Rotating food

[xidodsh]

How about these foods to rotate with?

I use Innova now, and want to rotate with Artemis and Canidae and maybe a fish base food, (any suggestions for fish) or another food to use

These food have pretty much the same proteins and ingredients.
Does that matter?
And, are my dogs going to get any benefits by rotating these food?

[MrsRottie]

Hi,
Why do you want to rotate foods? It's quite a long drawn out process changing from one food to another, it should take a week. To rotate between 3 foods, you'd constantly be working out percentages and weighing it out. Plus you won't get a chance to see which of the foods suit your dog best.
A doggies tummy is a delicate place - my humble opinion is to find a food that suits and stick with it unless doggie has problems with allergies etc.

[Becky]

I kind of agree, although many dogs switch cold-turkey just fine (mine being one of them). Many also have tummy problems. On the rare occassion that I switch food, I used a 50/50 mix of new and old food until the old is gone just to be on the safe side.

I would, personally, stick to Innova, or, give another food a try for a couple months and see which one your dog does best on. I don't see any real harm in switching foods; it's just something I personally don't want to do.

As for a fish based food, Maddi did really well on Eagle Pack's Holistic Fish and Oatmeal Formula. The Kcals are kind of low though, so you'll be feeding "more" than you do on Innova.

[3 goldens]

For fish, mine get fresh caughted & baked or canned mackeral, salmon or sardines. They do love fresh caught flounder, trout, etc, but I don't fish as much as I use to.

Every night mine get a meat and veggies with thier kibble. I usually give fish 4 of the 7 nights, and then the other 3, boiled chicken livers, hearts, gizzards, beef liver or heart, sometimes gound beef or chicken. Many times I boil white or sweet potatoes with the meat, sometimes adding yellow squash slices at the lat minute. They get canned green beans & carrot slices (I buiy the no salt added cans), or once in a while a can of mixed veggies instead of the beans and carrots. They LOVE supper. About 3 mornings a week I add scrambled eggs and cottage cheese or unsweetened applesauce to their breakfast kibble. By the way, I have 3 golden retrievers.

[opokki]

I used to rotate brand every 4-6 months. I felt this gave my dog variety in case one brand was lacking, another would make up for it. I did the switches gradually over about 2wk each time.
The only reason I stopped doing this was because Natalie developed anal gland issues (not due to the food switches to my knowledge) and I had to find a food that would help prevent this. There are three foods that work well for her but the second one is too much of a hassle to get and the third does not agree with my Toy Poodles stomach so I no longer rotate.