When the time comes to transition your puppy’s food to adult food or a different brand switching slowly is the way to go. Switching dog food slowly is important because it can help prevent upset stomach and diarrhea. When a dog’s diet is suddenly changed, their digestive system may not be able to adjust quickly, which can lead to stomach discomfort and other problems. By gradually introducing the new food over a period of several days or even a week, your dog has time to adjust and adapt to the new food, minimizing the risk of digestive issues.
Reasons for transitioning food
There are many reasons why to transition food. As a puppy grows, their food needs will change. For our puppy Tuna, we got him at 8 weeks and the breeder gave us several days of wet and dry food with instructions to ween him off wet the food and onto to a full dry kibble diet. Now existing puppyhood, we transitioned him off of puppy food and onto adult food.
Food may also need to change in response to a problem. Maybe your dog is not happy with their current food or dealing with stomach problems. Working with your vet is key and important in this case. But it can take time to find the right food for your dog.
There may also be reasons completely outside of your control. For a personal example with a previous dog, we moved states and our preferred dog of many years was simply not sold in the state! But there can be other non-dog reasons such as a change in the cost of food and wanting to support a certain company or cause.
Plan for a smooth transition
You never want to run out of dog food, so plan ahead. When you know you need to transition be sure you leave enough of the old food for the transition. Our goals are:
- Have the dog fully on the new food as soon as reasonable
- Have none of the old food leftover
- Make it easy enough to do
A dog’s digestive track works relatively quickly, normally, a dog will poop out the food they ate 12-24 hours later. That is also a healthy fact for when they eat something they shouldn’t. We’ll round up to 24 hours to make it easy. That means that when we feed the dog on Day 1, we may not know if it was too fast until Day 3. Because of that, we can set up a stepped transition such as:
- Day 1 and Day 2: 75% old kibble, 25% new kibble
- Day 3 and Day 4: 50% old kibble, 50% new kibble
- Day 4 and Day 5: 25% old kibble, 75% new kibble
- Day 6 and on: 100% new kibble
This plan works well for us because we measure our dog’s food once in the morning. After two days, we move to the next step until we are at 100% new kibble. Also, to avoid throwing away the extra old food (in the food transition is not medically related obviously), you can repeat Day 5 until the old kibble runs out.
Using this plan, you will want to start the transition when you have three days of old kibble left.
Note that different food will have different calorie and nutritional profiles, so be sure to update your calorie target.
Remove all other variables
During this week, keep it simple. This is not the week to also try some new treats or edible chew or new human food. You want to avoid doubt. If your dog gets sick you want to know that is was the new food and not any extracurriculars.
If you use probiotics, which we do ad hoc, this can be a good time to use them to support the transition to new food. If you don’t or haven’t used probiotics, this probably isn’t the time to experiment with them. But as always, talk to your vet if you have questions.
Why do dogs get sick from new food?
Dogs can get digestive problems when switching food for several reasons. The sudden change in diet can disrupt the balance of bacteria in the gut, leading to an overgrowth of harmful bacteria and resulting in diarrhea or other digestive issues. Additionally, when dogs are switched to a new food, they may not be used to the ingredients or the way the food is processed, which can also cause stomach upset.
Also, new ingredients in the food could cause an allergic reaction. This can result in symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, and gas. Different types of food also have different nutrient profiles, so if a dog is quickly switched to a food that doesn’t contain the right balance of nutrients, it can cause digestive problems.
Finally, some dogs have sensitive stomachs and are more prone to digestive issues when their diet is changed. In such cases, a slow transition is even more important to help prevent stomach upset.
