Checking a newborn puppy poop chart can provide essential information about your dog’s health.
Many health problems can show signs like constipation and diarrhea, and normal feces indicate that your puppy is thriving. But how do you know if your dog’s poop is normal?
Read on to understand what healthy stool looks like in dogs. We’ll discuss:
- Do Newborn Puppies Poop?
- Healthy Frequency and Consistency
- What Color Should Newborn Puppy Poop Be?
- Coating — What’s Normal and What’s Not?
- Signs Your Puppy Is Constipated
- Warning Signs of Diarrhea
- Tips for Checking Your Puppy’s Poop
- When You Should Go to the Vet
Do Newborn Puppies Poop?
A newborn puppy won’t poop (at least not on its own) until it becomes three weeks old.
If puppies are still with their mother at that time, she’ll stimulate them to pee and poop. But if you’re playing the role of your puppy’s mother, you’ll need to take over the task.
Around the fourth week, you can typically expect your pup to start pooping on its own. The best way to potty train a puppy is to use a litter box because they naturally prefer to relieve themselves in specific areas.
Healthy Frequency and Consistency
How often do puppies need to poop? Many factors affect your dog’s poop frequency, including:
- Age
- Diet
- Weight
- Exercise level
- Environment
- Underlying medical conditions
Generally, the pooping frequency will be much higher than once a day, more like after every meal. They only have tiny little tums.
When cleaning the litter box, you can’t help but notice your puppy’s poop texture. It can range from small pieces to dry and hard poo. These two extremes are indicators that your furry friend has health issues.
A healthy puppy poop must be somewhere in between — firm but pliable. Use our newborn puppy poop chart below to see how your dog measures up and how their poop can give you an insight into their health.
| Appearance | May Indicate | What to Do |
| Smooth, sausage-like stool | Healthy stool | Keep doing what you’re doing. |
| Mushy stool with some shape | The stomach may be slightly upset. | Call the vet if it doesn’t resolve after a few days. |
| Watery stool | Diarrhea | Call the vet if it doesn’t resolve after a few days. |
| Red hue | Bleeding in the anus or rectum | Call the vet if it’s accompanied by other symptoms. |
| Orange hue | Gallbladder or liver problems | Call your vet. |
| Black hue | Bleeding in the GI tract | Call your vet. |
| Yellow hue | It could be a sign of gallbladder or liver problems, but it could also be normal. | Call your vet. |
| Green hue | Sign of bacterial infection | Call your vet. |
| Straining to defecate hard, pebble-like stools | Constipation | Call your vet. |
| Grainy puppy poop | Dehydration | Call your vet. |
| Unable to pass stool at all | Severe constipation/obstipation | Call your vet. |
What Color Should Newborn Puppy Poop Be?
If your puppy is healthy and almost two months old, its poop color should be brown with a slight yellow cast. It should be firm, and your puppy should poop a couple of times a day. This is true whether the pup’s mom cares for it or you’re bottle-feeding it.
Orange, white, and mustard yellow newborn puppy poop indicates a health issue, so you should take your dog to a veterinarian. Also, if your dog’s poop looks black and tarry, you should seek medical attention immediately. This can indicate bleeding in the bowels.
Coating — What’s Normal and What’s Not?
Is there mucus or hair in your dog’s poop? Newborn puppy poop consistency shouldn’t have any coating. You should be able to pick up the perfect poop without leaving any residue on the ground.
A coating of mucous often indicates colon disorders. Bright red blood may also be present in a puppy’s stool, which is always alarming for pet parents. A single streak of red on a stool can appear for many reasons, and it’s often not a cause for concern. But bleeding that persists for a few days requires urgent veterinary care.
Signs of Newborn Puppy Constipation
If your puppy hasn’t produced a stool in a few days, you should monitor it for constipation. That’s difficulty defecating, or obstipation, which is the lack of any feces being produced. A constipated puppy may show a loss of appetite, vomiting, and lethargy.
How to Stimulate a Puppy to Poop
It’s also crucial to understand that puppies under a month may not be physically able to poop without assistance.
Puppies need stimulation from their mother’s tongue to defecate. If orphaned, they require their caregiver’s gentle care before every meal. Use a soft tissue or a baby wipe to stimulate the puppy’s anus in a circular motion, continuing the movement until and while the puppy is pooping.
The Importance of Fiber in a Dog’s Diet
Dietary modification may help prevent another case of newborn puppy constipation. Try to add pumpkin for dogs to increase the amount of fiber in their diet. After a couple of days, if you still don’t see normal consistency in the litter box, or if your pup isn’t active and eating, take it to the vet for assistance.
Warning Signs of Diarrhea
Like human babies, puppies can be sensitive to sudden changes in their environment or diet. They can even suffer from food allergies. These factors can cause newborn puppy diarrhea, a condition where your dog will release frequent, liquid stools. If you notice that, you should monitor their bowel movements to ensure the problem isn’t chronic and doesn’t signify a more serious issue.
Common Causes
What does newborn puppy poop look like? Frequent, urgent pooping of loose, watery stools is the first sign that your dog has diarrhea. Understanding the reasons behind that is an essential step toward having a happy and healthy dog. The common causes of diarrhea in puppies include:
- Internal parasites. Parasites can upset your dog’s digestion and even stunt its growth. You should deworm your puppy when it’s two weeks old and continue to do so every two weeks until your pet reaches 12 weeks.
- Infections. Puppies can commonly contract salmonella and campylobacter. They’re also at risk of catching viruses like distemper, herpesvirus, coronavirus, and rotavirus.
- New Diet. Unless you’re raising the puppy from day one, you should ask the people you got it from about its eating habits. Follow them and gradually include changes over several days.
Ways to Help Your Puppy
Here are some simple ways to prevent diarrhea in puppies:
- Use puppy probiotics: If a puppy is on antibiotics, the medication kills off bad bacteria and some of the good bacteria in its system. Ask your veterinarian about giving your furry friend probiotics to support its intestinal tract if it needs medication for an illness.
- Pheromones: Sometimes, environmental stress is unavoidable, but you can help keep your pup calm by utilizing pheromones. They’ll calm your puppy and make it less likely to develop diarrhea due to household changes.
- Medications. Most anti-diarrheal medications, like Vets Preferred Anti Diarrhea Liquid for Dogs on Amazon, should be used with veterinary supervision. But there are other remedies for a puppy’s upset stomach that can soothe and help with dog diarrhea.
Tips for Checking Your Puppy’s Poop
Here are four tips you can use to evaluate your pet’s stool and prevent any health issues:
- Take a look at the newborn puppy poop chart and check the four Cs: consistency, color, content, and coating.
- Bring in a fresh sample of your pet’s stool to every vet appointment so the lab can perform tests on the fecal matter.
- Whether you’re on a walk around the park or in the backyard, clean up your puppy’s poop immediately after your dog produces it.
- Visit your vet immediately if your dog’s stools change drastically or if they’ve gone a few days without pooping.
When You Should Go to the Vet
You should report any changes in the puppy poop consistency to your veterinarian immediately.
Today’s constipation can become tomorrow’s intestinal obstruction. This morning’s loose stool can lead to dehydrating diarrhea overnight.
Blood in the stool, whether red or black, is always concerning. Digested dark blood can signal a serious condition, while red blood can be due to anything from food changes to cancer.
Conclusion
Although you might be tempted to throw away your puppy’s poop the second you see it in the litter box, it’s good to take a few moments and look at it.
Your dog’s poop can tell you a lot about their overall health. If anything’s off, your puppy might be sick. The newborn puppy poop chart above will help you understand what to look out for and learn when to call a vet and seek medical attention.
