My sibe is 6 months and on a blue buffalo wilderness for puppies, we just switched him to the wilderness from the blue buffalo freedom for puppies because of the higher protein. He poops in his crate twice a day everyday unless he skips a meal, skips breakfast no poop in afternoon, skips diner no poop in am. I walk him every am before i leave for work and he poops and pees, he also poops when he first gets up. We also have someone let him out mid day. (We have been crating him about 9 hrs/d m-f for two months.)

He is calm when i put him in the crate and goes in willingly. I am told he is also calm when someone comes mid day. When I have come home he is calm although my husband usually comes home first. However when i have come home with my husband I have witnessed that he gets the dog all amped up upon walking thru the door so the dog is excited! I do not do this and he is calm when I have come home alone.

The trainer thinks it is seperation anxiety and said to record him to see what he does. The vet doesn't think it is anxiety and thinks it is the food and it is going right thru him, not "hearty enough". She said to change the meat or try fish. When I explained i am having a hard finding a puppy formula that is fish and grain free she said to try an adult formula.

I have read there are benefits to switching a large bread to adult formula at this age because it makes them grow slower which is better for their bones. I have also heard of people keeping dogs on puppy formula until the dog was 2 becuase of its extra nutrional value. We are not getting him fixed until he is one year. Any thoughts??? Will he outgrow this???

when i first got my pup, she is now a little over 5 months old, i had her on blue buffalo freedom for puppies and also switch blue buffalo wilderness for puppies and she didn't do good on it. some huskies don't do good on chicken so i had to find some other puppy food that didn't have chicken. like you said you can't hardly find grain free food that isn't chicken.

so i swapped her over to Merrick grain free duck and sweet potato dog food which is an all life stages food. it doesn't have chicken in it and he does great on it and loves it, but she loves to eat and will eat anything. so to get away from chicken for him you may need to look for some all life stages food that he likes and does well on.

also remember huskies isn't considered a large breed dog either.

all life stages sounds like a good idea and will offer more of a selection! thank-you!

welcome.....just look at the ingredients and make sure it doesn't have chicken or chicken meal in it, just incase your pup is sensitive to chicken like mine is.

hope you get it all worked out for your little guy

me too:)

That doesn't sound like SA to me at all. Just a puppy who has to poop a lot. That is further proved by the fact that he doesn't poop when he skips a meal which is expected. What goes in must come out.

How much are you feeding? That sounds like a lot of BM's if he's pooping 4 times a day and can't hold it till someone comes by to let him out. What hours is he left in his crate during the day and does he receive a walk when he is let out by someone midday?

Honestly, I don't think what you are feeding is the problem. It sounds like he may be eating too much which could cause the excessive BM's or maybe he just needs to be put on a different feeding schedule to manage his BM's so that he doesn't have to go while he's left home alone in the crate.

As for the large breed food thing, that is irrelevant with siberians as they are a medium breed. Feeding a large breed food will not offer any benefit over a regular puppy food to a medium breed. There is also nothing really wrong with switching to an adult food early, at 6 months that shouldn't be an issue. Plenty of people feed adult formulas to their puppies with no ill effect. But as I said before, I don't think what you are feeding is the problem so I would not expect the pooping in the crate while you are gone to stop simply because you switch foods.

It was actually recommended to me to switch my puppy to the wilderness adult formula. There really isn't much of a difference between the two (the puppy formula is a little higher that's all) and Karli has done fine on the adult formula and there is a lot of different meats offered in the adult formula (she's on the salmon right now, I'm gonna try duck with the next bag.)

It also doesn't sound like SA to me since there's no whining or anything other than the pooping. How much are you feeding him?

We feed him 3 1/2 cups per day. Somedays he eats it all and other days he doesn't. My work schedule just started to rotate, it was 8-5 but now it rotates between 7-4, 8-5 or 9-6. This week for instance I have one 7-4, one 9-6 and three 8-5 shifts so each week varies. I have to leave 30 mins before my shift and I crate him right before I leave. So he's put in 6:30, 7:30 or 8:30am. Most of the time my husband is home around 4pm, however once and a great while he may have to work later.

M-Thurs is a friend taking him out on his lunch break so he doesn't have a lot of time but I think he does walk him a little. Friday is a dog walker and she spends an hour with him and feels him out, ie, if he wants to play she plays with him, walk she walks him.

We were feeding him around 5, or 5:30am and 5pm but have moved these times out to 6am and 6pm the last week or so. I have noticed when I'm home he'll poop at times when no one would be here, for instance 10:30 in the am.

3.5 cups seems like a lot of food for a 6 month old. That could be part of the reason. I would try feeding him less, maybe 2.5-3 cups and see if that helps.

The rotating schedule might also be part of the problem. Does he eat at the same time every day regardless of your work schedule? Keeping a set feeding schedule should help tremendously with figuring out his normal BM times. Once you know when he normally has his BM's you can adjust his feeding times accordingly so that his BM's fall at times when someone will be available to take him out. Also, walking has a tendency to help stimulate a BM which may help him go when he is taken out midday so that he is less likely to have an accident in the afternoon.

My 8 month old only eats about a cup and a half a day. I had her on two cups and she kept skipping meals so I lowered it and now she eats it all. Its sounds like that might be why he's pooping so much.

I have a question about puppy vs adult food.

Im considering switching to Acana Regionals. None of the 4 flavors mention puppy. And if you look at their website 3 of the 4 say For Adult Dogs of All Breeds and Sizes. However if you click on their fact sheet there is a Nutritional Adequacy Statement that says "ACANA is formulated to meet the nutritional
levels established by the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient
Profiles for ALL LIFE STAGES"


So does this mean I can feed to my puppy? It looks like the market to adults but it meets the requirements for all life stages. Thanks.

Yes you can. Just remember that you have a growing puppy and they will need to eat more than the recommended amount for their weight- because those recommendation charts on the bag are usually for adult weights.

Dot wrote:

Just remember that you have a growing puppy and they will need to eat more than the recommended amount for their weight- because those recommendation charts on the bag are usually for adult weights.

i feed my puppy Merrick which is an all life stage food and it says to feed 25% more that the recommend amount for puppies. so it should tell you how much more on the bag to feed a puppy

By feeding him at 6am I am able to feed him the same time every day, except for when I have to work at 7 than I'll feed him at 5:50 which shouldn't make too much of a difference. I picked up a bag of the Merricks grain free duck for all life stages and we are starting to switch him. I hope it works!!! We're also cutting back to 2.5 cups per day and he seems to be eating each meal, although it's only been a couple days and he barely ate all weekend. We'll see, fingers crossed!