Do dogs poop less on kibble? A Comprehensive Guide

by

Your pet’s V.P.’s (Very Important Poops) say a lot about their diet and overall health condition.

Here’s a quick overview of what you may find in your pet’s poop when you feed them different natural, species-appropriate diets vs. typical processed pet foods. Feeding a high-quality, perfectly balanced raw diet will change the way you look at your pet’s poop forever!

If you’re already feeding raw to your dog or cat you’ve already probably paid attention to their poops and even discussed it with your family and other raw feeding friends.

If you’re like us you don’t miss big smooshy stinky poops one bit!

You may even be alarmed when you see cheap fed dogs ooze out these voluminous piles of smelly waste.

  • What Smell? Once your pet has transitioned your pet to a raw diet the poops will almost become odorless, small, and quite firm. Yes, you heard me correctly… that stinky smell will reduce significantly if not disappear altogether. Interestingly we found that flies are not nearly attracted to our dog’s firm, odorless poops in comparison to their stinky mounds of kibble poop our boys used to produce.
  • Smaller Size – It’s a HUGE benefit for pet parents and is really easy to pick up. Our dog’s stool output is less than half of the size it had been from feeding kibble and other typical pet food. Dogs will generally digest about 90-95% of any meat – so you won’t see much of it in the poop afterward! Clean up becomes easier and you don’t have to be embarrassed walking around with a messy, stinky bag of poop on your walks in public. If you feed raw and there is a size increase, it may be time to add probiotics or enzymes to help the digestion process.
  • Clean anal sacs – Diets that have natural sources of bone make the poops firmer which requires your pet to strain a bit harder to defecate. This is normal and even beneficial, as the harder stools help the dog express its anal glands, keeping it clean and reducing the likelihood of infection. If you notice your pet straining for too long, or they appear constipated, you may have to rethink the ratios of your raw ingredients. Furchild takes out all the guesswork because we have done the necessary research and all of our Meals for Dogs and Cats have been formulated by raw pet food experts.

    • Top 8 Best Dog Foods To Reduce Pooping

    We have picked out eight of the best dog foods for less poop. We also selected these products by looking for high protein, low residue foods, with good fats and no artificial coloring and preservatives. The below table gives a brief summary.

    List of the Best Dog Foods for Less Poop.

    Product Name Description Rating
    Hill’s Science Diet Dry Dog Food for Sensitive Stomach Chicken-based based meat with prebiotic fiber for gut health ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
    Nulo FS Adult Dog GF Salmon Salmon and lamb-based grain-free dog food ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
    WAG Dry Dog Food Salmon & Lentil Recipe High protein and DHA for growth ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
    Whole Earth Farms Grain-Free Recipe Dry Dog Food Meat-basedMeat based protein with antioxidants and good fatty acids ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
    The Honest Kitchen Human Grade Dehydrated Whole Grain Dog Food Human-grade ingredients, free of GMA ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

    Stella & Chewy’s Super Beef Dinner Patties Freeze-Dried

    If you have been looking to switch your dog to a raw diet, then there is nothing better than Stella and Chewy’s dog food. A raw diet is one of the best dog food for less poop. The freeze-dried patties are made using grass-fed beef and organic fruits and vegetables. This low residue dog food is high in protein, and the other ingredients are easily digestible.

    There are bad batches when the patties are too hard to break, and dogs will have trouble eating them. Also, a picky eater dog may refuse the patties immediately, which is a waste of money as the food is costly.

    Pros

  • Grass-fed beef and organic ingredients
  • Free of grains
  • Easily digestible, which makes your dog poop less
  • The freeze-drying technique helps preserve all the nutritional value of dog food

    • Cons

  • Bad batches of beef patties are hard to break
  • It is pricier than other dog food options

    • Does Kibble Make Dogs Poop More? | DogVela

    A new study suggests that feeding your pup fresh food fit for a person might have an added welcome effect: smaller poops. The findings suggest that a fresh human-grade diet is more easily digestible for dogs than standard diets made of dry processed food, and it may also satisfy a dog’s appetite with fewer calories per meal.Watch

    Kelly Swanson, a nutrition scientist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, has been studying dog and cat nutrition for about two decades. More recently, he and his team have been looking into pet diets primarily based on fresh and minimally processed meats and other foods. Sometimes, these diets are composed of USDA-certified ingredients made for human consumption, which are called human-grade diets when given to pets.

    Though pet food companies are moving into developing commercial “human-grade” pet food, the term has no official meaning and there’s little evidence as to whether these diets are healthy for pets to consume. Not everything people can eat is necessarily good for pets to eat, and pets can have different nutritional needs than their owners. But Swanson’s latest study, published in the Journal of Animal Science last late month, suggests that fresh and human-grade diets are still capable of providing dogs enough nutrition and may possibly be even better than other types of diet.Advertisement

    They enlisted the aid of 12 dogs for their experiments. These dogs were carefully observed over a period of several months as they each tried one of four different diets. One diet was made of dry kibble; another was made of minimally processed fresh food (mostly chicken); and two were made of human-grade ingredients (chicken and beef respectively, along with some vegetables and carbs like rice or potatoes). All the products were commercially available.

    By the end, the team found that the dogs had the largest poops when eating dry food and the smallest when eating human-grade food (fresh-food poops were also smaller than dry food). The main reason for this smaller fecal paw print is likely because these diets are filled with ingredients that are largely digested by the dogs, with less going to waste. Earlier research of theirs, giving human-grade food to roosters, had shown a similar effect on digestion. G/O Media may get a commission

    Its a camera. For your car. The Ring Car Cams dual-facing HD cameras capture activity in and around your car in HD detail. Advertisement

    “Of all the diet formats we tested over the years, these human-grade foods have been the most digestible,” Swanson said in an email to Gizmodo. “Over 90% of what was consumed was digested and absorbed.”

    Dogs also ate more when given dry food as opposed to the other types. It’s possible that fresh foods might satiate a dog’s hunger more than a processed diet would—an effect that’s been seen in people as well. The human-grade diets also seemed to change the makeup of the dogs’ gut microbiome, the community of bacteria that live inside animals like humans and dogs. These microbiomes are thought to be important for maintaining g ood overall health.Advertisement

    A U.S. government-led trial may confirm the worst fears of anyone whose diet starts and ends in the

    Though these findings are certainly intriguing and may point to the added benefits of fresh and human-grade diets, Swanson isn’t looking to scare any owners whose dogs seem to be perfectly fine eating kibble. Advertisement

    “Because most of the existing commercial foods on the market are of high quality and our pets are living longer, healthier lives than in the past, I don’t want to send out an alarm and suggest that everybody needs to change their pet’s diet immediately,” he said. “I do think it is worthwhile, however, to continue testing the various diet formats to determine whether or not they may impact long-term health.”

    He notes that there are many factors in selecting a good diet for our dogs, and all diets will have their advantages and disadvantages, such as cost and nutritional balance. Ultimately, owners should carefully vet any diet they decide to give their dogs, including from companies that purport to sell human-grade pet food. Advertisement

    “For dog owners that are happy with their current food and the animal is healthy, there may not be a reason to change,” he said. “However, for those that are not happy with their current diet, I think fresh human-grade dog food is something to consider. This diet type is not cheap, but provides many potential benefits for the pet and owner.”

    Swanson and his team plan to continue to study how these various diets affect a dog’s digestion, microbiomes, and other health outcomes.