Dog body odor

[Sheltiemama]

This is just an observation on my part. I have no scientific basis to back it up.

I have four dogs in my house. Two are fosters and two are mine. I feed the foster dogs kibble (Innova) which is a premium grade of food. My two are fed home cooking. I'll list the staples in the home cooked dog food, but I think you all know what they are:
Oatmeal
Green Beans
Cauliflower
Apples
Eggs
I vary the meat between chicken breast, canned salmon and ground chuck depending on what I have available when I need to cook. Mostly they eat chicken breast.

All of the dogs in my house are clean. They have been bathed within the last month and their teeth are brushed three times a week.

Over these past two or three weeks I can detect a definate body odor from the two dogs that are fed the kibble diet. Mine don't have an odor not even the popcorn feet smell until four to six weeks after their bath. But Sasha and Buddy are definately emitting an odor from their bodies.

I'm just wondering if anyone else has ever noticed a difference in their dog's smell when they are on kibble or when you change kibble.

Judy

[britishbandit]

I can't really say I've ever noticed a difference no matter what I feed my dogs. Then again, I've heard before that Rotties are one of the more odorless breeds, no idea why, but from my experiences, it seems to be true.

Or maybe I'm just used to their smell. LOL Still, whatever smell they do have hasn't changed, at least not that I've noticed. But I also never feed either only raw or kibble for any extended period of time. If they get raw, it's at night, and their morning feed is kibble again. And I've never noticed it switching brands of kibble either.

But it is an interesting question, and I'm sure it does happen, that depending on what you feed, the doggie odor is different.

I have however noticed that the actual smell of my dogs feces is different depending on the food. Premium kibble and raw(while not odorless), are very mild. But when I had Tysa on IAMS and Eukaneuba (prior to learning they were junk years ago), her poop smelled terrible.

[StephanieandTeddy]

There is definitely a connection between "cheap" commercial pet food and pet odour!
However, you are feeding "Innova" which is good stuff, so there should be very little odour...You have me stumped!

[Rivsky]

River has never smelt too doggy but now that I think about it he can go much longer between baths now that he's on raw without starting to get any odour at all (bar of course rolling in stuff!!) so there must be some truth in it.

[dogs4life]

I've noticed a huge difference in Hank too. I just switched him from EVO with raw snacks to raw and cooked foods. He really did not have a doggy odor but he did have an odor, then when I switched foods he smelled like corn chips for a couple weeks. Now he has no real odor. I'm loving it!

Couple more things I noticed is his breath is really nice, his coat is super soft and his urine is not as colored or smelly. Since we are having a problem of marking in the house lately it's easy for me to monitor

About your fosters, do they smell worse the first couple weeks, I wonder if they are "detoxing" at your house after you feed a higher quality kibble. When people go through "detox" they stink, especially their sweat, urine and breath.

[calgal]

I had a little dog one time that was just plain "stinky" and I've always fed real food. It was determined that it was a bacteria and I was given medicated shampoo. That didn't work either so we went on to try many things and nothing worked. I think sometimes it's just the dogs personal body odor, but with your two fosters that doesn't make any sense. If they are both eating Innova, maybe there is an ingredient that is causing the problem. I suppose the only way of finding out if it's the Innova is to take them off of it and feed real food for a couple of weeks or longer. May be worth it anyway so you can let the adoptive parents know about it.

[Sheltiemama]

That could be it. The detoxification of the nasties out of their bodies from that crappy dog food they were eating. I've had Sasha for one week and she's on a graduated diet of kibble, pumpkin and green beans. So is Buddy they are both very obese.....

[dogs4life]

I totally forgot....what type of smell is it? Is is sweet, musty, doggy, cat urine-ish (I've heard runners will smell like cat urine when they have nutritional imbalances or liver problems),...?

Calgal brought up a great point, maybe there is a bacterial connection.

If they are both on a weight loss diet, you might be smelling the old fat being metabolized too. Since there is so much change in their diet, you might be smelling a lot of things at once. It might be the old fat being burned, toxins released from the lymph system and liver, disease, kibble, yeast overgrowth, bacteria overgrowth....

Do they have swollen lymph nodes or fever? Some common side effects of yeast die-off and detox is irritability, swollen lymph nodes and fever. I know when I went through a yeast die-off, I had horrible headaches, smelled musty and was super irritable for about a week. Might be worth monitoring for....

Medical doctors used to be trained in smells and their associated diseases, it was a long time ago, but body odor is a true indication of health, just ask any surgeon and they will tell how healthy bodies smell much better than unhealthy bodies.

Anyways, I'm so happy they are getting healthier and great food.

[Ritz459]

All three of my dogs are fed the same food (Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul - senior and adult brand) and they don't smell to me. lol Blackie and Rose have more of a "doggy" odor to them because they are outside most of the time (finally have them sleeping inside now! After nine years....see, parents do wear down over time) and their breath really stinks. It probably wouldn't hurt for both of them to be put under and get their teeth cleaned, but the expense of that coupled with no underlaying problem other than stinky breath...it just isn't going to happen.
Chloe, because her breath is fairly non stinky and she spends most of her time indoors, has no odor except for a faint baby powder smell from her last bath.

I've found that most dogs that have an odor, it is normally their ears that are the cause of it. Even just some slight wax buildup in a droopy ear can cause some nasty stenches. Blackie's had some severe wax buildup and even though now it is almost all clear his ears still stink (they aren't infected, though, so don't worry about that).

[TinyAlbinoDancer]

I agree with Dogs4Life, and also with Ritz about the ears (ear odor is distinctive, though, it doesn't smell like any "doggie smell"). Ollie smelled like corn chips when I got him (he was fed grocery store kibble), and I so wish he could still smell like that. lol It was like eating tortilla chips every time you kissed his little head. Trixie just smelt bad 'cause she was on Science Diet and kept outdoors/in a garage. None of my dogs have a doggie smell anymore (they're all on kibble) unless they've gone a couple months without a bath or are dirty from laying outside sunning. Ollie's breath is horrible, and unfortunately I think he got some bad genes in that area or something because he's only 2 and has bad tartar already (which we're working on). Missie has smelt awful (especially her breath) when she was on the hamburger and rice diet for awhile.

So I'd just give it some time as they transition to a better diet and lose some weight. If they still smell after that than I'd start looking to see what's up.