Dog Poo Colour Chart: What Each Colour Means

Have you ever glanced down while scooping up after a loved one — human or hound — and wondered whether what you're looking at is actually normal? If so, you're not alone. It's one of those slightly awkward things we all quietly Google, and a good poop chart can tell you a surprising amount about what's happening inside the body.

In this post, we'll walk through the famous Bristol Stool Chart, break down each of the seven types of poop by their shape, consistency and appearance, and share a simple poop colour chart so you can decode what different colours might mean. By the end, you'll know exactly what healthy looks like — and when it's time to see a doctor.

What Is the Bristol Stool Chart?

The Bristol Stool Chart — also called the Bristol Stool Scale or the Bristol Stool Form Scale (BSFS for short) — is a medical poop chart that sorts human bowel movements into seven categories based on their form and firmness.

It was developed by Dr Ken Heaton and Dr Stephen Lewis at the University of Bristol, working out of the Bristol Royal Infirmary. Their 1997 study used marker pellets to link the appearance of a stool to how long it had spent in the bowel — a clever way to measure gut transit time without anything invasive.

Today it's a trusted diagnostic tool. Doctors, nurses and any healthcare provider use it as a shared language so patients don't have to fumble for words, and it's a brilliant way to track changes over time and keep an eye on your overall bowel health. You'll even find a printable PDF version — a Bristol Stool Chart PDF — pinned up in plenty of clinics. There's even a specialised toddler poop chart for little ones, since a baby's poo looks rather different from an adult's.

Tip

Types of Stool on the Bristol Stool Chart

The BSFS splits things into seven types, or seven categories, running from hard little pellets at one end all the way to entirely liquid at the other. Getting familiar with these stool types — the different poop types you're likely to spot — makes it much easier to tell when something's off. Recognising the range of types of stool is genuinely useful, and once you know the common stool types by heart, decoding your own becomes second nature.

Hard Stools: Types 1 and 2

Types 1 and 2 are your hard stools. Type 1 looks like separate hard lumps — think little nut-like pellet-like stools that are difficult to pass. Type 2 is sausage-shaped but hard, lumpy and bumpy. Both of these types of stool point towards constipation and often mean the colon has held onto the waste a bit too long, drawing out the water and leaving it hard to pass.

Healthy Stool: Types 3 and 4

Types 3 and 4 are the sweet spot. Type 3 is sausage shaped with a few cracks on the surface, while Type 4 is a smooth and soft, log-shaped, snake-like and well-formed sausage. This stool type is what healthcare professionals call the ideal — a normal stool that is easy to pass. If your bowel movement looks like this, that's a great sign of a happy digestive system.

Loose Stools: Types 5 and 6

As we move along, Type 5 is soft blobs with clear cut edges that are still fairly easy to pass — often a sign of a low-fiber diet. Type 6 is a mushy stool made of fluffy pieces with ragged edges, edging into mild diarrhoea. These loose stools suggest food is moving through the intestines faster than usual.

Diarrhea: Type 7

Type 7 is watery stools with no solid pieces — full-blown diarrhea, or diarrhoea as we spell it here. When food rushes through the digestive tract with barely any transit time, the large intestine can't absorb the fluid, and you're left with watery diarrhea. The occasional bout is common, but severe diarrhea that lingers deserves attention.

Poop Colour Chart and What Colours Can Mean

The Bristol Stool Chart covers form, but a good poop color chart looks at stool color too. Colour is driven by bile (a fluid made by the liver and stored in the gallbladder) and its pigment bilirubin, along with whatever's on the menu.

Poop Colour and Stool Colour

Here's a simple color chart for poop color and what each shade of stool colour can hint at:

• Brown: Medium to dark brown is healthy poop — this is normal poop, coloured by broken-down bile.
• Green: Often just leafy greens or fast gut motility, so the bile doesn't fully break down.
• Yellow: Greasy yellow stools can signal too much fat or a food intolerance.
• Orange: Usually beta-carotene from carrots and squash — rarely a worry.
• Black: Black stools or tarry stools may mean digested blood higher up and warrant a doctor's visit.
• Red: A bright red stool or streaks of red can come from hemorrhoids, but persistent blood in the stool — that's whole red blood cells from bleeding lower down — should always be checked.
• White, grey or pale or clay-colored: A lack of bile reaching the gut, which can point to a liver or gallbladder issue.

Don't ignore this

Poop Shape

Poop shape and stool shape tell their own story. A smooth sausage-shaped or log-shaped stool with soft, clear cut edges is the goal. If you're seeing pencil-thin, ribbon-like stools or thin or pencil-shaped stools that stick around, mention it to your vet, as a change in shape can occasionally flag an underlying condition.

Poop Size and Length

Size and length naturally vary with your diet and fluid intake. Plenty of dietary fibre and water tends to produce fuller, softer stools, whereas a low-fiber diet often means smaller, harder ones.

Poop Firmness or Stool Consistency

Firmness — or stool consistency — is really what the Bristol Stool Scale measures. Ideal stool consistency and texture sit at types 3 and 4: soft enough to pass comfortably, firm enough to hold together. Very hard is constipation; very loose leans towards diarrhoea. And yes, smell matters too — a sudden change in odour or a noticeably stronger odour can accompany a tummy upset.

Frequency

Frequency is personal. Anywhere from three times a day to three times a week can be a perfectly normal bowel movement pattern. What matters most is that your dog's usual bowel habits stay steady and your stools stay comfortable.

What Does Your Poo Say About Your Health?

Your bowel movements are a daily report card for your digestive health, and your dog's poo reveals more than you might expect. The appearance, consistency and colour of your faeces (or feces) reflect how well the whole digestive process is running, from the small intestine to the colon.

Persistent digestive issues can hint at wider digestive problems. Chronic changes might relate to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), IBD, a food intolerance, or short-term causes like food poisoning, a viral infection, a bacterial infection, or parasites. Your dog's diet, lifestyle and any medications all shape their bowel function too.

Poor hydration is a big one. A dehydrated body pulls water back out of the bowels, and dehydration is a common cause of hard stools. Meanwhile, plenty of fibre and a balanced high-fiber diet keep digestion and gut health ticking along nicely, and help settle your dog's bowel habits into a comfortable rhythm.

How Can You Tell if Your Poop is Healthy?

A healthy stool is medium to dark brown, sits at types 3 and 4 on the poop chart, and is easy to pass without straining. If your dog's normal poop looks like this most days, their gut is likely in good shape. Keep an eye out for warning signs alongside it: abdominal pain, stomach pain, bloating, nausea, vomiting, unexplained weight loss, or mucus in the stool.

When Should You See a Doctor?

Occasional wobbles happen to all dogs. But some patterns are worth flagging to your vet. Here's when it's sensible to track changes over time and get them checked.

When to see a vet

Quick questions

Sources & further reading

• How often should my dog poop? — Tuff Pets
• Why Is My Dog Pooping in the House? — Tuff Pets
• How Much Water Should My Dog Drink? — Tuff Pets
• Which Bin Does Dog Poop Go In? — Tuff Pets