[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi Michael –

I do believe that rotating between various protein sources is important. Not only do I feel that protein sources should be rotating, but brands as well.

Here’s a great article on the subject written by Dr. Jean Dodd’s.

[Vianca V]

I have a 8lb pekingese and pretty soon she will be transitioning from her puppy to adult food, currently she is on Wellness Small Breed Puppy, but I cant deciede between Wellness Small Breed Adult or Wellness Core Original. What are your opinions between either? My concerns are the fact that the main Ingre. is Chicken rather Turkey and the protein level is much higher on the Wellness Core Original.

[Nancy C]

Okay – For whoever is interested, I am presently transitioning my 10 yr old Golden Retriever to Raw. I acquired the help of a homeopathic vet to be my coach for the transition of my two dogs due to the horrific time I had with my GSD in the spring. Dr. Loops has a website on which he strongly recommends raw. He specifically recommends BDN and Darwin’s. His 6 dogs all eat rotations of those two foods. In consultation with him on Friday he suggested that I try the BDN first , due to the fermentation and the tripe which is in ALL of BDN food. After a few days I will introduce Darwin’s which arrived Friday. The woman at BDN all but promised me the golden would do fine, saying so many very sick dogs have transitioned to this food with ease. She claims that the tripe and fermentation are key to digestion.
Yesterday morning I gave my golden 1/2 cup of BDN with NO KIBBLE. (The BDN company recommended NOT mixing the two together due to the different digestion times. They were confident that she would do fine).
Hannah gobbled up the food and licked the bowl like there was no tomorrow.
Early afternoon I gave her some homemade bone broth.
For supper she ate 3/4 cup of only BDN. All was well.
TOday it was 3/4 cup again and tenacious bowl licking.
During our walk she pooped small poops as the woman at BDN said she would. It was normal in consistency and NO DIARRHEA (yet ?) and the stool was not even “soft.” It was moist, smaller than usual and just fine. Yesterday’s stool was the kibble from Friday and it was large and lots of it. Today’s, which reflected yesterday’s BDN, was VERY different.
The woman told me to watch the poops, that they would tell all.
That’s my story of the last 28 hours.
It appears that by tomorrow she will be on her protocol of 1 cup 2x day.
This transition has been a piece of cake.

[Nancy C]

Hi Pugsmom: My intro box of BigDogNatural just arrived yesterday. Their customer service is wonderful. My Question to you since you have experience: I’m transitioning my 10 yr old Golden to Raw. Historically she can eat anything anytime. The Homeopathic vet I talked to yesterday highly recommends this food and Darwin’s for raw dogs. Says he uses both (rotates) with his 6 dogs with great results.
The Customer Service urged me yesterday to feed it Cold Turkey – not to mix with kibble due to the length of time kibble requires to get digested. (That seems so severe esp for an older dog) but their rep was very clear about not mixing bec could cause gas and stomach upset. She said with the tripe and fermented veggies the dog will do FINE on it alone. The plan is to move to Darwin’s next. My Darwins arrived yesterday too. The vet yesterday said he thinks BDN will be more readily welcomed by the gut than even the Darwins, due to the fermentation and the tripe. But he really likes Darwins as well.
In her video Karen Becker suggests NOT mixing kibble with raw but to feed kibble and offer the raw separately as treats during the day, increasing the treats and reducing the kibble gradually.
The BDN woman said if I still feed kibble should feed it separately as a meal without raw, and feed the raw as a separate meal.
Any insights/ suggestions FROM YOUR EXPERIENCE will be welcome.
Thank you.

[crazy4cats]

Did you feed your dogs any pumpkin or carrots? I think the fact that it is orange is concerning. Loose stools are common when transitioning, but not usually orange. Have you had a fecal done?

[Naturella]

Bought some LiveFree and Wysong too for this lady I babysit for (well, for her dog – she was on Kibbles N Yuck, but I hope that by Tuesday that crap will be finished and I am slowly transitioning her to a high-quality food).

And had gotten me some LiveFree and Wysong from the first time they did this sale! 🙂

Thanks for the heads up though! 🙂

[Nancy C]

In September I am transitioning my 2 yr old GSD over to raw and have developed a plan, thanks to the wonderful friends at DFA. 🙂 My 10 yr old Golden Retriever deserves better food too. So I wondered if a chicken wing on top of her bowl of kibble is a good start? She’s had kibble all her life. She is great about rotating any brand anytime. Switches on a dime easily. I put it in the bowl: She sniffs and EATS it. Recently when I prepared an organic chicken for our dinner I handed her the livers and heart raw and she gobbled them. No problem. What I am scared of is she won’t know to smash the wings before swallowing and then she will choke. I don’t want to lose my dog. Someone told me yesterday her dogs sometime spit UP wings but then they eat them back down. She says it is normal to smash them by chomping down a time or two with back teeth and then let them slide on down the throat. This Golden is 55 pounds. Not huge and not heavy. Do any of you give chicken wings to a dog her size or smaller? Do you have a better idea? Should I just go on and order Darwins or Answers and start her on Raw that way? I plan to give her Probiotics the night before just to prep her intestinal tract. Thoughts, advice are appreciated. Thank you.

[aquariangt]

That would come down to the discussion on survive vs thrive. You may see a vast improvement if you got them onto something a little better. Seeing that RC is such a low quality food, switching directly onto something high protein, lower filler, etc would be difficult for your dogs to do straight up (not sure what else you tried) I would recommend transitioning them onto a mid range food-I like Precise Foundation for a transition food-and then onto something else. Precise foundation is still chicken and brown rice, but with less trash than the lower quality foods. It’s easy on the stomach and the protein is still not too high. Once they’ve made it onto that, you can go into a 4-5 star food and hopefully continue to rotate to build a healthy gut

[crazy4cats]

Yes, I did try the Victor dry cat food, but my cats didn’t like it much. It is really the first dry food that they haven’t cared much for. I have been feeding a bunch of different kibbles. Right now I’m finishing up Merrick grain free weight control and transitioning to a Nutro indoor variety that was a free sample at a vendor show. I forget exactly which one it is. But, the ingredients and analysis really didn’t look too bad. I was pleasantly surprised! I have fed Earthborn, Wellness Core, Taste of the Wild, and Premium Edge kibbles in the last year. My dogs’, on the other hand, really like the grain free Victor.

[Bobby dog]

Hi Tindaisy:
I love some classic Tom and Jerry! Those must be pretty persuasive cats to turn you into a cat lover and wishing for more strays. I’ll say it again, lucky kitties. You and C4c have something in common, the love of cats by a few strays stopping by your homes.

If you have a Tractor Supply Store local their brand 4Health is a very budget friendly food with decent ingredients; 46 cents/5.5 oz or 99 cents/13.2 oz, co-packed by Simmons. Only one of my cats will eat 4Health, wish they all would, what are you going to do. I have ordered from Chewy.com a few times, excellent prices and service. Many posters on DFA recommend them as well. Here are some other sites to check out; sign up for e-mail/newsletters from these sites so you can receive info on sales and free shipping offers:
http://www.amazon.com/pet-supplies-dog-cat-food-bed-toy/b?ie=UTF8&node=2619533011
http://www.petco.com/
http://www.petflow.com/
http://www.petfooddirect.com/
http://www.petsmart.com/
http://www.wag.com/

I have my Vet to thank for the journey to learn more about pet nutrition. About a year ago she sent out her monthly newsletter discussing common health issues that could have been avoided by proper nutrition and feeding species appropriate foods. She invited anyone who was interested to stop by for a list of pet food she compiled for cats and dogs. I thought to myself what I was feeding had to be fine since they were name brands that are advertised often, but I’ll stop by and see what she has to say. After I read the information she compiled I was off to the races to research more about pet nutrition. I talked further about nutrition with my Vet, read some books, magazine articles, and visited many sites. The criteria I follow regarding pet nutrition constantly changes and grows the more I learn. I like catinfo.org and DFA because of the simplicity they use to present information to their readers.

Catinfo.org is probably the most popular cat site for the regulars on this thread, but there are several others that are very helpful with current information on feline nutrition and care as well. Here’s another site: http://www.littlebigcat.com/
Both of these sites are run by Vets and I am sure others will chime in with their favorite websites as well. Here’s some links to check out regarding cat nutrition:
http://www.littlebigcat.com/nutrition/why-dry-food-is-bad-for-cats-and-dogs/

Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition

Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition

Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition

On this thread we all share are trials and tribulations about getting our cats to transition to quality foods and other stuff too. Most of mine will eat a premium brand canned food a few times a week and I have a couple that will eat some commercial raw once a week, but most of mine are addicted to kitty crack. Most of my cats are 15+ and I am not going to push a drastic diet change on them at their age. They are now eating mostly canned food with a little GF kibble on the side. I can always hope for more, but I am happy to have transitioned them this far with no issues.

Fish is a concern for all of us farmed or wild caught. Although the quality of fish that is included in pet food might be questionable the same could be said about the quality of meat. So I focus on minimizing exposure to fish and try my best to get quality food in them when they will eat it. My cats’ revolt if they do not get fish a few times a week so I mix in sardines packed in water with their canned food. Sardines typically do not have as much mercury or contaminates that other fish may have. If it were up to me I would not feed fish at all.
From Dr. Pierson:
“I do not feed fish to cats for the following reasons:
• high allergy potential (manifested as skin allergies or inflammatory bowel disease, and possibly asthma)
• toxin/mercury contamination
• PBDEs (fire retardant chemicals) – PBDEs are potent thyroid disruptors
• often high in phosphorus and magnesium
• highly addictive – the cat will not eat anything else”

Thanks for sharing tips on transitioning food. The crazy thing is I thought I would have the most problem with changing their kibble. They always ate canned food with no problem so I thought that would be the easiest. The opposite occurred with mine. I rotate between several kibbles with no transition. It was the Friskies they were addicted to. lol I can’t tell you the money I have spent on quality food only to have them sniff and walk away. I have one cat that pretty much will eat anything and if all else fails Bobby dog is more than willing to clean the cats’ plates. All is good though, they are happy and healthy fur babies.

Akari started this thread and another one about coupons and sales we all share with each other if you are interested. Here’s a link to the coupon thread:
/forums/topic/coupons/page/11/

Stop back and let us know how your guys are doing!

[Vanessa B]

Our 5 month old french bulldog has brought so much life and laughter into our home, and we all love him to pieces!! However, his gas is so horribly bad – room clearing bad… Wake you up from REM sleep bad… Melt this skin off your face bad!! We feed him Blue Buffalo Wilderness 100% grain free for puppies (at the recommendation of our local pet store Manager). I spoke to the lady I bought him from last night, and she told me that what I am feeding him has too much protein for him. She also said he needs to be on adult food. She suggested I transition Rocco (our Frenchie) to Royal Canin Bulldog 24. Here is some background: Rocco has ONLY eaten the dogfood I mentioned earlier… No table scraps, no people food. I have never tried yogurt in his food – I understand how yogurt helps our human guts but the fear of not knowing 100% what it may or may not do to Rocco’s belly makes me hesitant.

I will certainly take her advice into consideration, but I was hoping to possibly obtain further advice/knowledge/suggestions from this online community! Thank you all in advance for taking time to read my post! Any and all thoughts are welcomed! We are at the last little bit of his Blue Buffalo Wilderness bag of food so this is a good time to start transitioning him. I am looking forward to reading everyone’s thoughts!

***I am helping my husband with some outside work today so if you post a question for me just please know that I will respond to it but it might be a little while before I am able to log back into this site.

[Regina D]

Sue: Thanks for the helpful and encouraging information. My Alf will not eat dry kibble; however, I had him on canned Natural Balance lamb & rice. I wanted to put him on a better limited ingredient diet and someone did recommend Wellness Simple duck and oats. I was just thinking of transitioning him to that when he got sick again. So he is on “tummy rest” for now. The vet said at least 30 days, then ‘re-evaluate”. I was encouraged that Patch was on the intestinal formula for 5 months and that you are now able to slowly add Wellness. I thought if he still wasn’t well after 30 days this would be a permanent thing. I sure don’t want him on Iams permanently. I will check Eukanuba canned on their US website.

[Dori]

Melissa I am so sorry to hear your sad news. Hopefully your pup will remain asymptomatic and with a loving mom like yourself will live a long happy life.

Losul: I too would never put any of my dogs on prednisone without a definitive reason and after getting at minimum a second opinion. Putting pup on those meds is only masking what the real problem is which I believe is probably something in the food she’s feeding.

Lisa C: I would not put my dog if it was vomiting on a daily basis on any type of medication whatsoever without knowing definitively what the problem is. Nor would I have an endoscopy done on a dog that is in the condition that your dog is in. I don’t think he’d survive the surgery. My advice to you is to introduce slowly a commercial raw diet staying away from chicken and all poultry in the title and further down in the ingredient list. I’m not saying that poultry is the culprit but if that’s what I’m feeding then I would change the protein. Commercial raw foods that I feed are Natures Variety Instinct Raw, Primal Formula raw, Vital Essentials raw, Stella & Chewy’s Raw, Answers Detailed, Darwin’s Raw (only available on line directly from them on an auto order basis). Stay away from poultry, commercial raws are grain free (dogs do not need grains), stay away from white potato and tomatoes. The last two are inflammatory and your poor dog does not need anything to cause more inflammation that it’s going through. I would go to the store, buy one of the raws, also some digest enzyme, a can of pure pumpkin (not pie filling type) and immediately start transitioning your dog to a commercial raw food. Yes, of course your dog is going to initially have some diarrhea that will be due to his physical condition and the switch but that will right itself pretty quickly. I don’t mean to scare you but if your own vet is telling you that your dog looks like a survivor of a concentration camp and also won’t do surgery then I really don’t know what your waiting for to make the food change. Though I typically agree with ACV, I don’t in a case of constant vomiting due to its acidic nature that is worse coming up then going down. This is from my own personal experience with my illness and nausea and vomitting.

I don’t mean to sound so harsh and as if I’m scolding but I’m really quite concerned about your dog. I only found this particular forum today. I can’t believe has long this has been allowed to continue.

[Naturella]

His stool is usually perfectly normal – formed, firm, but not stone-hard; but he did have diarrhea last week Thursday through Tuesday of this week… Cause he won’t stop eating stuff off the ground, and also grass… But he’s all good now… He’s always been on pretty good food I think – right now we are transitioning to Earthborn Holistic Primitive Natural from a mix of Earthborn Holistic Coastal Catch-Holistic Health Extension Original-Victor Salmon. In case that matters.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 5 months ago by Naturella.

[theBCnut]

I find that older dogs are usually more sensitive than puppies. They just aren’t as likely to get into an emergency situation because of diarrhea.

The best is for you to keep her on what she is used to for the first couple weeks, so she isn’t being stressed in every aspect of her life. After she is used to being in your household, then start adding some of the Wellness kibble to her canned food, about 25%. Watch her stool and if she doesn’t show any signs of soft stool or diarrhea after 3 days start giving her half canned, half Wellness. Then watch her stool again for 3 days. If all is still well, then you can start feeding 75% Wellness and 25% canned. When her stool is fine for 3 days, start switching her wet food.

Adding probiotics from the time she comes home and until at least 2 weeks after you are finished transitioning, will help her to transition easier.

[Gregory C]

Hello,

I have recently adopted a dog — she is an older (they think about 7-8 years) mix, probably some lab, terrier, and who knows what else. She is about 40 pounds. The rescue organization is keeping her for 2.5 weeks, as I already had a vacation planned prior to the adoption, but before I leave I am preparing my house, buying food, etc.

The rescue org is feeding her some pretty terrible food, from everything I read on here and elsewhere. They are feeding her mostly wet food (I think because she likes it, and they have too many dogs to worry about to force the issue) — they are using Pedigree “meaty ground dinner” (ick!). Depending on who feeds her, they are also mixing in some Science Diet Advanced Fitness (small bites dry).

Clearly, I want to switch her to a new food when I get her. After a lot of research and some recommendations from friends, I have settled on Wellness Complete Health for dry food, and will try a variety of Wellness wet foods to mix in.

My question/concern is this: How best to transition her to the new food? It is tough to do the usual transition “formulas” I have seen online, because she is basically on only wet food now, and I want to switch to a combo. I have heard from several people that they have had success at switching “cold turkey” when adopting a new dog, but others seem to swear by transitioning. I figure as an older dog, her stomach is not as sensitive as a puppy’s would be, but I don’t know whether it’s a bad idea to switch “cold turkey” or whether I should just try it and see what happens. On the one hand, I’m switching to a *much* higher quality product, but on the other hand, I wonder how she’ll handle the different nutritional value.

Any thoughts/recommendations on this? If you suggest transitioning, any ideas how I might do it, given her current diet of mostly wet food? (I was thinking of mixing in some new dry with some old wet, and then slowly transitioning to more new dry and less wet, and then to the new wet. But honestly, I’d love it if “cold turkey” was everyone’s answer — less stressful! 🙂 )

Thanks in advance!

• This topic was modified 11 years, 5 months ago by Gregory C.

[aquariangt]

I would try the core. The grain free could clear up some of that condition. I would maybe look into a transitioning food since wellness core is a lot richer than hills. Something like precise that isn’t crazy rich and also is basic chicken and brown rice, I wouldn’t feed it long term though

[Vianca V]

So I tried transitioning my dogs to Small Breed Adult Wellness, and its gone awful, my 8 year old gained all the weight he had lost on Prescription Diet Metabolic and he wasnt overeating, in fact he would leave everyday his allowed portion; I also noticed he became very irregular and had looser stool than usual. My other 5-6 year old really doesnt want to eat, in fact he only eats when he is starving, any suggestions?!?!!?

[BRT]

Need help please….

I thought I was transitioning slow enough, but this morning both had diarrhea and then when I went home at lunch today my shih tzu/yorkie had a massive mucousy stool. I clearly need to tone it back. How long should the switch completely over take?

I called two pet food stores where I live who a totally for raw and got two different answers. One told me the switch can take up to a month. The other said go cold turkey and give them just raw for dinner tonight.

I’m so confused and am coming here for some definitive advice. I don’t want to give up this quickly, but I don’t want to cause them any additional tummy issues.

Thank you!

[BRT]

So, I decided to go with the NV Raw Venison Bites. I started them on it this evening. The person who sold me the food also feeds her dog raw and she recommended I don’t mix the kibble and the raw together while transitioning the foods. She said I should start with dinner and give them less kibble and then an hour later feed them a bit of the raw bites. Slowly do that until their dinner is completely raw. Then work on transitioning breakfast.

I took her suggestion and someone is a little gassy. I think it’s my maltese/toy poodle boy (the one with the allergy issues).

This food smells, too. They loved it, but I found the smell awful.

My other concern is that little rescue baby (shih tzu/yorkie) likes to bring his kibble into the living room and eat off of the carpet. He’ll bring a mouthfull at a time and drop it on the carpet. Obviously, I can’t have him doing that if I’m feeding him raw.

I also don’t want to get too paranoid about cross contamination. Like if they eat and then go play with a toy. Do I need to religiously wash the toy daily?

In addition to food allergies/intoleranc he also definitely has environmental allergies, as well.

I’ve never tried the food elimination diet. I’m not even sure I’d know where to start.

I also didn’t realize how expensive this food is. I guess I’ll be eating Ramen noodles for a while. Just kidding…. Anything to keep my boys healthy.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 6 months ago by BRT.
• This reply was modified 11 years, 6 months ago by BRT.

[Dori]

All my dogs (three toy breeds) are fed commercial raw diets as of about 1 1/2 years ago. I rotate brands as well as proteins. I can now rotate them from meal to meal without a slow transition but that took quite a while to accomplish. Their guts are now at the point that changing from protein to protein doesn’t bother them in the least. My favorite of the commercial raw brands are Primal Pronto (although any of their complete “Formulas” are great), Natures Variety Instinct Raw, Answers Detailed Raw (a bit hard to find), Darwin’s Natural Selection (that’s an auto delivery food only from their web site or by phone), Vital Essentials Raw. These are the brands that my dogs have thrived on. Some of the others are pretty popular also such as Stella & Chewy’s, etc. my dogs haven’t faired as well on the other brands. Since being on raw they no longer has goopy stuff coming from their eyes, tear stains are gone, no more yeasty ears, their skin and coats are healthy and very very shiny. Oh, also no more gas, gurgling tummies, no more smelly poops. You’ll find that their poops are much much smaller and firm enough to easily pick up and dispose of. Their bodies utilize more of the nutrition in raw than they do on kibble. Added benefit of raw is that they are grain free. Dogs don’t have a necessity for grains, white potatoes, corn, soy, etc. One of my girls is allergic to all things poultry (anything with feathers) so I avoid all of those.

Many people start their puppies right on raw after a couple of weeks being home. Usually when you bring a puppy home it’s best to keep them on their same food for a couple of weeks that they were eating at the breeder. Theory being that they are stressed enough going home with a stranger to a new environment with no familiar scents, missing litter mates, etc. But then you do a slow transition as if you were transitioning from kibble to kibble. Initially you may find that the puppy has some diarrhea but that will pass. What I did was purchase a product from The Honest Kitchen called Perfect Form and while I was transitioning them to raw (good for transitioning any foods really until they get healthy enough to transition without issues) I would add the recommended dose to each of their meals. Gets rid of the diarrhea almost instantaneously. At least that’s been my experience with the product. I no longer feed dehydrated foods because to me they’re not strictly raw. Not crazy about freeze dried either.

Commercial raw is more expensive than kibble but you’ve already been feeding ZiwiPeaks which is an expensive dog food already so it shouldn’t be too shocking. I believe raw is much healthier therefore you save a ton of money at the vet which makes up for the more expensive diet.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 6 months ago by Dori.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Since she’s so sensitive I would definitely recommend transitioning very gradually over the course of 7 – 10 days.

[Mom2Cavs]

Hi, and I’m sorry to hear that your little dog has this. I’m not recommending Hills but the diarrhea is probably coming from an abrupt diet change. I’m sure you didn’t transition to the Hills…I apologize if I’m wrong on this. Anyway, there are a few foods I would consider for a dog prone to pancreatitis. Annamaet Lean is a good food (annamaet.com). It can be ordered form Chewy.com or Wag.com, and other places. I can’t get it locally so I would have to order online. Wellness Core Reduced Fat is another I would try. Wellness is available most places like Petsmart and Petco. Wellness also has a Small Breed Healthy Weight that might work and a line called Simple that has a healthy weight formula. I love Wellness. Victor dog food (I order mine from Sportdogfood.com) has a senior formula that looks good, too. Remember, whatever you choose try to transition slowly from whatever he’s eating now. If that’s not possible try adding some plain canned pumpkin to the food to help firm up stools during transitioning. Not pie filling, just plain pumpkin.

[arwyru24]

I know from my experience at the cat shelter that there are some cats that I guess must have been raised on dry food and so just will not touch wet food. No way, no how, no kind. Now I do have to add in a caveat that because the cats were kept free roaming in cat rooms we had to free feed dry food, so that would definitely be my first step in transitioning a cat once getting them out of the shelter environment

[Nancy C]

Betsy – I agree. My GSD 18 mo old puppy has suffered several months after transitioning to ORIGEN and ACANA from Taste of Wild High Prairie. I moved off TOW due to recalls. did not want to take a risk. He was doing well on TOW – no problem EXCEPT it took 5 cups a day to keep his weight stable. Calorie count on TOW is low.
On ORIGEN and ACANA — OMG diarrhea beyond belief, Metronidole, VET BILLS, Hills’ Rx WD food for 6 to 8 weeks, OMG it has been awful. Vet thinks those were too rich for him. ? He did fine on both UNTIL we got to 50/50. Lots of things in TOW, so I think it must have been the chickpeas/ Lentils in O and A. Both have it. Even Acana Singles have it as one of prime ingredients!

I have switched to DR TIMS Persuit and so far he is doing beautifully. DR TIMS is a great food. And Victor’s Professional (PURPLE BAG) is on my list. A GSD Breeder of 20 yrs wrote in about it and she swears by it. Gives it to ALL her GSDs. Also Brothers complete – but is very pricey. However, after a bad bout with Diarrhea my theory is you either pay up front with good food or PAY THE VET.

Best of luck!

[Nancy C]

I hear you. And sympathize! Zolli, I do not remember you being in any of the posts when I had HUGE gastro troubles with my GSD who came to me in PERFECT SHAPE and HEALTH.Was delivered in Jan age 16 mos. I decided to switch him to ORIGEN from TOW. due to recalls. (I had told the trainer from whom we bought him that I wanted him on TOW). At 50/50 Loose stools, diarrhea. so switched to ACANA and same thing at 50/50. A mystery. Both are great foods but not for him. After the ACANA he had so much diarrhea the vet had to treat him w Metronidazole and that (poisonous) HILLS Rx WD Formula). He at that from March til May. Lots of troubles. And there were no parasites. He lost from 70 pounds to 63 pounds! In 6 to 8 weeks! He was on Purina Pro Select Sensitive Stom for a month “to let the digestive tract calm down” (vet’s suggestion) the month of MAY. But I wanted him OFF of that too.

OKAY — He is now back up in New Hampshire getting more training. I am in NC. The trainer, who is beyond wonderful, and very knowledgable is transitioning him to DR TIMS PERSUIT and he reports so far so good. I have had numerous email dialogs with Dr. Tim and his wife MARY — they are wonderful too. I think this food is going to be great for him and my fingers are still crossed. In looking at Dr Tims ingredients it appears to me that there is nothing in there but the basics/ essentials. That’s it. I commented on that to him and he affirmed with a big “yes.” My own thought is that the more ingredients the more chance of trouble.

Good luck. You are trying hard and doing your best. Your pups know that.

[meky6ra]

She developed really bad hives all over her body. I had been transitioning her to it for a few days when I noticed the hives and scratching. Now that she’s not eating that food, her hives are going away.

[meky6ra]

Oh no! I just bought a bag of WEF beef and lamb and started transitioning my dog to it. I did notice that it smelled a little funny, but not bad enough to cause alarm. It had a bitter smell that reminded me of horse feed. Fortunately for us, it inflamed my dog’s allergies (I assume because of the pork, as she’s never had it before) and I had to stop feeding it. I inspected the kibble pretty well and didn’t see any unusual particles.

[MeMe B]

I’m so glad to see this question! I am about to order food for transitioning from a not so great food (thanks to finding this site!) to Acana or Orijen for my couch potato 7 yo toy poodle. So Robert R I’m glad to see your poos are doing well on this food!

[crazy4cats]

Hi Bobby dog-
I think that I recall you saying that you use Merrick dry food. If yes, are you concerned at all over the latest issues with the dog kibble? I just started transitioning my cats from their Wellness Core duck to the weight mgmt Merrick. It smells and looks ok. The cats are eating with no issues so far. I guess I’ll just keep an eye out for any problems. Any thoughts?

[tracy b]

thanks for the suggestions crazy4cats, one of the boys, Bozwell, does seem to have a more sensitive tummy than the other one (Elwood) so I am leery about giving new foods being that the one they are on is working well. Everything I have read/learned about the breed does tend to lean towards sticking with the same food and not making too many changes. obviously I want to do what is best for the boys no matter what the cost I realize when we got them that this would be a huge commitment both time and money. because of their predicted short life span I want to do what will lengthen their life as much as possible. they will soon be transitioning into giant breed adult food so this would probably be the best time to make a switch. I am looking at holistic select but im not sure yet if they have for giant breed. when you give eggs im assuming raw? do you not worry about salmonella? thanks for your advice!
Tracy, Bozwell and Elwood

[tracy b]

hello every one I am a new member here and love that there is a discussion on large/giant breed food. I have 2 great dane males who are little mates (siblings) . they are 1 and 1/2 years old now. we have always fed them Royal Canine giant breed stages right now they are on the giant junior and will soon be transitioning over to adult food. I just had them to the vet yesterday to get their rabies shots and heath exam in preparation for neutering. my vet also owns a great dane so I feel lucky that my vet knows specifically about the breed and their potential heath problems. I always thought I had made good choices in their food and yesterdays appointment had them scoring perfectly on coat, growth, teeth, heart, etc. I feel a bit dismayed about some of the negative reports on the brand of food I have chosen its score of 2.5 stars and the comments on the ingredients leave me wondering if I have made a poor choice. we did try to switch twice once at 4 months and again at 8 months to other brands (blue and arcana) each time we tried they were not happy seemed to not like the flavor had bad gas and diarrhea although not too bad with the blue brand and I did switch very slow mixing the existing brand with the new gradually. it cost me $86.00 every 6 days to feed the boys a bag of dry food plus $9.00 in toppers. I just need to know I have made the right decision
thank you

• This topic was modified 11 years, 6 months ago by tracy b.

[William N]

HELP – we switched our 9 week old lab from the PPchow to WEF dry – did it over a week or so transitioning a little more each day. Been on WEF about 3 weeks and now have diarrhea. Used pumpkin, firmed her up, mixed WEF (grain inclusive)back in – stool getting soft again – soooo I am guessing she is sensitive to this food. (Stool free of worms etc.) Any other recommendations to try – at about same cost for food? Thanks.

[crazy4cats]

Ok, so right now I’m transitioning from Nature’s Logic all life stages duck and salmon to Victor’s grain free all life stages. Are you saying I shouldn’t be feeding either of these foods to my almost three year old lab mixes?

[tracy b]

hello every one I am a new member here and love that there is a discussion on large/giant breed food. I have 2 great dane males who are little mate brothers. they are 1 and 1/2 years old now. we have always fed them Royal Canine giant breed stages right now they are on the giant junior and will soon be transitioning over to adult food. I just had them to the vet yesterday to get their rabies shots and heath exam in preparation for neutering. my vet also owns a great dane so I feel lucky that my vet knows specifically about the breed and their potential heath problems. I always thought I had made good choices in their food and yesterdays appointment had them scoring perfectly on coat, growth, teeth, heart, etc. I feel a bit dismayed about some of the negative reports on the brand of food I have chosen its score of 2.5 stars and the comments on the ingredients leave me wondering if I have made a poor choice. we did try to switch twice once at 4 months and again at 8 months to other brands (blue and arcana) each time we tried they were not happy seemed to not like the flavor had bad gas and diarrhea although not too bad with the blue brand and I did switch very slow mixing the existing brand with the new gradually. it cost me $86.00 every 6 days to feed the boys a bag of dry food plus $9.00 in toppers. I just need to know I have made the right decision
thank you

[Kate B]

Hey guys! This is my first time posting. I have a 15 pound schnoodle that I adopted almost three years ago. I’m not entirely sure how old Wilson is as his surrender paperwork had a few different ages on it but I think (as does his vet) he is between 6 and 8 and in good health.

He’s always, always, always been a picky eater. He’s my first dog and I honestly didn’t know anything about feeding a dog beyond kibble and canned at first. I fed him Vet’s Choice Health Extension for a while and then Acana but they took inordinate amounts of coaxing or soaking in water or additional treats (i.e. cottage cheese or some eggs, etc.) to get him to eat. Meal time would become sometimes a 15-30 minute exercise in who was going to be more stubborn. He would also occasionally throw the kibble back up (anywhere from 30 minutes to hours after he ate). Clearly, this didn’t seem like the best possible diet for him anymore.

I had considered transitioning him to raw, using a commercial raw diet like Stella and Chewy’s or Primal. Well, we tried for about a month and he really struggled with it. A) he hated the Primal with a passion and B) had trouble keeping both of the diets down. I instead decided to try home-cooked and use Grandma Lucy’s as a pre-mix. We’ve been doing this for about three weeks and it has been super successful so far which is a huge relief to me. I want him to have the healthiest life possible! I’ve been rotating him through several kinds of protein (chicken, ground turkey, ground beef, eggs, salmon, tuna) and it all seems easy enough to combine with the pre-mix. I give him 4 oz of the pre-mix and 6 oz of protein (I’m using Primal’s recommendation to give protein between 2-3% of a dog’s weight) split across two daily meals. I haven’t been following Grandma Lucy’s pre-mix recommendation (they recommend 1-1.5 cups per day for dogs between 10-20 lbs) because that seems really, really high to me in contrast to the protein. Any thoughts there?

Here’s my question: do I need to add any additional supplements? Like I said, this isn’t raw meat and it’s making me nervous that I might be screwing something up with the calcium and/or phosphorus. I’m assuming I should also add some sort of fish/krill/flax oil as well and would love some advice! So far, I had looked at Wysong’s Call of the Wild as a possibility but wasn’t sure if that was overkill (Grandma Lucy’s pre-mix has 1% calcium). Any advice would be much appreciated!

[Nicole K]

Sie66b: Thank you so very much for your info. I have tired the pumpkin and yogurt and that helps a little but not enough to where I can pick up her stools on our walk. Without the prescription we either have “pudding” or “water”. I am going to go very slowly transitioning when I do, but your info. has really given me some guidance of where to go. Thanks SO very much!

[Christina K]

You guys have been so helpful. I’ll get some plain yogurt, pumpkin, and sardines to give him for the weekend. The Holistic should be here tomorrow, but it might make sense just to have a few days of transitioning before heading straight for the new food.

Something that I gave him yesterday really bothered him, so I’m not going to give him any of the treats he had yesterday. I’ll continue with just chicken for today. If he has the same problem tomorrow, I’ll know it’s the chicken. He was shaking his head all night trying to get his cone off.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi Nicole –

There’s no reason why you could not feed freeze-dried food in the morning and kibble in the evening. Just try it out and see how your dog reacts.

Sorry to hear you had such a terrible experience with frozen raw! 🙁 It can be frustrating for sure. Some dogs transition to raw with no issues, others take awhile and for a select few raw just may not be the right choice and may never work out. A regular here by the name of Cyndi had a VERY difficult time transitioning her dog to raw, but it eventually worked out and now her dog is doing very well on a raw diet. I was lucky, I transitioned all of mine to raw (cold turkey) with no problems.

[Bobby dog]

Hello:
I just have one thought to add to the conversation. If/when you decide to try a new kibble I would suggest you transition to one that has similar protein/fat/fiber percentages to Dog Chow to start with. Some dogs don’t have any issues switching between foods, but some dogs have digestive issues when transitioning to a new food with higher or lower protein/fat/fiber percentages.

[Nicole V]

Hello everyone,
I’m new to the forum and new to feeding raw. I have a 20lb terrier mutt that I adopted last year. She has a pretty sensitive stomach, and for a while I was convinced that she had a chicken intolerance. I’ve come to discover that this is not the case, which is a relief. I tried to transition her to a raw diet, but had a pretty terrible experience. When I try to feed her frozen raw, she gets very sick, and at one point had to be hospitalized. 🙁 The good news is that she seems to have no problems with freeze-dried raw (right now, I’m just feeding Stella & Chewy as a treat). I really have no explanations for this, but am grateful that I have the option. At this time, I’d like some advice on transitioning her to a 50% FD raw and 50% kibble diet. Right now, she’s eating Fromm’s kibble…I rotate their 4-star line, which she LOVES. I add wild salmon oil to her kibble every night. She also gets freeze-dried green tripe treats, sardines, and fresh fruit on a regular basis. I’m looking at Vital Essentials right now (I like the limited ingredients) and would like to feed this to her in the morning, and feed the kibble with fresh toppers at night. Has anyone tried this? Does anyone see any potential issues with feeding a sensitive dog this particular combo and on this schedule? I really appreciate any feedback.

[Candi B]

Hi everyone, I am new here and, so glad I found this forum! I have a 7 1/2 month old Golden retriever. He is currently weighing in at around 60 pounds. I am feeding him Merrick duck and sweet potato. Let me tell you, when he does his business outside, he can stink up the whole yard! It is really smelly. I am transitioning him over to Fromm 4 star hoping to stop this problem. The man at the store told me I could be over feeding him. I feed 1 cup 3 times a day. The vet says he is in great shape , not overweight and looking healthy. Any advise or thoughts on this stinky matter would be appreciated.
Thanks, Candilee

[Mom2Cavs]

Enzymes and also probiotics may help. I believe there are feeding directions on the containers of the Mercola products….just go by that. I do know that my Cavaliers have sometimes eaten poop and other times did not…and I feel their stool eating was not behavior oriented but food oriented because they seemed to do this with foods that didn’t really agree with their stomachs (too rich, imho). I do feed enzymes and probiotics with each meal. Currently, (knock on wood, lol), no one is eating stool….Yay! They are eating Wellness Small Breed Senior and I am transitioning to Wellness Small Breed Simple Salmon and Potato because I feel my new guy seems to do better with grain free.

[pugmomsandy]

She might just need a longer transition as it looks like in the first week, you got to a 50/50 mix. I usually don’t increase the amount of new food until poops are nearly normal. So I would stay at a 80/20 mix until she has a somewhat normal stool and nothing loose. I’m pretty sure one of mine took about 2-3 months to fully transition over to Instinct, another high protein brand a few years a go. He was on 20/80 for a month. As far as waiting for the pumpkin, it sounds like she is wanting to be spoiled, and for you to give in. I wouldn’t call that concerning unless you think she will start getting picky and not eat only dry food. As far as probiotics go, check to see if has multiple strains of organisms. And then some dogs just don’t do well on some of the “better” brands. I had to give up on Merrick for my fosters. I would either start over on the transitioning or try another brand. I’ve had good luck with Nutrisource GF lamb, Canidae Pure Elements and Core Wild Game and Nutrisca.

[TJ]

I’m in the process of transitioning are 1 yr old from Science Diet to Merrick Grain Free. The first week didn’t go so well as she had more than normal amount of diarrhea when I got to using half of each food. I then decided to try Merrick Classic since it had less protein % and recently started the transition over but have noticed instead of eating her food right away like she normally does she is picking at it and running around the house with it. I’m using mainly Science Diet now which is what she has been on and and did notice I got a smaller kibble than normal. I’ve been putting a scoop of pumpkin in the food as well and now she waits for me to put it in till she eats. Is this eating behavior normal as long as she finishes the food or should I be concerned?

Also, does anyone have any probitoic suggestions? I was thinking about trying the Petco brand

[TJ]

Yes we are transitioning from Science Diet. Would the Merrick Classic dog food recipe be a good in-between food to use before moving to the grain free? It looked like it had 30% protein compared to SD 25% and Merrick Grain Free of 41%

[LunasMommy]

InkedMarie: Right now she’s 7 weeks old and I’ll be picking her up Memorial Day weekend since the breeder is a 6 hours away. So she’ll be around 9 weeks by then. I’m planning on transitioning her from the Purina puppy chow she’s currently eating to one of the 4 or 5 star brands that’s on the list. I just need to find one in my area. I’m just concerned what effects if any it will have one her (the purina puppy chow).

[Akari_32]

It is possible that you got a bad batch. Though Wellness has been great since they separated from Diamond, so I don’t think it’s too high on the list, but it could happen.

Most of the CORE line is chicken and turkey based (usually chicken, chicken meal, turkey meal as the first ingredients). Could be either of those proteins that they don’t do well on, or you went too fast transitioning them, if they aren’t used to getting switched around.

[LexiDog]

TJ – is “SD” Science Diet? Just want to clarify.

As crazy4cats said make sure to check with your vet to see if there are any parasites that are causing the problem first.

Personally, I think that it could have to do with the level of protein and fat in the Merrick GF especially if you are transitioning from Science Diet. The protein and fat amounts are dramatically different. Also, dogs have individual needs, so what may be good for one dog may not be good for another. Science Diet averages around 25% protein and Merrick GF has almost 43% (dry matter) protein with a few exceptions that go as slow as 33.7%. But either way Merrick is a much richer food than Science Diet that their system is not used to.

If the pumpkin is not helping than I suggest you try a moderate protein food between 32% to 35%. Such as Fromm Four Star Grain Free, ACANA Regional’s, Annamaet GF or Born Free. Merrick does have a Lamb & Sweet Potato GF formula that has a moderate protein amount but the other GF’s just go up from there. After feeding the moderate protein food for a while, try again switching to the higher protein levels.

[sdb421]

Thank you everyone. We pick him up today. I understand that it’s best to wait until they are 8 weeks or older, but the breeder is having surgery and needed for them to be picked up now, so that is what we are doing. We picked up our first lab (who we just had to put down 2 weeks ago due to cancer at age 12) at 6 weeks and he was perhaps the best dog I could’ve ever imagined, so I know that this guy will be okay. I will leave him on the Iams for a bit while he adjusts to his new home. From there I’m thinking of transitioning him to Fromm Gold Large Breed Puppy. Does anyone have experience with this food? Thanks again!