Gun Dog Forum

For those of you feeding Diamond or Diamond Naturals, which formula do you like?

Extreme athlete

Diamond Premium

Ezzy

Recently switched from Premium to Hi Energy with pretty good results. We have a soft Stool issue with a few of them.

Premium.

I just switched. Chicken & Rice for my elderly or non competitive dogs. Extreem Athlete for the two field trialers.

I am noticing it takes less EA then Proplan Performance to keep weight on.

I haven't tried any of the naturals line yet. Cash does well on the premium. He had loose stools with the Hi-energy.

I like the Diamond Naturals Extreme Athlete but there are some issues to watch for. I made a gradual switch to DNEA from Iams because I was having trouble keeping weight on my male GSP. It put weight on him but it also gave him very loose stool. I have since switched to one part Diamond and two parts Iams. I am thinking about trying half and half since everthing seems to be back to normal.

The fact it put weight back on your dog means it was a richer food. The stools naturally loosen up because of the richness. All you needed to do is cut back a little on the amount fed and then many times after a short period you can increase the feed slightly.

You can't have increased performance like you experienced without having looser stools. Its just an indication you need to cut back the amount a little.

Ezzy

Diamond Naturals Chicken and Rice. The extreme stuff is too rich of a food to use everyday.

ezzy333 wrote:The fact it put weight back on your dog means it was a richer food. The stools naturally loosen up because of the richness. All you needed to do is cut back a little on the amount fed and then many times after a short period you can increase the feed slightly.

You can't have increased performance like you experienced without having looser stools. Its just an indication you need to cut back the amount a little.

Ezzy

My experience with such "hot food" theory has differed significantly: with some feeds being cut back to the point the dogs were losing weight without much impact on stool consistency, while other feeds offered clear nutritional gains and smaller, firmer stools. Haven't tried Diamond "Naturals," but their 30/20 under both "premium" and "professional" lables and their "large breed puppy formulas" are examples of those that were dissapointing. (Given much more chance than I should have due to ready availability and price. Very much wanted them to be in a class with more expensive and/or more difficult to get feeds we've had much better luck with.)

Do those that feed the premium have stool issues? Last time I had dogs on it it seemed like they were spending the first half hour having numerous stools. Just curious, am thinking about switching back to a diamond brand, just not sure which one you guys would deem best for dogs getting worked week in and week out while keeping em looking healthy and not having excessive crapping issues.

Diamond Premium here, but I haven't tried the other Diamond formulas. Stool is not loose, but it is larger IMO. Dog maintains weight well and coat is great. However taste-wise--she'd rather eat my other dog's cheaper grocery store brand. Some gas, but not killer--and my other dog contributes to that as well. :roll: Denise

None of us want to see our dogs with the runs but I am not sure what the issue is with soft and larger stools. If your dogs coat is good, maintains its energy and weight and generaly appears in good condition as verified by your vet........what's issue?

ive been feeding dimond naturals lamb and rice to my dogs for almost a year now and im very happy with it the dogs look great running out of energy hasnt been an issue they can go all day.

None of us want to see our dogs with the runs but I am not sure what the issue is with soft and larger stools. If your dogs coat is good, maintains its energy and weight and generaly appears in good condition as verified by your vet........what's issue?

Not sure about others, but my main issue last time I tried it was that it seemed like they had to stop and crap about 5 times in a half hour, none were nearly as tight of stools as I get with pro plan, in which they are one and done, however its getting expensive. Its more crap to clean up in the kennel, and when I am hunting, I get annoyed when I see my dog stopping every 5 minutes to take a crap. When I watch dogs in a competition, and this happens over the course of a half hour, it clearly would take away from the mission at task. Not saying its not ok to take care of there business, but it drove me insane, to the point I quit using it. That was with the premium, was curious about the other recipes.

We tried switching to Diamond from PP, and after two bags, the dogs still had at best soft poo, at worst the squirts. so, we're back to PP.

That 40 bucks a bag is killing me!

Just goes to show every dog's digestive system is different. I have been nothing but pleased with Diamond Premium formula.

nj gsp wrote:We tried switching to Diamond from PP, and after two bags, the dogs still had at best soft poo, at worst the squirts. so, we're back to PP.

That 40 bucks a bag is killing me!

FWIW, until recently, we swapped back and forth between PP and Sam's Exceed without a hitch. After PP went up and I had an incident with an old bag from where I get the PP, I've gone to 100% Exceed. If it's available, you might give it a try. I'm paying $24 for 44 pounds.

Due to the economy and all I've switched my older less active GSP and lab to Diamond Premium again. I do not like it as much as the Native but it's about $7 less (and a 50lb bag not 40lb) and they do fine on it. Neither one needs the high calories anyway. The other guys are on Native level 3 and doing well on it, with level 4 added in during high hunting times and very cold weather.

nj gsp wrote:We tried switching to Diamond from PP, and after two bags, the dogs still had at best soft poo, at worst the squirts. so, we're back to PP.

That 40 bucks a bag is killing me!

This will always happen if the new feed is richer. Will bet if you cut back on the amount you are feeding it will solve your problem.

Ezzy

ezzy333 wrote:

nj gsp wrote:We tried switching to Diamond from PP, and after two bags, the dogs still had at best soft poo, at worst the squirts. so, we're back to PP.

That 40 bucks a bag is killing me!

This will always happen if the new feed is richer. Will bet if you cut back on the amount you are feeding it will solve your problem.

Ezzy

That, or it will result in emaciated dogs, as it did for me...

I'd give Exceed a shot.

I feed premium, tried the maintenance and Hi energy and got loose stools with my young dog.

I tried a couple different formulas of Diamond. Naturals Chicken and Rice and Performance. Stools were anything but acceptable. On either food. He is on a pretty "rich food" now and his stools are fine. What works for one might not for another i guess. The food was good in the aspects of coat, weight, and energy. They stooled often and sloppy. So ultimately i could not stay on the food. Price was right though at 23/40#bag. Compared to 41/30#bag. Although it lasts the same amount of time.

I tried cutting him back on feed. Down to half his normal amount and if it would have been a time where he was running a lot (Dead of summer.) i would have had problems. I had no luck.

I have been on Naturals Lamb and Rice(22%13%) for about three years and have been very happy; medium size firm stool and was about $23 for 40#. I now have an eight month pup and so I put them both on Naturals Chix and Rice(26% 16%) for last 5 months and also happy with it. I now feed the 5 y/o only 2 cups a day and the pup get 3.5 cups a day. Have had great luck keeping weight on the mom and the pup is skinny, but happy with small stool sometimes a little soft, but she is also part billy goat and eats from the compost bin when she can get away with it. When I hunt the mom hard I just switched to Naturals large Breed Lamb and Rice which is like 28%18% in the past and that worked out real well. Easy to get at TSC and other local vendors. JM 2 cents

I fed Diamond for years before they had the problem. When this happened I switched to a dog food made in Kentucky called Pride and I have had great results with it. They have a performance dog food that I feed to the dogs that are competing and it has chicken and rice.

I just switched the home, non-performance dogs over to Diamond Adult Maintenance from Purina ONE chicken & rice last month. I'm finding I can feed less of the Diamond than the Purina ONE and keep weight on them. Everyone transitioned over just fine, no loose stool. For half the price of the Purina ONE, I'm sold.

I feed Diamond Performance. Fed the premium for just shy of a year but couldn't keep any weight on my dog. Now he eats 4 cups a day of the performance and does fine. Soft stools for about two weeks after switching, but no problems since then. And, its pretty affordable compared to some of the other brands out there (roughly $25 for 40lb bag).

I have 3 dogs on Diamond. The 2 house dogs eat the maintenance. My 12 week old GSP eats the puppy. I will be switching her over to the perfomance or the natural extreme athlete. I swithced the house dogs when I brought home the puppy and they all are doing well. The puppy is growing like a weed.

AZ Brittany Guy wrote:None of us want to see our dogs with the runs but I am not sure what the issue is with soft and larger stools. If your dogs coat is good, maintains its energy and weight and generaly appears in good condition as verified by your vet........what's issue?

The amount of stool was somewhat ridiculous, and cleaning up puddles when he gets riled up isn't my thing... Not to mention the 40lb bag lasted less than the 30lb bag of feed hes on now

I guess it would depend whether your cleaning up soft piles, or soupy puddles as Justin is describing. I would probably change feed also if that were the case.