Rotating foods?

karrin · Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 10:25 pm Post subject: Rotating foods?

I've been hearing a lot about rotating foods. How many of you do this, and how often? Does the switching cause stomach upset? I'm hoping someone can give me the how-tos along with the pros and cons.

Thanks in advance!

K&K (Karrin and Kaiser) Very Happy

iris · Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 8:05 am Post subject:

Hi there,
This was smth i was considering when we were using kibble (we are on a raw diet now) and AmyB posted this as a personal message to me which helped me understand a lot:

"
From: AmyB
To: iris
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 1:55 pm
Subject: Re: A question about your dog food..
I've had Holly on the same rotation now for about 6 months. We also use Canidae (great food, by the way) and we alternate with Innova Evo and Solid Gold. It was my natural assumption that it would be healthier to mix the 3 foods together until I read this...

"What about just mixing foods together?

Mixing foods together can certainly help to ensure nutritional adequacy for the long term. But it does nothing to provide your dog with variety (something different to eat!) and it does not satisfy the criteria of avoiding constant or prolonged exposure to a particular set of ingredients. So this practice will do nothing to help avoid the development of food allergies – it just means that there are a greater number of things the dog is being exposed to on a constant basis. It also means that there is a wider range of possible culprits should a food allergy develop. You can mix foods if you choose, but you should vary the foods that you mix together, just as if you were feeding a single food."

The whole article can be found here...
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/how-often-should-i-change-foods.html

And I also read this ...

"Myths about Feeding and Nutrition

Mixing different dog food brands will improve my dog's diet

This misconception seems to originate from dog owners unconsciously feeling guilty about the type of food they feed, or those following their own ideas for "improving" their dog's diet without doing any research.

Every brand of dog food follows a specific formulation and nutritional philosophy, developed by the manufacturer. All products are formulated to supply a balanced amount of nutrients in a ration of a certain size (remember kibble size and density vary from brand to brand), based on the body weight of the dog. When mixing different kibbles, instead of getting "the best of both", your dog isn't going to eat enough of either one to get the full benefit of a particular nutritional system designed and researched by a manufacturer. Last but not least, if digestive upset occurs, it's going to take so much longer to figure out what exactly caused it, compared to just eliminating either the commercial food or whatever extras were fed recently. If you want to offer more variety, stick to one line of food of the same brand at a time and rotate between brands every few months. Supplementing the dry food with fresh, unprocessed foods like vegetables, fruit, yogurt, meat or a bit of canned food is also safe and healthy. "

The whole article can be read here...
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=myths

I'm the type of person who usually researches both sides of story instead of believing the first thing I read but this just made sense to me and it came from a trusted source so I started practicing it. I'm no expert and I'm not sure what is better, mixing or rotating, but I just thought I'd give you info that I found in case you would find it useful. If you find anything supporting mixing I'd love to see that too. Like I said, I DO like to research both side before forming my own opinion (even though that's not always the way it happens).

I'm so happy to have met someone else who cares about their dogs nutrition, you don't find that alot (especially in person). I have a sister who feeds her dogs Pedigree despite all of the information I've passed on to her.
"
_________________
~Amy~Holly~
~DC Area Weim Rescue~
www.dcweimclub.org/rescue

Banshee13 · Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 7:08 pm Post subject:

Thanks, Iris (and Amy) for the info. I'm having food issues right now and not sure which direction to go in.

Peri

AmazingGrayce · Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 7:19 pm Post subject:

I always use Flint River Ranch dog food but I do rotate the type between a 20lb bag of their puppy and adult kibble and a 20lb bag of fish and chips (trout and potato). Grace is a funny eater and she gets bored really quick. The food gets auto delivered to me so I just order a bag of each.

I do have to slowly switch her over to the new food by mixing it and each day lessoning one type and increasing the one Im switching to or she will get an upset tummy (super sensitive stomach).

I do it purely for the fact that she gets bored of her food.