Motta has loose stools.

[Wendy]

I made a batch of homemade food this past weekend. Chicken, brown rice, spinach, carrots & celery. I cooked the whole chicken in the crockpot and put all the veggies/rice in a pot to simmer on the stove. I added the chicken I pulled off the bone and the juicefrom the crockpot to the pot and then put it all in my little chopper and then in bags and into the freezer.

Motta is 9 weeks and I have been giving him about 3/4 a cup with dinner and his kibble but he's having some loose stools now. In the beginning it was watery but now just really loose.
TMI I know...

I am just wondering if he needs to get use to it or if I added something wrong or is he too young now?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Wendy, you can try increasing the amount of rice a bit, and maybe eliminating the veggies or cutting back on them until the stools firm up. Plain boiled chicken & rice is a classic diet for treating diarrhea in dogs, anyway, proportioned at 50/50. I'd give him just the chicken & rice, and drain off as much of the fat/grease from the chicken as you can. Too much fat will also cause looser stools. 9 weeks is very young, and his digestive system may need a little more time to adjust to richer foods. Please let us know if this helps.

[fergie11]

3/4 of a cup of that with dinner is pretty much. Besides what Karen said I'd start with a little less of the yummies so Motto can adjust to this great stuff a little slower. Throw a spoonful of plain yogurt on top (you ca add a probiotic from onlynaturalpet.com). My Lucy is 4 months and I've been doing this for almost a month. I'm feeding her twice a day now and give her about 1 cup of kibble and a half of cup of "good stuff". I do add yogurt a lot and I always give her a probiotic. I've had a lot of trouble with loose stools with her but she's doing better now. She's still not as firm as Fergies but I think that's the age. Keep up with the good work on the homemade cooking. Isn't it fun. Do you think we could put our recipes on allrecipes.com? I'm sure people would think we were nuts on there.

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

It does take a little while for a doggie to adjust to real food. Especially so young, but he will be fine. Like Karen said, add a little more rice but as time goes on you will find that his stools will stay a little softer than the plastic poops with commercial dogfood. I have also noticed that they seem to melt away in the rain or a hose spray. I'll bet the fertilizer is better for the lawn than all the crap in dog food too. LOL Seriously, growing pups do need more carbs than older dogs anyway, so add more rice and the yogurt, as Fergie says, will help a lot too.

[Jeannine]

Lynne,
Explain the pumpkin rice/yogurt recipe.
It is working !

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

That is basically the whole recipe. Pumpkin, rice and plain yogurt. It helps firm up the stool and calms the tummy.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Jeannine, the pumpkin is really more for out & out diarrhea; I think in Motta's case, he just needs a small adjustment to Wendy's homemade recipe, and maybe a lesser quantity, as Cathy pointed out.

[Wendy]

Thanks for the ideas and help everyone. I added more brown rice to half a cup of homemade food plus his kibble. Let's see if this works before I boil plain chicken and just add that to rice. I sent my husband to the store and he's suppose to bring home plain yogurt too so tomorrow we will try that!

[Jeannine]

My girls love plain yogurt. They also, get that Lynne, ate plain pumpkin love it very much!
I,ve been told by one or two of my mentors that yogurt are very good for their stomach.

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

Yes, yogurt is good for their entire digestive tract. My advice for Wendy, though, is to try the extra rice for a few days. Just getting used to real food might make things better.

[Jeannine]

Yes, you are right. The simple the better.