from mouth to defecation for humans averages about 53 hours, the process does seem to be shorter for dogs, but not very much shorter. Just like the length of their GI tracts, lol. 

Let's all remember this the next time we hear that there is no reason to worry about a dog's becoming ill from bacteria in raw food because their GI tracts are so short, the food barely has time to say "hi" as it passes through. LOL

[Adina P]

Yeah nobody ever talks about total transit time...just stomach transit which is supposed to be 4 hours -- at least for the test meals they give to test for gastroparesis.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Looks like the average transit time is 40-50 hours! 

[Vivian & Mojo]

Mojo gets a raw meal in the AM and grain free Origen 6 fish in the evening, yesterday with his raw I gave him 5 baby limas. I checked his afternoon poop and this mornings and no sign of beans but there was a bit of fiber that could be a chewed up bit of the beans maybe skin, I am always with him when he poops and I check it, not breaking it up as I did yesterday and today. I put the poop in a zip lock baggie and mashed it so I could get a good look. Will check again next poop. Last summer I gave him a bit of corn and I saw it in his poop whole but he may be chewing his food better this year at 2 years old then he did when he was younger. Last year he was on a total raw diet.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Going by the results most people who've seen the beans have had, it may be too soon for Mojo's beans to show up. 40 hours + seems to be the standard.

And I deeply appreciate your going to so much trouble to really examine the poop, lol!