I'm currently on Nature's Variety Prairie Large Breed Puppy. I don't think it's working for him. He's healthy but his poops smell far more than they should and I don't think they're hard enough. I heard some people on another forum say they don't even feed puppy formula because it's unnecessary. I was thinking of doing Tastes of the Wild or California Natural Lamb formula. I also feed green tripe and a salmon oil supplement.

My gut is telling me that I should switch. I can't afford to feed raw right now and I usually give him the occasional topper anyway (raw egg, a little bit of chicken breast when I make chicken for dinner, etc). I also don't think his coat is doing as well as it could. It feels dry.

Should I try looking for another LBP formula or should I just jump the gun and feed him an all age formula?

I'm feeding Kaos California Natural Chicken and Rice when the Nature's Logic that I intended to feed her wasn't agreeing with her. She's 15 weeks.

It's working very well for her

While I don't feed "puppy food", I would ONLY feed a puppy one of the puppy formulas of Taste of the Wild. The other formulas have to much calcium. (Which is typical of grain free kibbles.)

How old is your guy? I would not feed lamb until over 12 months, unless he has a food allergy or intolerance. If you can stick with chicken or beef right now, that would be great. Puppies need a certain amount of protein and calcium in their diet. Feed puppy food until about 6 months of age and then the standard rule of thumb for large breed dogs is change to adult or all life stages food after that.

Make sure it isn't the tripe that's making his stool smell. Tripe smells !!!!

I second Barb's suggestion of the CN c&r.

Tripe is highly digestible so that shouldn't be the source of the smell. When you say it smells more than it should, what exactly do you mean?

You might try adding a good probiotic and some digestive enzymes before switching foods and see if that helps.

Some dogs do well with a lot of protein in kibble, others do not. Fat content can also cause problems for some dogs.

You can also try adding a tablespoon of plained canned pumpkin to his food.

Over feeding is the main cause of poop that is too soft.

How much is he eating? Have you tried cutting back on the amount you feed him?

The California Natural Lamb and Rice puppy is HIGH in calcium.

The L&R puppy is 2.21%. The Chicken and Rice Puppy is only 1.36%.

Personally, I wouldn't feed ANY of the California Natural Lamb and Rice formulas to a puppy. And that INCLUDES the adult formulas which are also high in calcium.

TOTW just recently added puppy formulas which I will probably try whenever I get a new puppy in the next year or so.

You do want to watch the amount of calcium and some adult foods can have too much.

I would second that you may be over feeding a bit causing lose stool. If you are not overfeeding would look at adding a bit of pumpkin. It is good for him, he will like it and it will act to both firm up softer poop and soften too from poops. It is great source of fiber and antioxidants. Pumpkin rocks I feed it several times a week to my dogs. I open a can and use a tablespoon to drop globs of it on cookie sheet and then put the cookie sheet in the freezer for an hour or so to freeze the pumpkin. Then I put it in a ziploc bag in the freezer until I want to use it.

And poop stinks....

I agree feeding pumpkin is good for them and most dogs like it.
HOWEVER I personally feel that if you HAVE to feed it to have the pup/dogs stools be firm enough, (either to firm it up, or loosen it up if constipation is an issue.) It is time to switch food.

Even though I haven't fed puppy food for a long time, (thru several puppies off different breeds.)
I may give one of t he TOTW puppy formulas a try for my next puppy since I feed TOTW to Siren but won't fed the "regular" formulas to a puppy.