Changing your Dog’s Food
Last updated 5/18/15, Originally posted on 5/4/13
Weekly Bible Verse: Mark 16:15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
We are being obedient by preaching the gospel to the world through our website. Those that come to our website to learn more about the care of God’s animals, such as how to change a dog’s food, will also learn more about the Creator. God the Creator has designed every living thing, even us humans! In fact we humans are created in the image of God and God has given us dominion over the animals. God has created a very complex world with great detail! The dogs digestive system is also very amazingly detailed! When food reaches a dog’s stomach it is processed with hydrochloric acid. This acid can break down large pieces of protein and even bones that the dog ingests. Bones that pass through a dogs healthy digestive system true into a powder, that’s how well a dogs digestive system works! Dog’s also have a instinct that allows them to spit out food that has not been processed correctly, then to re-swallow it. Now that’s an amazing design!
Should you decided to change your dog’s diet you will need to do so slowly over the period of 2-3 weeks. You must remember that after feeding your dog the same food, daily for a few weeks, their digestive system will be so accustom to the food that changing it suddenly will upset your dogs digestive system in some way big or small. To start changing you dog’s food, add in the new food to the old food little by little. As you add the new food remove some of the old food. Remember to add the new food in slowly so that at 2-3 weeks you will just then be removing the last little bit of the old food. Suddenly changing your dog’s diet may give them an upset stomach and can cause them to have diarrhea or even vomit.
For an example lets say you have a large dog that eats 4 cups of food a day. See example below for a dog that eats 4 cups of dog kibble a day.
DAY 1 of changing the dogs food: remove 1/4 of a cup of the old food (this is also the same as removing 6.25% of your dogs old food) and mix in 1/4 of the new food. Now you will be feeding your dog 3 3/4 cups of their old food with 1/4 cup of the new food.
DAY 2: Feed 3 1/2 cups of their old food with 1/2 cup of the new food.
DAY 3: Feed 3 1/4 cups of their old food with 3/4 cup of the new food.
DAY 4: Feed 3 cups of their old food with 1 cup of the new food.
DAY 5: Feed 2 3/4 cups of their old food with 1 1/4 cups of the new food.
DAY 6: Feed 2 1/2 cups of their old food with 1 1/2 cups of the new food.
DAY 7: Feed 2 1/4 cups of their old food with 1 3/4 cups of the new food.
DAY 8: Feed 2 cups of their old food with 2 cup of the new food.
DAY 9: Feed 1 3/4 cups of their old food with 2 1/4 cups of the new food.
DAY 10: Feed 1 1/2 cups of their old food with 2 1/2 cups of the new food.
DAY 11: Feed 1 1/4 cups of their old food with 2 3/4 cups of the new food.
DAY 12: Feed 1 cup of their old food with 3 cups of the new food.
DAY 13: Feed 3/4 cup of their old food with 3 1/4 cups of the new food.
DAY 14: Feed 1/2 cup of their old food with 3 1/2 cups of the new food.
DAY 15: Feed 1/4 cup of their old food with 3 3/4 cups of the new food.
DAY 16: Feed 0 cups of their old food with 4 cups of the new food.
If you want to change your dog’s food a little slower than above you can repeat one of the days before moving on to the next day of increase in new food. You will also need to remember that not all dog food have the same protein levels. If you are changing your dog to a food with a higher protein levels they may not eat all of the new food so you may need to add a little less of the new food to replace the old food. The same is true if you are changing your dog to a food with less protein; then you will need to do the opposite and add in more of the lesser protein food.
If you did not follow the steps above, plain canned pumpkin(ingredients should only list Water and Pumpkin) can be given to a dog to correct diarrhea. We give small dogs just a table spoon or two with their food and it works wonders. Be sure to see our creature tips on dog food to lean how to read ingredients for yourself and how to select a food for your dog.