momto4kiddos
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,151
Jun 26, 2014 11:45:15 GMT
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Post by momto4kiddos on Jan 3, 2024 19:13:59 GMT
Our dog is ready to transition to regular dog food at almost a year old. Asked vet and the said stick with same brand at first so
If issues we didn’t just switch everything (I know to transition slowly)
Problem i’ve found now that i’m home looking. So many choices within the brand. I want to stick with the same flavor but it’s limited. High protein?? Sensitive stomach or skin seem to be the choices w/lamb.
So should I be cautious about the flavor as well as brand? Noticing some brands with probiotics in them. I have an older dog with a sensitive stomach on special food so that is interesting. Anyone have a favorite brand or things they look for in their dog food. I have small dogs, 15 and 22 lbs
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Post by taylortroop on Jan 3, 2024 20:59:44 GMT
We just transitioned our 14 month old German Shepherd/Bernese Mountain Dog mix from puppy food to adult food. We were told that as long as you stay with the same brand, you could easily switch the flavours. We use the large breed kind but I will switch the flavours because our dog gets bored very easily with the kibble and then won’t eat it. I’m finding that he prefers the fish kind over chicken. He also likes lamb with sweet potatoes.
Just make sure that you transition slowly and mix the puppy kibble with the adult kibble for a bit before totally switching. Good luck.
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Post by ChicagoKTS on Jan 3, 2024 21:31:34 GMT
We fed our mini bernadoodle Blue Buffalo puppy chicken and rice. Now that she’s on adult food, I alternate between the chicken, beef and lamb versions. She does fine on all versions with no need to transition when changing flavors. Sometimes I add a topper to just keep her interested and from getting tired of the repetition.
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Post by Basket1lady on Jan 3, 2024 23:03:14 GMT
I can't quite tell with your post. Does your puppy/now adult dog have issues that need to be addressed with food? If not, save yourself some money and just choose a food from the same brand. I don't even know that that is all that important if you haven't had any issues. Just increase the new food and decrease the old food over about 2 weeks. Puppy food can be higher in calories, so watch your now-adult puppy's weight. But if you follow the guidelines on the bag of food for the amount, you should be ok.
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Post by Patter on Jan 3, 2024 23:13:46 GMT
I will disagree with the no transitioning between flavors. We used to think that. We use Fromm. They have a lot of great flavors. We used to switch between several of them UNTIL one of our boys would start getting diarrhea. The vet said that a different flavor is like a different dog food--yes, same company but different ingredients thus it can cause issues. He also said that there is no need for different flavors. So we stuck with Pork and Applesauce, and he has never had another stomach issue since.
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dogbyte
Full Member
Posts: 117
Feb 23, 2018 3:45:52 GMT
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Post by dogbyte on Jan 4, 2024 0:14:57 GMT
Go to Dog Food Advisor web site to get decent evaluation of different foods.I don't agree 100% of their options but is a great start. Most vets ,sadly, don't get very much in school on nutrition and dog food ingredients. I Have a dog training friend that works at a major dog food plant,one found at many vet clinics, and she doesn't feed it. We haven't fed puppy food for the last few. Just good "all stages". If I am changing brands or major ingredients I just transition slowly by mixing in more and more of the new. I have 6 year old German Shepherd Dog that has a very touchy stomach so I have to be careful. The 10 year old Dutch Shepherd has an iron gut.
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Post by katiekaty on Jan 4, 2024 5:06:05 GMT
Our Charlie has an iron gut also. We transitioned him a year ago to adult food. He’s now 22 months old and doing well. We use whole hearted from Petco which is a good healthy brand in the chicken flavor he loves. Charlie is a working dog on a working dog diet with treats. He unfortunately also has gourmet tastes and would love to just have only Merrick’s pacific catch raw diet dog food that costs twice as much as the whole hearted! I keep telling him to get a job and and he can eat what he really desires but that fool dog prefers running after butterflies and trying to catch airplanes and long walks, agility training and takes 200 naps a day.
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Post by Lexica on Jan 4, 2024 7:07:32 GMT
I also highly recommend going to www.dogfoodadvisor.com to check out their extensive reviews. Also, don’t assume that because one flavor in that brand gets top marks of 5 stars that the other flavors of the same brand do as well. I give my pup Primal Freeze Dried Chicken, Turkey, or Rabbit flavors. I prefer the chicken because it absorbs the hot liquid that is used to reconstitute it so much faster and more completely than the other flavors. The ones I use all get 5 stars, but the beef or lamb flavors from the same manufacturer get very poor marks, 2.0 and 3.5 respectively. I just never chose the beef because I don’t eat beef myself so I was happy that I never fed it after I read that review. This is what mine has been on since he was 6 weeks old. I use whipped powdered goat’s milk to pour over the cubes to reconstitute them. He loves it. It has chicken, vegetables, and fruit, all freeze dried into blocks about 2 inches long. I whip the goat milk powder with one of those coffee wands and soak the cubes for a few minutes, then mash it all up with a fork and serve. I have to tell you, his poops are small, meaning his body uses most of the food and it barely smells. On the rare occasion that I have run out and need to feed him something else, the poop volume and odor is shocking. Since he uses a potty pad that sits in one of those trays meant to go under a washing machine, inside of my house, having his poops not reek is a big plus. This food keeps him regular too and he goes within 5 minutes of finishing breakfast. Oh, and big box pet stores don’t carry it. I get it as an automatic shipment from Chewy or Amazon. www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/primal-freeze-dried-formula/Just read some reviews and I would recommend buying the smallest portions until you discover what will work best for your pup. |
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