Bringing home a new pup - Food question

HopeShelties said:
I've never noticed runs in any of mine on Wellness either. The only thing I can think of that may cause it is people switching over from crap to it. After all, Wellness would be much different from say, Kibbles N Bits.
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Our puppy had trouble with Wellness Puppy too. Not diahrea..but too soft of stools by far.. We switched him gently, and slowly, and I always had to add pumpkin to it for his stools to firm up. Finally, I took him off of Wellness completely.

I ended up taking our other boy off of Wellness too, because he would vomit occasionally.. Against my better judgment because I really wanted the highest quality diet for them, I went to Kirkland's Chicken & Rice which actually isn't too badly formulated. Ever since the switch, ZERO problems for them and it's been quite awhile now.

I don't know..I'm thinking dogs are like people in the area of tummy issues. What works for one, might not work for another ;-). I hated to leave Wellness, but just had to.
 
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Hi Guys,

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone here for talking about the types of food everyone has.

I was feeding Ella Pro Plan and after reading everyone's comments, concerns, and some of the feedback on other websites, we switched her to Blue Buffalo today. I just put out her first bowl and she absolutly housed it, so we will see if she continues that way, but she isn't a picky eater by any means.

She is currently trying to get into her food stash and is literally licking the bottom of the bowl clean. Apparently I got the good stuff.

It's great to see such knowledgeable people on here. It gives new owners like myself great advice.

Thanks!!
 
OK, maybe you missed the bit about transitioning to the new food? Our pups' tummies tend to be a little delicate so when changing foods, its best to do it gradually. Usually you mix the food, gradually increasing the new food over 1 to 3 weeks. Sometimes it takes a couple of days for their tummies to wake up and say "whoa! what's changed?"

Some dogs have stomachs of iron! That would be my Indy! But my Bacca is my sensitive boy!

Watch Ella's stools and eating over the next few days. You may need to be more conservative in your transition and reintroduce the old diet short term.

Because of Bacca's recent illness, I reverted him to his old food and am now getting ready to reintroduce the Orijen into his diet. But it will be a very slow progression for him. I need to do this in order to isolate the cause of of his illness.
 
Hi Barb, it was gradual, it was mixed in with her old food, I'll slowly transition her within the next few weeks.

She definitely does have a stomach of iron though, she has NEVER had any diarraeah in the 1 year I've had her, regardless of what she has ate. (Knock on wood).
 
Wagonracer said:
I also just started to transition to Orijen from Pro Plan... When asking around about how to transition I was told everything from 6 day process to a 6 week process (gradually adding more of the new food and less of the old). I am guessing that the slower the transition the easier on the puppy???
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I spoke to the people from Eagle Pack about transitioning and was told that generally there is no need to unless the dog has a very sensitive stomach.

I changed my dogs from Advance to Eagle Pack Holistic and my boy had problems with the chicken EP (okay with all others). I spoke to the EP nutrition advisor about this and was told that, if you are switching between fairly high quality foods, there is really no need to transition - bigger problems can occur by mixing the two different foods together. She thought that perhaps my boy was sick on the chicken because I had been mixing it with the Advance. And I've had no problems with the EP without Advance mixed in.
 
I dont know if you have Royal Canine in America?
I use this on Marco, but want to change, because i dont think its the best. We dont have orijen here.. Is Pro Plan better? And when i get the new pup, what ingreedients should i look for in the food? And what should i stay clear from?
 
Yes, we have Royal Canin.... ProPlan is a good deal better than Royal Canin. I feed it and don't have any complaints. And, I know a top of the line breeder who feeds it and if I named everybody would know who I am talking about.

I'd love to feed something like Orijen, but my pocketbook don't stretch that far, nor is it sold anywhere around here. And, to be honest the protein content is waaay to high for my liking.

I do not trust dog food anylisis website myself. I found several mistakes that they made and emailed about it and they never changed. One of them was something that Blue Buffalo had in it and right on the Blue Buffalo website they state they don't have those preservitives in it.
 
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Marco said:
I dont know if you have Royal Canine in America?
I use this on Marco, but want to change, because i dont think its the best. We dont have orijen here.. Is Pro Plan better? And when i get the new pup, what ingreedients should i look for in the food? And what should i stay clear from?
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Both my pups were on Pro Plan. My breeder feeds this to her pups and I thought if she's ok with it, then I'm ok with it.

But after more and more research, I finally decided to switch to a high quality food. I think Pro Plan is ok. There's far worse out there, but I would recommend that you look into other options.

Somewhere on this forum, there is a dog food calculator that was posted that actually does some math that suggests the actual cost of a high quality food is not that much more expensive then a mediocre because you feed them less. Try doing a search on "calculator".
 
I have question that is sort of related, so I didn't want to start a new topic.

My puppy was eating purina puppy chow when I brought her home. I gradually switched her about two weeks ago to wellness puppy. She's been on just Wellness for a few days now and I noticed that she doesn't eat as much.
When she was on purina she would eat the whole bowl of food. Now she eats about 1/2 to 3/4 of her food. I'm feeding her the recommended amount for her age and weight. Is she eating less because wellness is better quality food, so she gets full faster? I want to make sure she is getting enough nutrients. I feed her a little more than a bathroom dixie cup, 3 times a day.
 
That doesn't surprise me.

If you were to put a purina kibble next to a high quality kibble, you'll notice the change in density almost immediately.

My guys were on Pro Plan. When I first switched to Orijen (then later Horizon) I noticed that the new kibble was darker in colour and definitely heavier, even though the same size.

I think the Pro Plan was easier to eat because it was lighterand my boys used to scarf it down. Indy still scarfs his, but Bacca (due to whatever lingering mouth thing he has going on) takes at least 2-3 sittings, lasting 15-20 minutes to finish his meal.

I do think they get full faster on the better diets.
 
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