Foods to help with constipation

BARF refers to Biologically Appropriate Raw food or Bones and Raw Food. It is where owners have decided to feed their Schnauzer a natural diet of raw meat, bones, and organs. If you are considering this for your Schnauzer, you will find lots of handy tips here.
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Aine
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Foods to help with constipation

Post by Aine »

Hi, I've just started feeding Milo with raw we are using the nutriment raw mixture just to get us started. All going well for last week or so but I've noticed he is now constipated and wondering were there any foods I can add to his food occasionally to help with this? I know with raw poops are less and firmer but it's now at the stage where he is letting the odd yelp out when going to the toilet so was wondering what foods could help him out a bit. Pumpkin seems to be mentioned a lot on US websites but doesn't seem to be easy to come by at this time of year in the U.K. Gave him some sardines the day before yesterday but not making much difference yet. Any ideas or suggestions much appreciated, thanks!
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Re: Foods to help with constipation

Post by zeta1454 »

A couple of suggestions:
We noticed with some of our dogs that there can be a bit too much bone in some of the prepared raw meals which can cause poo to be too dry and cause constipation. Depending which of the raw mixes you are using currently you could try adding one without bone such as "boneless beef" or raw green tripe (smelly but extra nutritious for dogs as a meal on its own once a week.) We don't currently feed Nutriment although have in the past but when we did we always used a mix that included tripe as this too will reduce the overall bone content.

Re the pumpkin - we use the tinned pumpkin ( usually available from supermarkets) which is unsweetened and as you would only need to add a teaspoonful to the food and may not need to use the whole tin to get things moving again, you can freeze the pumpkin purée in an ice cube tray and then it is there for a future time if needed.

Hope this helps :)
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Aine
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Re: Foods to help with constipation

Post by Aine »

Ah that's great Zeta, thanks for the suggestions will definitely try it out. Still figuring things out on the raw front!
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Re: Foods to help with constipation

Post by Morgana99 »

Hi there

I'm also a newbie to raw, so can't match Leigh's advice, which sounds excellent. Just to say, after various taste trials with our dogs, we went with Natures Menu Country Nuggets (complete), which contains a fair amount of moisture. Our dogs are diabetic, so we had to manage the transition very carefully & with the support of our vet & the one at Nature's Menu, but have been delighted with the results. I read once you switch to raw, it is not so tricky to switch to other raw products in the case you find Nutriment doesn't suit your dog once you have tried different combinations. Of course I'm not recommending you change at this early stage, but we tried out several brands before settling on this one and different types may suit different dogs ....

I hope you get it sorted, we've noticed such great results since switching I'm turning into something of an evangelist on the subject :D
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Eric, Bearded Collie, left us 2002, aged 15.5
Elsie (Vowchurch Belinda Black), Beardie, rescued 1988, left us 2000, aged 13.5
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Re: Foods to help with constipation

Post by Aine »

Thanks Morgana, I had a look at natures menu but wasn't sure about the grain content. The country nuggets version doesn't have any rice but the normal nuggets seem to have this included, and I wasn't sure if rice in a RAW diet was a good thing or not? I need to do some more reading up on the subject.

Milo seems to really like the RAW diet and our pup Luca takes great interest in cleaning his beard afterwards so I don't think we will have any issues getting him onto RAW as well, I just wanted to try one dog on it first to see how it went!
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Re: Foods to help with constipation

Post by Morgana99 »

Aine wrote:Thanks Morgana, I had a look at natures menu but wasn't sure about the grain content. The country nuggets version doesn't have any rice but the normal nuggets seem to have this included, and I wasn't sure if rice in a RAW diet was a good thing or not? I need to do some more reading up on the subject.

Milo seems to really like the RAW diet and our pup Luca takes great interest in cleaning his beard afterwards so I don't think we will have any issues getting him onto RAW as well, I just wanted to try one dog on it first to see how it went!
I think for 'normal' dogs without underlying health conditions, the grain content of some of the products is probably ok, but in our case my dogs are diabetic and we wanted to cut out grain altogether. Hence, for us, the Country Hunter range is the one we've gone for, with great results I must say :-bd If in doubt regarding your dog, I found the various companies were very helpful in answering questions if you contact them directly.

For us, it was very scary to take the plunge to switch and, as you say, there is so much information to digest (sorry!) and get your head round. This is another reason we've stuck to a complete, ready prepared range. I intend to introduce some raw treats in the near future, but once again, Nature's Menu make this easy as they have a variety in the range. I'm feeling a lot more relaxed about things now that we're nearly 2 months down the line. I read it does take about a month for your dog's digestive system to adjust to the different PH levels in the stomach, so I'm sure you'll get there.
Horace, Bearded Collie X, rescued 1984, left us 1993, aged 15 approx
Eric, Bearded Collie, left us 2002, aged 15.5
Elsie (Vowchurch Belinda Black), Beardie, rescued 1988, left us 2000, aged 13.5
Monty, Patterdale Terrier X, rescued 2003, left us 2012, aged 12 approx
Always in our hearts
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