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08-10-2010, 04:23 PM | #1 |
Donating Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: South Dakota
Posts: 206
| How do you safely switch food? My puppy is coming home next week and I want to switch her to a higher quality puppy food. I know to switch slowly, but how slowly? Don't want to upset her system. What do you feed your babies? |
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08-10-2010, 06:22 PM | #2 |
Donating YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Charlotte, NC
Posts: 2,359
| When I switch Levi's food, I do it gradually over about the course of about a week. The first three days, I feed 75% old food, 25% new. Then 50% of each for about three days. Then 25% old food, 75% new for a few days. And then he eats only the new food. This works pretty well for him. He usually will pick the new pieces out and eat them first. He is currently eating Orijen, which I think is an awesome kibble. Orijen has puppy formulas as well.
__________________ katy&levi |
08-11-2010, 06:27 AM | #3 |
Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 159
| I feed a lot of different kinds of foods to my dogs and switch them over immediately. I feel that if a food agrees with a dog then they won't react to it. We don't eat a bite of steak on Wed, two bites on Thur, etc. so we can have a steak dinner on Sat. do we? Dogs are omnivores, they eat everything. Again, if the new food causes loose stool or vomiting STOP FEEDING IT!! And no matter how good a food is if the dogs won't eat it it's worthless. There are so many premium foods on the market these days. Get samples and you'll find one that your baby likes and does well on. |
08-11-2010, 02:53 PM | #4 |
Donating YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: San Jose, CA, USA
Posts: 2,883
| it depends on the dog, some dogs have really sensitive tummies. my yorkie does. so i would make the switch as slowly as you possibly can. otherwise if you have a yorkie with sensitive tummy, it will take them a while to recover, and you will have to clean their runny poop for a while which really sucks.(usually if i upset my yorkie's tummy she takes a long time, like 2 weeks to start having normal stool again) so i recommend doing it as slowly as you possibly can. especially with a puppy, you will have enough to deal with all the potty training, and getting the puppy used to the new environment. sometimes just the stress of being in a new environment will cause them tummy upsets. plus it's nice for the puppy to have same food for a while i think, probably comforting to them. good luck!
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08-11-2010, 03:10 PM | #5 |
Donating Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Coral Springs, FL
Posts: 142
| Click Here: How to switch foods |
08-12-2010, 11:13 AM | #6 | |
Donating YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Charlotte, NC
Posts: 2,359
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__________________ katy&levi | |
08-12-2010, 11:36 AM | #7 | |
Donating YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: With my yorkies
Posts: 10,350
| Quote:
I feed Acana to my babies. It's made by Champion Pet Foods, the same company that makes Orijen.
__________________ He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion. -- Author Unknown | |
08-12-2010, 08:39 PM | #8 |
Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 159
| However you decide to transition a dog or puppy onto a new food is up to the owner. But please remember that many of the ingredients in the foods that we feed are not foods that our dogs would either choose to eat or are foods that will be easily digested and assimiltated by our dogs. If you have an allergic reaction to a protien source will you continue to eat it hoping that your body will at some point tolerate it? Would you eat the offending food in small and then increasing quantities in hope that at some point your body will be able to tolerate it? If your dog or puppy reacts badly to a specific food don't feed it. And for heavens sake don't continue to feed it in small and increasingly larger quantities until hopefully the poor dogs body will tolerate it. Will the people who sell the dog food tell you to introduce it gradually....of course they will. Big Red Flag! Food that your puppy or dog will thrive on won't take extended introduction time...they can eat it and immediatly digest and thrive on it. So many dog owners want to make feeding proticals and choices of foods far more difficult than it needs to be. |
08-13-2010, 04:39 AM | #9 |
Yorkie Yakker Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: stroudsburg
Posts: 67
| I completely agree with Raymonds mom about just give it a try and if it works for your babies then keep it but one thing i do know for sure dogs are very adaptable so they will eat anything to survive but they are not true omnivores they are actually natural carnivores... With my baby i dont have to do the slow intro to the new food i just put some on his plate and if he likes it he'll devour it if not he wont give it a second glance until i feed him the old food or make him something else i know he likes.... this is definitely one of those things that you have to figure out what works for your baby b/c like us they re all different.
__________________ Edward and Mom |
08-13-2010, 05:24 AM | #10 |
Donating YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Charlotte, NC
Posts: 2,359
| I agree that you have to find a food that works for your little one and that each dog is different. But in the case of my pup, if I switch his food immediately, he gets gas/diarrhea. He is so used to his "regular" food that if I switch it to another kind immediately it causes him upset. It isn't like humans who eat a different foods all day, every day. My pup eats his regular food only (an occasional treat yes, but he doesn't have variety in his meals the way a human does). So I have found it to be easier on his digestion if I switch him over slowly. I'm sure there are dogs out there that can switch easily from one food to the next - my brother's dog can, for example. But my little guy seems to have a sensitive tummy, and greatly benefits from a slow switch.
__________________ katy&levi |
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