Certain dyes in some pet foods can turn the stool different colors. I wouldn't worry about it as long as it isn't loose.

Have they been eating grass as well as Exceed dog food from Sam's place

****UPDATED 1/12/09 I've now gone 100% to RAW MEATS for both my dogs and cats. They are designed to eat meat, not corn, wheat, veggies or barley. Dog's stomach acid is about 10 times stronger than humans, so they are unaffected by bacterias that cause us problems! You want to feed 80% raw meats 10% bone and 10% organs for dogs. What kind of meats? All kinds, I feed almost any type that is not breaded, enhanced or otherwise treated. Chicken is best to start and don't worry about the bones. RAW BONES are soft and crunch right up! COOKED BONES are brittle and CAN SPLINTER! Never feed heavy support bones from legs of large animals, those dense bones can crack teeth. Chicken, turkey, lamb, beef, deer, elk, ostrich, fish, buffalo, pork...it's all good. Even freezer burned, even a couple of days past expiration is fine. Here are a couple of sites to check out the facts: http://www.skylarzack.com/rawfeeding.htm http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawfeeding/ http://www.rawfedcats.org/ *********** I'm not familiar with this brand of feed. However, I suspect it is something in the dye family that's caused the color change. Dye is not needed in dog's food because they do not see color the same ways that we do. It used to be thought that dogs saw NO color, however it is now believed that they do see some color shades, predominately black, white and gray but also some color tinges within their spectrum of sight. The BEST THING any of us can do with regards to dog food choices is to learn to read the ingredients and understand what they are and what they mean to our dog's nutritional needs! Corn, while tolerated by SOME dogs, is not optimum as it is NOT very digestible, it often takes more energy for the dog's body to extract the nutrition than what the corn PROVIDES! Also many dogs are allergic to corn in their diet, with the results being skin problems, lackluster coats, and in some cases intestinal upsets from the allergies. Meat by-products, are not that great, because they can include chicken feet, beaks, meat from steers that had tumors on it...the tumor may or may not even be removed BEFORE the meat goes into the pot...intestinal tracts from different animals, stomach linings...none of which are particularly high in actual nutritional value....the regulations on animal feed are appalling at best. And while the odds are that if you are buying "CHEAP FEED" you are getting exactly what you pay for....CHEAP, LESS THAN OPTIMUM FEED; some of the "Higher prices...prime feeds" do not provide as sterling a quality for the amount of money paid as we might be led to believe! Those nasty little "Semi-Moist" packs tend to contain both high oil and SUGAR content...neither of which our dogs need at all or in profusion...the oils used are NOT healthy needful oils for a dog's diet. My best suggestion is that you LEARN TO READ AND UNDERSTAND what the feed says it's made of....MEAT should be the primary feature...oats, and rice are better quality grains. Beet pulp...while used as a filler DOES help the dog with shedding its stomach lining...something that dogs do about every three days. You can check out The Whole Dog Journal.. http://www.whole-dog-journal.com Their Volume 10 number 2 recently ran a nice list of Top Quality Dry Dog Foods....and over the past year they have been running articles on Dog foods and how to better understand what the differences are, how they effect our dogs and how to read and understand what it says on the packaging! You may also be able to find past copies at a library as well. REMEMBER...just because you see a bag of feed at your Vet's doesn't mean it's the BEST feed out there...more likely it means THE VET got a KICK BACK from the manufacture or distributer to place that feed in their office waiting room!

I've fed Exceed (yellow chicken variety) and it's co-marketed mate Green Maxiumum Nutrition for years to a large number of great danes which have lived to geriatric status. No health issues....normal (consistency and color) stools.... THERE IS NO DYE in the kibble. Looke elsewhere for origin of color in stools

Find out what the copper content is of this food. If it is mostly like Purina Pro Plan, it will be 15mg/kg. I feed Canidae because it has less copper, 9mg/kg but I do mix a little of the Exceed into this food for firmer stools. They do look more green but I don't think there is dye in the Exceed performance food. Exceed also contains Corn Gluten Meal, so I have suspended feeding it till the whole matter of Glutens and concentrates has been solved. First the Wheat Gluten was implicated, then the rice concentrate and some dogs have died from melamnine in Corn Gluten in South Africa. Unless I can get assurances this hasn't crept into our food, I am not taking any chances. That is one of the disadvantages with these *generic* foods, they aren't nearly as accessible with information as Purina or any other maker of pet food that makes their own. Christine

I have been feeding my English Setters and Lab Exceed for many years. They are strong hunting dogs with excellent skin and overall health. This was recommended by a breeder to me. I stick with Lamb and Rice though the ingredients of the Chicken is about the same. They quote AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials) procedures for substantiation of the food quality. My dogs are healthy, and active - my vet agrees and personally I pick up enough poop to know it's not green unless they've chewed up something they shouldn't have. I stay away from Greenies and other 'junk foods'... IMHO DCE

Actually Exceed dog food does no have artificial dye in its kibble, it is made with natural lamb and rice, it is a very good quality dog food, my dogs do quite well on it, and I have fed it for numerous years. My dogs do not have the high stool output that they have had on other foods, because they digest more of the food. As for the green stool there are numerous reasons your dogs could have this, it could be a sign of an intestinal/bacterial infection, high quantity of iron, possibly eating grass, and many other things, I highly doubt it is the dog food that is causing this, if you are concerned about it, I would suggest taking your dogs into the vet to have them checked.

i have been feeding exceed to my dogs for over a year now. i had no problems with it at first then about a week ago i went and had to stock up again and my dogs had loose green stool and broke out in hives all over. i called purina to ask if there were any changes in the food and she told me that back in april they added two ing. to it some type of vitamin and some type of acid. alot of other ppl that i know feed exceed ( chinken and lamb) were having the same problems. i took mine off of it as soon i seen the problems and fed them a different type of food and they are doing way better. I myself will not go back to exceed at all my gods lives are far to importamt to me than to lose them to some damn dog food!!!!!!!!!!!

I personally would stop the food right away, although to be gentle on your dog's stomach it's best to switch to a new food slowly. Here is a good guide on gradual switching of foods http://dogs.about.com/cs/dietandnutrition/qt/switch_foods.htm Exceed is not a BAD dog food, although there are people on both sides of this debate. I know many breeders who feed Exceed and actually have fed it to my own dogs at one time. I have bred, trained, shown, and rescued Labradors for over 15 years so I have had my experience with dog foods. I tried Exceed Lamb and Rice (I personally don't like the other blends they offer for different reasons) and my dogs all did pretty well on it. I had one of my dogs who could not tolerate it, however. She was a rescue lab who had always had gastric/bowel troubles. I never had my dogs' stools turn green on Exceed. I have however seen my dogs' stools turn colors from other dog foods. Usually this comes from a dye or additives that manufacturers have put in the food. When I fed a very healthy, vibrant litter of puppies Purina Healthy Morsels, after a week of feeding them the food, they overnight became valiantly ill, couldn't keep any food down, had low grade fevers, and had RED mucousy diarrhea. I was horrified and of course rushed all of them to my life long vet. The vet figured out, after hours of IV fluids and lab tests, that it was the puppy food that was poisoning my puppies. Needless to say I was pretty angry!!! I had the puppy food checked for any problems and the people told me that their was nothing in the food that was not in the ingredient label, so no poison like we hear about with these recent recalls. So why did it make my puppies sick then? Well, because what Purina makes their food out of is not healthy for our dogs and some of the ingredients are actually very unsafe. I will never use Purina again. I completely understand wanting to save money on dog food. We're all on a budget. But what I've learned is that you can buy a good dog food that is safe and healthy for your dog for not that much more. Here's an example: I was feeding Exceed which was 50 lbs for $22, then we had to feed each dog 8 cups of food daily. Now I feed Premium Edge dog food and for 35 lbs I pay $32. This seems like a lot more money but because the overall nutrition level is much higher I am able to feed my dogs half as much. My dogs eat 4 cups or less a day now. So really it works out to be pretty close in the long run and my dogs are much healthier. Here's a few links that help owners analyze dog foods: This is the best one with almost every food you can think of - http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/ And this one doesn't have as many foods but it still offers a good review - http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/

WERE DO I BUY GREEN MAXIMUM NUTRION? GRT DANE STATED IT IS THE CO MARKETING MATE TO EXCEEED.