Food Changes?

[karin hamlin]

Is it, or is it not recommended to change foods from time to time even if they are doing fine on what they are on and you happen to believe they are eating one of the highest quality foods available?(unless you are able to feed raw) there are so many good foods available now that i would have no problem switching it up every year or so but what evidence is there that this is beneficial?

[Lisa Darmo]

I haven't thought about doing this for my dogs, but I mix foods with my hedgehog - she gets a mix of the two very high quality catfoods, which is recommended on the hedgehog site I frequent. Why not mix, rather than switch?

[Trish]

I've read that it's recommended because it's healthy for them to get their nutrition from different protein sources.. kind of like if a person only ate chicken every single day.. I would assume it would get boring after awhile, and have heard that dogs can become allergic to their food when they are on the same food for a prolonged period of time, and that switching it up can prevent that from happening. I think that allergy dogs or dogs with a sensitive stomach are an exception to the rule though, because there are many dogs that can thrive only on one particular food due to allergies or gastric issues. What I do with mine is they stay on the same kibble, because I have to feed a fish based kibble since I haven't been able to find a kibble that has rabbit or duck in it, that does not contain any poultry.. Instinct makes a rabbit and duck based kibble, but it contains poultry fat and Louie is allergic to chicken. I used to switch back and forth between Natural Balance Sweet Potato and Fish Formula and their Potato and Duck formula, but ever since they changed their duck formula, I haven't bought it again.. but anyway, I feed canned food with their dry food, so I switch up which canned food I use.. I alternate between the duck, rabbit, and venison and I have also been feeding some raw.. beef and rabbit, they don't care for the raw venison for some reason. I'm probably going to eventually switch all the way to raw, it's just expensive to do with 3 dogs, and I don't want to only feed it to one or two and not all three.. maybe I'm humanizing them, but I think it would be unfair for one of them not to get it. There has been controversy about feeding kibble in conjunction with raw, but so far mine have done fine on it.. no signs of any upset.. I don't feed raw and kibble in the same meal but they get a meal of raw and a meal of kibble and canned in the same day. I feed raw in the morning and the kibble and canned at night.

[Rebecca Davis]

Hmmm... I wonder the same thing... I've just switched Abby to "Taste of the Wild"... but the little health food shop I buy it at, 45 minutes away doesn't carry large quantities of any of the foods.... she has "Wellness Core", "Natural Balance", "Innova", etc... They are all grain free... so what if I switched between or mixed? Hmmmm...

[Lisa Darmo]

I feed similar to what Trish posted. Lillly gets a good quality kibble, but I mix in a little wet food at each feeding. I am trying some different sources - Blue Buffalo, Eukanuba, and AvoDerm. The cans all come in different flavors, as well. I mix just a little bit in with each feeding, so she is getting different flavors/nutrition with her meals. One can lasts a few days, then I try another. If she seems to really like the a particular flavor/manufacturer, I'll get more, if not, I'll drop it. I'm going to get some of the other foods that folks on this site recommend, but most are not available locally. I'll most likely either have to either drive a ways or order online.

Can anyone with a lot of FB experience list their top five or so picks each for kibble and canned food? My dog doesn't seem to have allergies. I've only had her since early August - she was born May 1, so I don't know how this will work in the long run. So far, no stomach problems or flatulence...

My thinking is that she has consistency with the kibble, and the small amount of canned food adds variety. Are there any downsides to doing this?

[karin hamlin]

the allergy concern is what brought this up. i have actually found several of the frenchies on our site are allergic to chicken. i have decided to start adding a little mix-up of taste of the wild bison and venison to lolas food. ingredient wise i like it almost as much as origen but for less money. i like to take a couple of months to change lola over because she does tend to have a sensitive tummy. so adding a few kibbles here and there and then increasing as time goes is how we do it. lola gets some plain organic honey yogurt with her kibble in am and canned and salmon oil with her kibble in the pm. her poops have actually been firmer recently. i would hate to think it took her a year to adjust to her food! anyways, i appreciate everyones replys!

[Trish]

Lisa - The top rated dog foods can be viewed at www.dogfoodanalysis.com, just browse through the 5 and 6 star foods.

We have tried several different foods in our house.. we have never tried Taste of the Wild, which ranks very high, but we have tried pretty much all of the top foods.. Innova Evo, Orijen, Wellness Core, Solid Gold, Fromm, Blue Buffalo, (Merrick) Before Grain, Pinnacle, and Natural Balance. Louie used to eat Canidae and do well on it, but they made a change to the formula, and so I will no longer feed it.. the change in the formula caused too many dogs to become ill.

Like I said before, we have had the most success with the Natural Balance food. I wish we could try TOTW but, on the two formulas of their food on dogfoodanalysis.com it lists chicken meal in their ingredient list, so Louie wouldn't be able to tolerate it.

For canned food, it's best to use a grain-free 95% meat canned food.. I use Instinct 95% rabbit, duck, and venison, and also get the Merrick B.G. 100% Buffalo. A few times a week I do use canned food that is not 95% meat.. I buy some of the regular cans of Merrick, like the Grammy's Pot Pie, Cowboy Cookout, etc. The dogs really like it a lot, and I haven't had a problem with it. Evo carries a quality 95% meat canned food, as does Wellness, but my dogs cannot tolerate the Wellness 95% meat canned food, although they can eat their regular canned food.. the turkey and sweet potato. I used to use Evanger's canned food as well, but they had a re-call and I will no longer use their food.

Louie has a mild food allergy to chicken, but it seems to only effect him when it's an ingredient in dry kibble. He can tolerate it in (some) high quality canned food (the Innova Flex, Chicken and Rice stew) and if I cook chicken myself and give it to him, he has no adverse effects from eating it.

[Lisa Darmo]

Thank you Karin and Trish, your answers were very helpful.