Transitioning Your Dog from One Food to Another

It helps to transition your pet to another dog food over a period of time. You can check with your veterinarian, but most will agree that transitioning a dog slowly puts the least amount of stress on your dog’s body. Typically, if you adopt a dog and he is used to eating a very low quality food start to reduce that food while slowly adding a higher quality food over a two week period.

These guidlines are for informational purposes and are a great general rule to follow in order to have minimal potential side effects.

 

  • Begin with ¾ of what your pup generally gets and change ¼ of your dog’s kibble to organic white rice (we believe in organic, however you may choose to use rice from wherever you choose). White rice tends to bind the digestive tract while brown rice tends to “move it along”
  • Then use one half of the total amount of kibble as a baseline and use one quarter of the amount of the new food. If your dog gets one cup a day you will be feeding your dog half a cup of the old food, a quarter of a cup of the new food and a quarter of a cup of white rice
  • After a few days of no digestive issues, you can begin the transition either slowly each day or at a quarter of a cup at a time over the next ten days to two weeks. Again, if your dog has a sensitive stomach go slower
  • Next will be ¾ of a cup of the old food, ½ a cup of the new food and ¼ of a cup of white rice. Several days to a week later, you will transition your dog using ¾ a cup of the new food and ¼ cup of the white rice
  • Several days or a week later you may eliminate the white rice and your dog has transitioned symptom free to the new food.

 

Remember that when switching from a subpar or low quality brand  your dog may experience some pretty serious gas and diarrhea. This is NOT because of the new higher quality food. It is because toxins, preservatives, additives, chemicals and low quality food sources are coming out. He is essentially detoxing. Therefore, do not be alarmed if your dog’s digestive tract seems to be going haywire when his bowels had previously produced solid waste. This mirrors what many humans go through when they do a juice fast or a bowel cleanse. They have horrible gas and diarrhea which is caused by all of the build up in their system being eliminated from their body.