# Poop color in relation to diet.



## kafkabeetle (Dec 4, 2009)

I always hate starting threads like this because it seems like needlessly obsessive to discuss my dog's poop when there isn't any major issue going on. :redface: But I'm curious about this so here goes.

On Taste of the Wild it always turned white overnight before I had a chance to pick it up in the morning. Now on Earthborn Primitive Natural she's going only once a day or less, it's slightly smaller (as expected) and they turn black overnight. I know the white poop is caused because of the calcium in the diet. But what causes black poop? (Not bleeding...this is normal-colored and turns black when it dries out.)


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## Losech (Apr 5, 2011)

White? My dog's poop doesn't turn white on Taste of the Wild. It's black. It's also black on Nature's Variety and Fromm Surf & Turf. It's brownish on Fromm Duck and Sweet Potato. It'll either disintegrate or turn white in something like three weeks, but I always pick it up that day so I hardly ever see that.

My dog's poop only turns white overnight when it's a bone-heavy raw meal, like one that consists of a lot of poultry bone with very little red meat. Raw meals with a lot of red meat are black. Lots of poultry are tan. All raw meal poops will turn white and crumble after about a week, but not right off the bat. Homecooked poops are usually light brown, but they will turn white in a week or so and crumble as well.


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## kafkabeetle (Dec 4, 2009)

Losech said:


> White? My dog's poop doesn't turn white on Taste of the Wild. It's black. It's also black on Nature's Variety and Fromm Surf & Turf. It's brownish on Fromm Duck and Sweet Potato. It'll either disintegrate or turn white in something like three weeks, but I always pick it up that day so I hardly ever see that.
> 
> My dog's poop only turns white overnight when it's a bone-heavy raw meal, like one that consists of a lot of poultry bone with very little red meat. Raw meals with a lot of red meat are black. Lots of poultry are tan. All raw meal poops will turn white and crumble after about a week, but not right off the bat. Homecooked poops are usually light brown, but they will turn white in a week or so and crumble as well.


Huh, guess that goes to show that dogs process things differently. I guess the black stools are a result of switching to a food with a bit more meat in it.


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## PackMomma (Sep 26, 2011)

Yeah same here too, with the white poop, my dogs poop is pure white when feeding raw boney chicken/turkey meals.. or boney rabbit. However, I notice that Thumpers stools do turn black occasionally, and I have no idea why lol...maybe after heavier red meat meals with less bone like elk, bison, beef, llama and perhaps even the fish? IDK

It seems with each protien or type of raw meal I feed, the stools are always different shape, size and color. Always very firm and pretty small, but some are smaller and lighter in color than others. I might have to conduct a poo experiment now..log meals and poops haha.. wow.

I still can't get over the size of their poop... You probably wouldn't believe it, but Thumper, whom is 50lbs and consumes about 16 oz of food per day, poops significantly less and about half the size of my Moms 4 lb Pomeranians... nuts.


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## Losech (Apr 5, 2011)

PackMomma said:


> I might have to conduct a poo experiment now..log meals and poops haha.. wow.


When I first switched Conker to raw foods, I did exactly that. Because he took a long time to adapt to the diet, and was having digestive problems both before and during the switch, so I kept a log of what he ate, and what it looked like when it came out, to figure out what his deal was. It was pretty interesting, once I get over the fact that I was basically writing a journal on dog crap. But that's one of the biggest reasons why I can take one look at a pile and know exactly what went wrong in the digestive process and how to fix it. I find it to be valuable information, since I otherwise wouldn't know what was wrong with my dog and if I should take him to the vet or not.


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## PackMomma (Sep 26, 2011)

Losech said:


> When I first switched Conker to raw foods, I did exactly that. Because he took a long time to adapt to the diet, and was having digestive problems both before and during the switch, so I kept a log of what he ate, and what it looked like when it came out, to figure out what his deal was. It was pretty interesting, once I get over the fact that I was basically writing a journal on dog crap. But that's one of the biggest reasons why I can take one look at a pile and know exactly what went wrong in the digestive process and how to fix it. I find it to be valuable information, since I otherwise wouldn't know what was wrong with my dog and if I should take him to the vet or not.


I totally agree, poopology is a great way to know what's going on with the dog and the diet and if its working or not. For the most part, the boys' stools always seem fine, they are different of course between different raw meals, but I believe that's because each raw meal is very different. The boney prey model meals come out different, and the less boney ground up raw meals come out different.. sometimes they're black, sometimes white, and sometimes a very light brown, but they never seem to have runny or really nasty stool anymore so I don't get too concerned.


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## InkedMarie (Mar 11, 2009)

Only on dog forums can you discuss poop color with a straight face!


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## Losech (Apr 5, 2011)

InkedMarie said:


> Only on dog forums can you discuss poop color with a straight face!


Heh, no. I was laughing the entire time I was writing my posts. XD


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## Sibe (Nov 21, 2010)

TOTW gave mine dark poo. My foster dog was on Bil-Jac (eeeew) and he had mushy yellow poo. He's now on Earthborn and they are dark poo now- and much less.

My dogs are raw fed. Chicken and turkey give them yellow/light brown poo. Pork, beef heart, moose, venison, elk, etc. all give them dark poo. Beef heart especially gives them nearly black poo.


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## odiesmom (May 31, 2007)

Losech said:


> Heh, no. I was laughing the entire time I was writing my posts. XD


Sorry I was chuckling at the term "poopology "


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## kafkabeetle (Dec 4, 2009)

InkedMarie said:


> Only on dog forums can you discuss poop color with a straight face!


I'm embarrassed that I even started a thread on the topic. ;p Although I can't take credit for the term poopology. xD

On a related note, when I was googling before I posted this, I discovered that the internet is just riddled with people asking "what happened" to the white dog poop they saw when they were kids. I'm assuming this has to do with a shift from homemade/raw diets to commercial diets over time, but I thought it was an oddly popular question, LOL


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## mashlee08 (Feb 24, 2012)

My dog had a very runny tummy when she was a puppy. Needless to say now she is an adult I still get excited when she does a nice pooh. How sad is that. She has been on earth born coastal catch and TOTW and both her poohs went black over night. They Are still real soft and huge. Hmm. No poohs are perfect I gues haha.


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## melaka (Mar 31, 2010)

Buffy's would turn white-ish but not pure white on TotW too. She's now on Annamaet Option and it turns black when left sitting. I took her off Merrick's Whole Earth Farms pretty quickly because it was coming out green, ew.


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## melundie (Aug 2, 2011)

We always pick our dog's poop up right away, so it never has a chance to turn any color. Both of mine eat TOTW. Ace's are always very dark and Colbys are slightly orange...but that's because she gets pumpkin with every meal.


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## lucidity (Nov 10, 2009)

melundie said:


> We always pick our dog's poop up right away, so it never has a chance to turn any color. Both of mine eat TOTW. Ace's are always very dark and Colbys are slightly orange...but that's because she gets pumpkin with every meal.


Same here; I pick poop up before it can change colour.. but if the dogs are on raw, their poop is very hard and light in colour--mostly yellowish-cream. When they're on kibble it's medium to dark brown and depending on what else they ate that day, either firm or a bit soft.

Poopology.. now THAT's a new word.. LOL


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

InkedMarie said:


> Only on dog forums can you discuss poop color with a straight face!


Not dog forums only. . .mommy forums, too!


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## PackMomma (Sep 26, 2011)

Well, its a rather fitting word don'tcha think? Afterall, we seem to be getting poop down to a science here... lol


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## Abbylynn (Jul 7, 2011)

Lol! ... And now that it has been mentioned ... what did happen to the poo that turned white 50 years ago? :/

Greenie consumption is alarming! XD


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## kafkabeetle (Dec 4, 2009)

Abbylynn said:


> Lol! ... And now that it has been mentioned ... what did happen to the poo that turned white 50 years ago? :/


If you give you're feeling nostalgic you should give your dogs some raw bones. Sure to turn their poops white like in the good 'ol days. ;p


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## Abbylynn (Jul 7, 2011)

kafkabeetle said:


> If you give you're feeling nostalgic you should give your dogs some raw bones. Sure to turn their poops white like in the good 'ol days. ;p



Lol! My thoughts exactly!


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## Abbylynn (Jul 7, 2011)

kafkabeetle said:


> If you give you're feeling nostalgic you should give your dogs some raw bones. Sure to turn their poops white like in the good 'ol days. ;p



Lol! My thoughts exactly!


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## InkedMarie (Mar 11, 2009)

Willowy said:


> Not dog forums only. . .mommy forums, too!


when my kids were young enough that I'd be discussing poop, the internet wasn't even around LOL


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