Sorry to hear about Woody Pidge - it's a really interesting thread though. I never realised Dentastix were cr*p! I give Tilly one every day in the morning and a carrot in the afternoon an hour after dinner - I'm sure I read somehwere that giving a carrot an hour after a meal helps them digest their food - I've been giving Tilly carrot since she was about 4 months. I think I'll be ditching the dentastix after reading this though!

Re. Dentastix.....I know they aren't the best treats in the world, and it depends on the dog, but every couple of days mine get a half a medium one each in the evening. Apart from these, they are fed a very healthy diet and are both fit, healthy and happy dogs with no health issues.

Seems to do them no harm, they've never had digestive problems purely because of them. They enjoy them and they get other things to clean their teeth also.

Dentastix are the only "rubbishy" treat they get, the other treats are Burns, fish4dogs, Burns, JWB and AG etc.

tuna bread recipe

Quick as a flash Tuna Bread

* 1 tin of tuna in oil (if you have brine, drain it and add some oil or water to the mix)
* 80g plain flour
* 1 egg
* sprinkle of garlic powder

Put the tuna, garlic powder and egg in a bowl, mix with a spoon. Then add the flour gradually until it all binds together (add less or more flour as you need).

Pour onto a microwaveable plate and put in the microwave for 4 minutes, turn onto a wire rack to cool and cut into small training sized cubes.

Willow says - this stuff is yummy and is great because if mummy has forgotten to get us some training treats, or has nothing in the freezer then she can make this half an hour before training or a walk and its ready to go. I love this stuff and mummy says it is good for us because it has fish which is good for our brains, I reckon she should feed Paddy alot more of this because he isn't as clever as me. We love playing "find it" with this, mummy throws some onto the grass and we have to use our noses to look for it, its easy as this stuff smells great.

That sounds good, might try it myself. Thanks for sharing it. How moist does it come out in the end?

sounds nice with a dip....forget the dogs,im gonna have it,they eat better than me anyway.lol.
(sorry,couldnt resist )

Oh crikey! I will never forget the time a friend of ours brought some of those Dentastix for Bongo. We've always been really strict with what she gets to eat, but we thought that once wouldn't matter...

Later that day I was cleaning poo off EVERYTHING! I'm not kidding, she was squirting it horizontally at the walls. Every time she farted (which was very often), poo shot about a foot behind her, and she didn't know what was going on. Bless her, she was running away from her own bum (and who could blame her!) I was actually really worried about her, and all we could do was give her rehydration solution and wait for it to pass.

Goodness, my two must have cast iron stomachs then, as their poos are 99.9% perfection every day, even with a Dentastix. (Touch wood!).

You're hilarious!! Thanks for the recipe but we don't have a microwave ;o( Any ideas on the oven version?

LMAO, poor Bongo. Certainly proves a point.

Will be sure to report back our progress and thank you all once again for your invaluable advice. Especially you Hali.

my Bonnie used to be a frequent pooer, 6x a day
she has always been fed 2x a day and when we first got her she was on AG. i changed her to JWB, still the same results.
she also had the itchies and when i looked into what the food contained 'Maize' was high in both.

i then changed her to wainwrights salmon and rice, it stopped the itchies but she still poo'd for England.

so last resort RAW, the same as Hector. ok, i did super size for a bit and suffered for it, cow pats smelling of tripe...YUK!

she now has less and i've never looked back. perfect poo's 2x a day, as my vet said it should be.

neither of mine suffer whippy poo's at all now no matter what treats i give them they tolerate it all.
Oh and they are both wheat free as they dont need this in their diets. dogs cant digest it.

Hector had a digestive problem which has now been resolved, and my vet and me are convinced it has helped feeding raw.

Thats my conclusions.

less premium dog foods are bulked out with cheap fillers that are cereal/cereal related and hold no food value to them,hence the more frequent and/or loose stools.it is meant to make you think it is costing you less but ,is a false economy because your dog is pooing the rubbish fillers out and have to eat double the amount to get the food value from it.,which in itself can lead to loose stools.