Dog Food and Feeding Tips
Changing Your Dog's Food
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The following is an excerpt from Petfinder.com's The Adopted Dog Bible
When you adopt a dog it’s important to ask about his previous feeding schedule and what type of food he was eating. You’ll want to keep his feeding times and types of food consistent for a few days, and then gradually switch to any new food or schedule.
Here is the transition process to use when changing your dog’s food:
- Week 1: all old food
- Week 2: 75% old food, 25% new food
- Week 3: 50- 50 split
- Week 4: 25% old food, 75% new food
- Week 5: all new food
If at any point in the future you change your dog's diet to a new brand or type of food, you should follow a similar transition process.
While there are appropriate times to change a dog's diet, most veterinarians don't recommend frequent changes, as this can contribute to finicky eating habits and increase the potential for stomach upsets. However, some experts believe that you should routinely change your dog's food (particularly if he's eating a commercial dog food) so that any nutritional deficiencies in one brand of food can be addressed in another brand.
Whichever route you choose (consistency or variety), always watch your dog carefully when he first begins eating a new kind of food, so you will be able to determine whether it's giving him any problems.
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