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I was taught that if you introduce your dog with new kibble food you’d have to slowly introduce it to them and all that. That saying a have a few questions
1. Do you still have to introduce it steadily even if you have a young pup?
2. Would you guy recommend sticking to just hollistic, natural, and raw food when looking for variety? Because sometimes people often cant afford the 45-75 dollars for the 30 lb bags.
3. How long would you wait for their stool to be solid before realizing its not for them?
3.
Also at the store I get food they have:
Blue buffalo, Solid Gold, Natures Variety, Natural Balance, Natures Recipe, Halo, Merrick, Nutro Ultra, Natural Choice, Wellness, Science Diet, and *cringes* Purina products and grocery store brands
On a rotational diet, if your dog is used to rotating, you often don’t has to transition, you can switch cold turkey. But start by transitioning, until the foods you feed don’t give diarrhea, then if a food gives diarrhea or even loose stools for more than a couple days, you know it is not for your dog. When you are just starting, canned pure pumpkin, digestive enzymes, and probiotics help make transitioning easier. When I first started, I took a month to transition because I had a dog with a sensitive stomach. But after about 3 transitions, I started switching faster and faster. Now I don’t have any problems just switching up her food every day.
Try to stay with foods that are at least close in quality like 4 and 5 star foods, or 3 and 4 star foods. It’s big jumps in protein and fat levels that cause a lot of intestinal upsets, so get used to looking at the guaranteed analysis and knowing about what fat and protein level your dog is used to.
BTW, I feed kibble, canned, fresh, dehydrated, and raw, so no you don’t need to stick to one type, but you may have to pay more attention to how much water your dog is drinking if you switch between dry foods and water inclusive foods, so I usually mix the 2 together or feed them both in the same day but at different meals.
I didn’t know what I wanted to feed at first and wanted to try all the good foods so I ended up feeding about 3 different foods at the same time. I mixed them together in different amounts in a 2 gallon jug. When one big bag would run out I would get something different and then add it to the old food so they were never really eating a totally “new” food.
Can someone tell me how to ask a question myself in the forums? I can’t seem to figure out how!
I am also trying to figure out what to feed my 4-year-old dog who was on the recalled Innova. I tried to transition him gradually to what the pet store recommended as a replacement, which is Nature’s Variety Prairie Chicken and Rice, but he avoided the Nature’s Variety as long as he could and had to abruptly be on it when the Innova ran out. And he just doesn’t like the Nature’s Variety Prairie, so I am wondering if he should stay on it. And after reading on this site, I think that the rotating plan makes sense. But at this point I am confused. Does his not liking it mean anything important? Or should I just stick with it longer (he’s not ill and has been on it for a couple of weeks now). Thank you for any help! (I can’t figure out how to start my own question, as I said previously.)
Stewart1ollie2,
You go to “forum”, then click on a topic like Canine Nutrition, Diet and Health Issues, etc. Then once there, you can start you own subtopic instead of clicking on an existing sub-topic like this one we are on.
If he doesn’t like it, then it’s prime time to start looking into other foods for rotation. Buy small bags at first. You can even get sample sizes if you ask the store clerk. You can also entice your dog with some kind of canned food topper, scrambled egg, cooked chopped veggies and meat, yogurt, goat milk, fish oil or coconut oil.
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