# Changing Food



## swaye (Mar 28, 2013)

I have read several articles about how changing food is a good thing for dogs. I never knew this. On the contrary, I was told to get a good food and stick with it. Now there is literature about changing food frequently. Does anyone have knowledge of this? I feed dry kibble. I wouldn't mind doing this. I think Sofie has a cast iron stomach. She has ingested outdoor bugs, twigs, weeds and I don't know what all with no vomiting or diarrhea!


----------



## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

yes it's a good idea to rotate between two or three quality foods with a different protein source every three months ,IF , IF YOU DOG HANDLES IT WELL. since AAFCO only really mandates that foods meet minimum levels of specified nutrients, they can vary tremendously from product to product, and rotating can help average that out over time.


----------



## chataboutthat (Jun 6, 2013)

what three do you guys recommend?


----------



## lfung5 (Jun 30, 2007)

You can stay with one brand but just switch protein sources. Fromm makes it easy because you don't need to transition slowly. Acana is also great. Orijens and earthborn too

No ingredients from china and great ingredient for dry kibble


----------



## RitaandRiley (Feb 27, 2012)

You can check out www.dogfoodadvisor.com. Lots of good articles there, including how to choose a good dog food.


----------



## chataboutthat (Jun 6, 2013)

Thanks, y'all. Tippi eats a brand called Merrick, but I'll investigate these others!


----------



## lfung5 (Jun 30, 2007)

Merrick had had a lot of recalls so I stopped trusting them....


----------



## Clara (Dec 14, 2013)

lfung5 said:


> You can stay with one brand but just switch protein sources. Fromm makes it easy because you don't need to transition slowly. Acana is also great. Orijens and earthborn too
> 
> No ingredients from china and great ingredient for dry kibble


That's what we are doing for Buddha. We are going with Primal raw frozen nuggets. His treats will be Primal too. We'll switch between the different protein sources but stay with that brand.


----------



## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

Clara said:


> That's what we are doing for Buddha. We are going with Primal raw frozen nuggets. His treats will be Primal too. We'll switch between the different protein sources but stay with that brand.


good move, can't get much better.


----------



## lfung5 (Jun 30, 2007)

Clara said:


> That's what we are doing for Buddha. We are going with Primal raw frozen nuggets. His treats will be Primal too. We'll switch between the different protein sources but stay with that brand.


I've been feeding Fred the primal for a month now. He was on it most of his life except for the past year. I decided to go back to it because he had skin allergies. He had raw raw spots and also dry scaly patches. All the red patches are gone and most of the dry patches are better. I'm crossing my fingers that the food and going grainless on everything including treats, is what helped!! I do love the primal. His poops are so itty bitty!!! Once I run out of their old food, scuds and Bella will transition too.


----------



## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

:clap2:


----------



## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

lfung5 said:


> His poops are so itty bitty!!!


That's one of the things I like about feeding Kodi the home cooked chicken/HK or Balance-It food&#8230; His poop is very small, so I know that most of what I put in is actually being USED by his body!


----------



## Clara (Dec 14, 2013)

lfung5 said:


> I've been feeding Fred the primal for a month now. He was on it most of his life except for the past year. I decided to go back to it because he had skin allergies. He had raw raw spots and also dry scaly patches. All the red patches are gone and most of the dry patches are better. I'm crossing my fingers that the food and going grainless on everything including treats, is what helped!! I do love the primal. His poops are so itty bitty!!! Once I run out of their old food, scuds and Bella will transition too.


That's good to hear. One thing that always bugged me about kibble foods is what they did in water. I'm not bashing kibble but with some of them they expand so much if they get wet and the one I was feeding Buddha was a high quality kibble but sometimes if he didn't eat it all I would pour it out in the sink and when I would go to clean up the kitchen it was still hard in the middle. This was even sometimes left over night. I just didn't like that. All the expansion of some of them and the non expansion of others when they came in contact with water.


----------



## Clara (Dec 14, 2013)

Also with the Primal they recommend stainless steel serving bowls. I just replaced Buddhas bowls today.


----------



## lfung5 (Jun 30, 2007)

Thanks for the reminder. I've been meaning to get stainless bowls!!

Just placed an order on amazon


----------



## Pucks104 (Aug 16, 2012)

I've been feeding Ziwipeak but picked up some Primal to try just for variety and because I can get it locally. I will try it while I'm off over the holiday. I feed Leo out of Pyrex glass 2 cup bowls that go in the dishwasher after every meal. I have several of them and have found that they work well.


----------



## lfung5 (Jun 30, 2007)

My guys love the Zwipeak I like the Primal for the boys. I am still trying to figure out what to feed Bella, my picky one. Ziwipeak has little fiber and she needs fiber. I'm considering Ziwipeak with fromm because that's all she will eat!


----------



## Clara (Dec 14, 2013)

It was about a week ago that I thought about switching Buddha over to Primal raw. So I was at the pet food store and I asked the guy about it. He said yeah just add a nugget to his kibble and I said he doesn't eat kibble he eats Nutriscource and he was like yeah just add it to his kibble and I said he doesn't eat that brand...the guy was very perplexed. Poor Buddha.


----------



## Clara (Dec 14, 2013)

lfung5 said:


> I've been feeding Fred the primal for a month now. He was on it most of his life except for the past year. I decided to go back to it because he had skin allergies. He had raw raw spots and also dry scaly patches. All the red patches are gone and most of the dry patches are better. I'm crossing my fingers that the food and going grainless on everything including treats, is what helped!! I do love the primal. *His poops are so itty bitty!!! *Once I run out of their old food, scuds and Bella will transition too.


I'm noticing that with Buddha. When he was eating Nutrascource kibble he pooped 5 or 6 times a day with 3 meals and it was much larger.

Today we were able to go outside and PLAY instead of "work".


----------



## Clara (Dec 14, 2013)

And Buddha loves the Primal raw. What we have to do is smash it in his bowl even along the sides of the bowl so he can't eat it so fast.


----------

