Help - 4 month old cocker constantly hungry and runny poo

Carazmaline

New Member
Hi, I am looking for some help and advice please, I have a 4 month old cocker, we got him 6 weeks ago and life has been a bit mental (he has had to have 2 sleepovers at my sisters in the 6 weeks we have had him) the first time he had to stay with my sister was a week and a half after we get him for 2 nights, when we got him home he started seeing in the house a lot more than he did before he went away, which I put down to change in routin and within 2 days was mostly going to the toilet outside again, then again he went to my sisters for 3 nights 6th, 7th and 8th and since coming back he is again going to the toilet a lot in the house which I am hoping is again change in routine and we are putting a dog flap in with a fenced area to make it easier for him to go out when he needs to, he doesn’t mess in his crate.
My main concerns are that his pop is mostly runny ( he will occasionally have a solid ish poo but this is not very often) and he is looking for food a lot.
When we got him he was in bakers, we went to pets at home and were advised wainrights chicken and rice puppy food so changed his diet to this, he has a few of these as a treat when training, so no other treats to upset his tummy, no tit bits etc. He has 3 meals a day of 60g a time as advised but by 6pm he is back and forth looking for food, then again around 9pm - is this normal? He is active happy playful and as I would expect him to be in hisself, he has had all jabs prior to us getting him and had a check up at the vets a few days later that were happy with him, his coat is soft and fluffy, no itchy patches etc, any advice would be greatly appreciated - sorrrry for the essey
Caroline
 
Has your puppy seen the vet? I’m not sure about the feedings first because I ha e had a puppy in a long time and second because I’m in the US and we don’t use metric. (I see that 60 grams is about 1/2c). I do think you should talk to your vet about how much and how often to feed your puppy.
 
When Callie was 4 months, I think I was feeding her about 1/2 cup 3x a day, not sure how many grams that is. And at times she would act hungry. There's a thin line to walk between giving them too much so they get fat, and not enough so they're hungry. You may have to do some trial and error to figure it out. I eventually upped her feed to 2/3 cup 3x a day.

She's now almost 6 months and is not eating as much. I can't find now where I read it, but they will start eating less at about this age. In fact, looking at the feeding amount on the package shows that.

She also had some softer and runnier poop at about that age, but it wasn't diarrhea. It cleared up on its own, otherwise, I would have been taking her to the vet. You might want to have the vet run a fecal, and if that doesn't show anything, I'd take the pup to the vet.
 
Hi Carazmaline. We're from the USA so please help us out when it comes to vocabulary. I think you mentioned name brands for us but we don't recognize them. I see your pet had potty training setbacks after visiting your sister. The good news is he returned to his normal routine. Please expect these setbacks to happen and prepare for them. It's almost like potty training them from scratch. Do this for the first few days until you feel confident his normal routine has returned: Re-housetraining Your Dog - Dumb Friends League

Your cocker may have a food intolerance like mine. I changed to a raw diet with bone and noticed dramatic results. My cocker's stools were soft and mushy with name brand food. Now they're like hard round pellets. Cleaning up the back yard is much easier.

When we got him he was in bakers
I don't know what this means.
 
Hi Carazmaline. We're from the USA so please help us out when it comes to vocabulary. I think you mentioned name brands for us but we don't recognize them. I see your pet had potty training setbacks after visiting your sister. The good news is he returned to his normal routine. Please expect these setbacks to happen and prepare for them. It's almost like potty training them from scratch. Do this for the first few days until you feel confident his normal routine has returned: Re-housetraining Your Dog - Dumb Friends League

Your cocker may have a food intolerance like mine. I changed to a raw diet with bone and noticed dramatic results. My cocker's stools were soft and mushy with name brand food. Now they're like hard round pellets. Cleaning up the back yard is much easier.


I don't know what this means.
Sorry I meant he was on the food brand bakers which is not very nutritional when we got him, I was advised wainwrights pet food for his brews (Wainwright's Puppy Complete Dry Food with Turkey and Rice 15kg | Pets At Home) which I then transferred him onto. This morning he was not as runny again so hopefully things might improve - if not I will take him back to the vet, Thank you so much for your help and advice, we only had 1 accident last night which is fantastic and with no other trips coming up to disturb his routine hopefully everything will start coming together 😁
 
When Callie was 4 months, I think I was feeding her about 1/2 cup 3x a day, not sure how many grams that is. And at times she would act hungry. There's a thin line to walk between giving them too much so they get fat, and not enough so they're hungry. You may have to do some trial and error to figure it out. I eventually upped her feed to 2/3 cup 3x a day.

She's now almost 6 months and is not eating as much. I can't find now where I read it, but they will start eating less at about this age. In fact, looking at the feeding amount on the package shows that.

She also had some softer and runnier poop at about that age, but it wasn't diarrhea. It cleared up on its own, otherwise, I would have been taking her to the vet. You might want to have the vet run a fecal, and if that doesn't show anything, I'd take the pup to the vet.
Hi dizzy, thanks for your reply you have put my mind at rest! It is about half a cup 3 x a day which is what I was told to feed him, he is not runny all the time - but it is runny more often than not at the moment (although this mornings wasn’t and was nice and easy to clean up!) so I am hoping it is just his age as he was doing ok on the wainwrights food when I first put him in it - he has also had a bit of a growth spurt so am thinking maybe this could also have something to do with it, thank you so much for your advise, I will certainly keep an eye on him and if it doesn’t improve I will take him back to the vets x
 
My pup is four months old too. He's on Skinner's Field and Trial dry Puppy food with a spoonful of Butcher's Select mixed in to give it flavour. I give him two handfuls at breakfast and lunch time and three handfuls at tea (5pm), and that's his last meal of the day. I give him little tidbits of biscuits etc but not too much. His stools are generally solid but with the odd runny poo. It's not unusual for pups to get runny tummy from time to time and assuming he's healthy it's more likely a sign of overfeeding than underfeeding. If he's gaining weight and energetic it's probably not anything to worry about. Has he been wormed? Not all dog foods agree with all dogs, so you might be wise to look around for an alternative. For a while I had my cavalier on Hills Prescription food which is specifically designed for upset stomachs. I think they do a puppy food too, so that might be worth a try.
 
Hi everyone - thank you all so much for your help - George is doing fantastically now! Only the odd runny poo and mostly toileting outside! Although if I leave his crate open in the evening he now tends to go in and wee on his bed? But he is getting there!!! Thank you all again for your help x
 
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