Transitioning your Dog into a New Diet

One of my favorite road trip questions to ask is, “If you had to eat the same meal every day for the rest of your life, what would you eat?”

This always brings the dramatic “UGH” to everyone as they even have to ponder the hypothetical question. BUT… what if that was a real situation- eating a turkey sandwich every single day, morning & night. Yeah, no thanks.

This is my long way of getting you to understand that eating the same thing, all of the time, SUCKS. It’s a great idea to change up your pup’s diet and most of the time you can spice it up with no transitioning- add chicken broth, boiled chicken, a scoop of canned pumpkin, freeze-dried bits and the list goes on.

However, if you are, in fact, wanting to change your dog’s food entirely, there is a process that you should definitely follow. This includes a complete brand change (which is what I am currently doing for my dogs) or even a simple protein change within the same brand you’re currently using.

Steps

Although we treat our dogs like humans, they are in fact not humans and it is very crucial that you transition your pup properly to avoid diarrhea and other upset tummy issues. Don’t worry, it’s super easy and takes almost zero effort on your part.

Plan ahead– when you have researched and made the choice on which dog food you plan on moving your dog to, go ahead and purchase it right away while also ensuring that you have AT LEAST a half full bag of the current food your dog is on.
Mixing- over the next week (I did two weeks due to Pippa’s sensitive tummy) begin slowly mixing in your dog’s current food with their new food- keyword being slowly.

Here was my exact plan for when we switched to Nulo Pet Food.

Day 1-4 I started with ¾ of the previous food and ¼ of the Nulo food. I continued this for several days and paid close attention to their stool (TMI, I know).
Day 5-8 Slowly I increased to 50/50 of each food, again monitoring their bowel movements in addition to any increased itching or redness on their tummies.
Day 9-12 At this point I was ¾ Nulo food and only ¼ of their old food.

Monitoring

I’ve learned that it can take anywhere from a couple of days to roughly two weeks until they get used to their new food depending on your dog and the sensitivity of their tummy.

After 2 weeks (this being the absolute maximum amount of time) if you notice that your dog is still not adjusting to the new diet. I’d contact your vet for further advice- from experience, this could mean a food allergy. During a previous transition, I learned that Drake is allergic to beef when I tried to switch the protein of his food.

Don’t be afraid to find food they actually enjoy eating. Moving my pups to Nulo gave me the obvious clarity that they clearly didn’t completely “love” their former food. Seeing Drake, my picky eater, easily devour his food was shocking yet exciting!

Bottom line, don’t make your pup eat the same thing, every single day, morning & night- give your dog some variety and spice up their diet.