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What to pay attention to when changing food for a dog

Why does a dog have indigestion or vomiting when changing food?

The enzymes in your dog’s digestive tract needs to be proportionally adjusted to adapt to changes in food composition and nutrients. These enzymes may take up to two to three days to complete the adjustment process, and if you change food quickly or frequently, your dog will experience vomiting, diarrhea, and other symptoms due to indigestible food.

Is it ok to change dog food frequently?

For the sake of the dog, if the dog is an adult, it is ok to change the dog food every three or four months. If your dog doesn’t have stomach problems with food changes, consider switching from one pack to another, preferably three or four different foods (because different types of food have different ingredients, just as people consume different ingredients). Scientifically speaking, a slow food change is the safest course of action, as it will prevent your dog from becoming allergic to a wide range of food ingredients.

How should the dog with bad stomach change dog food?

Dogs with a poor gut are more likely to have problems with vomiting, diarrhea, and food rejection as their intestines have troubles adapting to the new food they have been eating. The correct way to change food should be to first understand the dog’s normal food intake, according to the ratio of 1 (new food) :5 (old food) with the dog to eat, until the dog’s stomach adapt. Once the dog’s stomach adapts a bit more, you can adjust the ratio to 2:4, and so forth, until the dog completely adapts and changes entirely to the new food. When changing foods, dog can have some probiotics to help regulate their intestines and stomach to prevent loose bowels.

Having chosen a reliable dog food, I am unwilling to change it

So far, no dog food is a panacea. For many fussy dogs, it can be difficult to choose a favorite dog food. But apart from the dog food your baby is eating, you really don’t need to feed anything else? Dogs (all mammals) naturally need a variety of different foods and get different vitamins and minerals from them, which helps to meet their body’s diverse needs.

Ways to change dog food

1. It is advisable to change once every three months. At first, when changing dog food, you can choose a small number of trial packages to test the dog’s taste. Once your baby has chosen a flavor that interests him, gradually change the ratio of dog food. At first, the ratio of raw food to new food can be 3 to 2. When the baby does feel more comfortable, the ratio of new food can be gradually increased, and the whole food can be replaced in two to three days.

2. Change the order of the dog food brand. If your dog food is A at the beginning and then changes to B, then you can change to A again after a period of time, and change from A to C, this can effectively avoid the continuous application of the same composition of dog food.

3, As much as possible, try to shorten the days of A and B dog food mix, due to nutritional reasons. This does not help your dog and also it’s best to avoid continuous application of the same food composition. As well, this may cause your dog to be allergic to a wider range of food ingredients.

4, A common mistake that pet owners run into is that when you are trying to replace your dog food, some dogs may seem to be picky, resulting in you constantly trying to find better food products. However, parents should first adopt the rule of regular feeding, which is to remove the food after 20 minutes and not feed anything in between until the next feeding time.

Photo by Tamara Bellis on Unsplash

Overall, when changing food for your dog, it usually takes around 7–9 days to transition from the old to the new food. By graduating mixing the new food with the existing one and increasing the amount of the new food will help with the progress. If your dog is still experiencing vomiting, bleeding in stool, or other symptoms, it is best to seek medical advice as soon as possible. Don’t forget to pay close attention to the dog’s poop during the food exchange to see how the transition progress is doing!

Petzlove Ranch dry dog food

Find the ideal dog food for your dog, check out Petzlove Official Website