How many times should a puppy poop in a day?

[boombamax]

My puppies at 7 months old, Maximus and Boomba, poop 4-5 times a day. They eat twice a day about 3-4 cups total. Is this normal? And yes, they are the ones who eat poop !!! I thought I was feeding too much so I cut back, but I do worry about them not growing. Boomba was 55lbs at 6 months and Maximus was at 68lbs 2 weeks ago. They have been on Nutro Natural Choice Lamb and Rice LB Puppy for 6 days now and are doing pretty well on it. Is it the food???

Vicky

[Judi W]

Normally dogs poop the same number of times that they eat. Four or five times with two meals seems excessive to me. Have you had them wormed and vetted to make sure they are healthy?

[boombamax]

They were both wormed and all shots are updated. Still worried !!!

[Judi W]

pups grow no matter how often they poop. I would have no idea why they would be going so many times. Sorry, no ideas on that.

[scooterjohansen]

I agree with Judy, They will poop 1 time for every meal(if they are healthy) so 2 meals 2 poops etc. If you feeding them only twice and they are not re-eating the poop, are they sneaking in another meal here or there without you knowing? The point being food is not there in the stomach to be digested and then wasted the dog cannot just manifest poop.

What is the consistancy of the poop. Is it firm and full or loose and runny. Is the volume of the poop proportional to the 3-4 cups of food?

[VANCOUVERISLANDROT]

On Nutro Natural LB Oscar goes like 4x per day and he eats 2x. Now I don't know if that's just because he's only 4 months old?! Maybe it's the food??

Just transitioning him over to Canidae so hoping the poop factor goes down! lol

Julie

[boombamax]

The consistancy of the poop is pretty full and firm now since we switched from Science Diet LB Puppy to Prescription I/D (they had diarhea for almost a week) then to Natural Choice L&R LB Puppy. The volume of the poop is more than 3-4 cups of food maybe because they eat poop at night. The vet seemed ok with the excess poop problem though but I have raised 3 puppies before and none of them was like that. Perhaps I should cut their food down to 2.5 cups for Boomba and 3 cups for Maximus. Maximus had parvo when he was 4 months old and the vet said he shouldn't have any problems growing big and strong because of the disease. if cutting down on their food won't solve the problem, our next option will be feeding Canidae. Still worried and concerned !!!

[scooterjohansen]

Is there anyway you can prevent them from eating the poop at night? We need to collect the poop every afternoon because the flies here are really bad and the sun makes the poop smell well not good.

[boombamax]

I am already on poop patrol during the day. I wish I knew how to prevent them from eating at night !!! We pick up poop immediately after they go during the day. Actually my kids won't touch them if they eat poop and would always help to pick up. The pups also know that if we are around, they are not supposed to go near them. So, I don't know what to say or do !!!

Vicky

[scooterjohansen]

I guess the thing here is to pick up after they go everytime. While it will be tedious and time consuming it will eliminate other causes and it will give you some piece of mind knowing that you have done everything you can. I don't know what your situation is and wether this is feasible. We have a sealed bin with a lock lid. It really takes a couple of minutes to ' collect and dispose' When the bin is getting full we dispose of it. To make it break down faster inside the bin we also put vege scraps and garden soil in. So Each time we collect (using a small metal spade) we pop it in the bin and then another spade full or too of soil goes in over the top. Then when full or thereabouts we find a nice place in the garden dig a hole and bury it.
I guess alternativley you could send it out with the trash in a trash bag.

Hope this helps.

[boombamax]

One thing I forgot to mention is that the pups sleep outside at night. They come into the house during the day. That's why poop patrol at night is so difficult !!!

[scooterjohansen]

Do they sleep in a crate at night or do they free roam? Maybe try a crate if you don't have one. Few reasons for this. First pup will not go in crate and you can monitor when they go. Second it will be safer for the pups etc. So after the last nightly poop, off to the crate and then all is good for the next day. Oh after they go for the last time pick it up. Hope this helps.

[frontierrots]

Very young pups (up to about 4 months old) poop way more than they ingest. They poop once per meal and then extra for puppy reasons :)

As they get older poop volume lesssens until once they hit a year it should be about 1 pile per meal plus maybe an extra one to account for treats, so up to 3 piles a day would be normal for an adult dog

Lower quality food or a food that the dog is not tolerating too well will increase poop volume

[RottiMomCT]

Why do they sleep outside at night?

[VANCOUVERISLANDROT]

I'd bring them inside at night....

Oscar sleeps in a wire crate in the house all night. That way we KNOW he's not eating things he shouldn't and he's safe. Are your dogs crated outside at night? I bet if you crated them indoors, even if that meant one "supervised" potty break during the night, it would seriously limit their access to poop eating. If they're lose outside they're free to continue the poo-buffet.

If inside in a crate, they'd probably even just sleep through the night by their age and they shouldn't potty in their crates, most dogs won't. Oscar's only 4 months and he either sleeps a good 7 hours through the night and/or sometimes wakes up only once for a quick pee and then right back to bed. I'm sure your dogs can hold it by their age. Oscar holds pee and poo for 9 hours during the day now.