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Why does my dog have diarrhea after switching to high protein adult food?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | German Shepherd | Male | unneutered | 1 year and 1 month old | 59 lbs

My boy has diarrhea for three weeks now. Took him to the vet they told me to give bland diet and gave him matricidal so did that and he still had diarrhea. So took him back to vet and they did x rays and blood work and checked for fever all came back normal he was a little deyhrated but not bad. The only thing that changed is we took him off puppy food merrick puppy food grain free chicken and gave him merrick grain free adult food chicken. Puppy food only 21% protein adult food 38% .

1 Answer

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Answered By Dr. Melanie, BVSc MS

Veterinarian

Published on April 23rd, 2018

That is quite a high protein content for food, the recommended percent of protein in an adult dog's diet is 18-25%. It may be the switch in food to this higher protein could be the cause of his diarrhea. Since you have seen the vet and everything has come back normal, you might want to consider putting him on a diet with less protein. Sometimes certain brands of food do not agree with a dog's system, so you can look into a different brand. Brands I recommend include Royal Canin, Hill's Science Diet, Purina ProPlan, and Iams. I personally do not recommend grain free diets unless the dog has a diagnosed grain allergy, which is actually very rare. In dogs who suffer from allergies, only 10% have food allergies, and the majority of those are protein related. Grains really are beneficial to dogs, providing a lasting source of energy and fiber. In addition, recent studies have show that diets who use lentils instead of grains negatively affects the dog's absorption of taurine. This has lead to taurine deficient dilated cardiomyopathy later in life. If you really want to stay with grain free food, maybe try one with a different source of protein because chicken is the most common protein allergy. Best of luck, I hope this helps!

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