Why is my dog's digestion slower and stools worse on new food?
Updated On September 23rd, 2025
I noticed when my dog was on natural balance it took her about 2-3 hours to digest her food. (Have a bowel movement) On Orijen it takes her over 5 hours to digest her food. Does that mean natural balance its easier for her to process? On natural balance she would have a bowel movement 2-3 times per day. On Orijen she only goes twice sometimes. she also seemed to have better stools on natural balance. On other foods her stools are not as firm and they are sometimes lighter colored, like tanish.
2 Answers
Most Helpful Answer
Published on February 14th, 2017
Lower stool volume may also indicate that the food is more nutrient dense and more digestible. If there is a difference between the amounts fed between the two foods, this could be a contributing factor as well.
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful
Related Answers from Veterinarians
-
Published on May 4th, 2018
Thank you for submitting your question regarding Orcan. Producing less stool can be a sign of a higher quality dog food or that this particular diet suits him better. If a dog produces large amounts of stool, it means the food is passing through without the dog absorbing many of the nutrients. Keep in mind that each dog food brand and formula will contain a different amount of calories per cup. So double check the recommended feeding amount of the new diet because it could actually be different from that of your previous diet. I hope this information helps!
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful
Hi I just completely switched my dogs food to royal canine for german sheperd Bree’s and I’m realizing his stool is much less than the other food. I’m giving him the same amount as the last food. My dog is 80 pounds.. is that common or something I sh
I recently switch my dogs food. I switch from blue buffalo to nutro dog food. After feeding him nutro he been pooping like crazy. Why is that? When i mean pooping when i wake up in the morning there will be several piles of poop on is pee pad. And he
I'm in the process of switching my dog over to the honest kitchen dehydrated dog food. So far she is doing fine but I've read some reviews that said their dog was having more frequent bowel movements and that the stool was larger with bits of undiges
I adopted my dog on Friday, I am in the process of transitioning his food. I have noticed that since Friday his poop has changed color and is softer. Could this be due to the food change and treats?
I fed my dog science diet digestive care i/d canned stew twice and her stool looked the same as it normally does on Natural balance l.i.d. kibble. (Same color and form) does this mean her old food was still in her system? I'm trying to see if this fo
Is natural balance dry and canned food a good brand without a lot of fillers? Would this brand cause larger stools because of the potatoes? When I gave the dry food it was fine but when I gave the canned her stool seemed slightly bigger. Is this ok?
My Shih Tzu Romeo had HGE two weeks ago with diarrhea. He usually poops twice a day but been on low fat GI food by Royal Canin for past two weeks. He only has been pooping once a day since being on this diet. He hasn’t pooped this morning (today) lik
My dog is on a food that's 32% protein and I noticed since I put her on it she's pooping more than she did on her previous food which was 20% protein. She's not active at all so should I put her back on her previous food? She only weighs 17 pounds an
I wanted to give my dog 1/2 fresh cooked frozen dog food but her stools are not as good when I do that. She has better stools on just plain kibble. What should I do? The one on the right is when she was just fed kibble. The frozen dog food is 40% pr
We recently started our dog on the purina 28 day challenge and we noticed that he isn’t pooping as much as he used to should we be concerned
Book an appointment with the pros – our expert vets are here to help.
