Question about introducing new dog food

Since I've only recently switched to premium dry dog food, I am wondering if you all VARY the kibble you give your dogs? I'm currently giving Tucker premium kibble I got from DrsFosterandSmith chicken and brown rice. I started him on this about a week ago. I picked up a bag of Wellness Fish and Sweet Potato kibble today, as well as Wellness canned turkey and a can of Evolve pheasant and potatoes. I'd like to give Tucker kibble and wet food, or human food twice a day. Do you stick to the same kibble for a period of time, or do you alternate kibble/wetfood/etc, also Do any of you give your dogs scrambled eggs? If so, half of a whole egg or more at a time?


Prior to this he'd been eating IAMS dry food since he was a puppy supplemented with fruits/vegetables, cottage cheese, yogurt, occasional chicken and beef.

It's not generally advised, because of tummy upsets (though I know of a respected breeder/judge who does the same) but I not only change the flavour; I change the brand of dried food (within certain quality ones) and also, do some weeks of tinned food with biscuit and sometimes left over chicken, minced beef oe scrambled egg with biscuit. I alllow one egg per dog, but all mine are over 20lbs.

I don't change foods. I had such a hard time finding a food that agreed with Jake's sensitive stomach that it just wasn't worth it. Both of mine get a premium food. They also get veggies, fruits and supplements.

If you want to go from one dry food to another, I have been told to do it gradually over many days. First day 1/4 new food & 3/4 old food. Day two 1/2 & 1/2 and then day three 3/4 new & 1/4 old.

Jolly doesn't like to eat dry food, so I buy the same company's canned food and he gets 2/3 dry and 1/3 wet mixed in and then he'll eat it.

Yes, to switch over do it very gradually. When getting mine on what they currently eat I took over two weeks to do it. We had a super sensitive tummy here.

When my dogs were younger, it was difficult to find the foods we wanted to feed them (California Natural and Wellness). Often we had to wait for the food to be restocked at the specialty shops, no matter how proactive we were at keeping plenty of these foods on hand at home. My way of dealing with it was to buy Royal Canin at PetSmart as a backup food, that I sometimes mixed in to their other kibble. So we actually had at least 2 foods that agreed with them at any given time.

When Evo became available, I gradually switched them over to it. And Evo is soooo popular at the place we buy it that they always have it in stock now.

I have been thinking about getting the Wellness fish and sweet potato as a second food for variety. Just haven't done it yet.

I firmly believe that if you feed your dogs a variety of food (assuming the dog does not have a sensitive stomach to start) and without 'catering' to a fussy dog (eg introducing new foods only as a way to try and get a dog to eat) it will eat almost everything with no fuss or bother.

Dogs have very tough stomachs and simply changing a food, unless you only ever feed one brand and flavour kibble entirely on its own, should not bother them one bit. Consider what dogs will happily eat -- trash, old bones with decomposing meat they have buried ages ago, things children drop, scraps, dead animals they find, cat and other animal feces, raw meat...! All with rarely any problem at all (as I know from experience, having had only ONE incident of one dog getting stomach upset from something eaten off the sidewalk).

If you only feed one brand of kibble, then do try to change over gradually. I have always understood the reason for doing this to be more to get the dog to accept a new food tastewise, rather than anything to do with stomach sensitivity.

I know breeder Laura Lang regularly rotates dry and feeds a wide range of foods. Her dogs will eat just about anything, from salad greens to raw to cooked to dry to tinned to fruits and veg. They do not have any problems. I followed her feeding advice and ditto for me; I feed all the above. Mine will eat anything. I alternate meals from day to day or sometimes week to week though I'd never feed the same thing in a row for a full week. The dogs are very easy to board or kennel as a result. I have never ever had anyone turn up a dog nose at a bowl of food, except Jaspar when he was a lone pup and prone to playing food games.

Typical meals:

• chicken or turkey homecooked stew (with veg and rice or barley or oats)
  ground beef stew, with veg and grain
  raw chicken necks
  raw chicken wing pieces
  kibble with sardines or egg
  kibble with added cooked beef, chicken or other meat
  kibble with banana
  leftovers

To any of the above, added fruit pieces, veg, yoghurt, cottage cheese, egg...

The one thing I have seen make dogs get stomach or bowel upset is very poor quality kibble or tinned food. :yuk:

Thank you for your responses/input. Tucker's breeder, tells me she routinely rotates the kibble she gives her dogs. She believes they will get a greater variety of nutrients. She also cooks protein (usually chicken) and brown rice for them daily, as well as including fruits and veggies, though she herself has some concerns with the sugar content in carrots. I regret not following her advice from the time he was a puppy. Because the vet(s) discarded her food recommendations and convinced me to stick with that one dry kibble and nothing else, poor Tucker has had little to look forward to from his dog food. Thank God, I was at least adding the fruit and veggies he loves (although not daily).

Does anyone give their dog watermelon? I love it myself and eat lots of it in the summer. Tucker would beg for it, so I started giving him a little saucer/bowl of it several times a week. He likes apple, green beans, and carrots too, and even sometimes he'll eat bits of lettuce.

Because he's only recently gotten over his bout of sensitive tummy, I will gradually incorporate the wellness kibble probably beginning after Christmas day. (don't want any accidents at Maura's house) I can see a difference in Tucker's appetite and behaviour around meal-times. He now looks forward to being fed, as before he only ate the Iams kibble when he was starving, often leaving his bowl untouched till the evening.

Now on the egg .... I'm such a pest I know. He's 13 pounds, I'm guessing 1/2 of a scrabled egg a couple of times per week with kibble.

I've fed poached egg before (or to put it more plainly, non scrambled microwave scrambled eggs) - is raw definitely ok?

And I fed the dogs a spoonful of tinned salmon every day but gave up- there seemed to be too many tiny little bones and bits in the salmon. Was I being overcautious? Are littly tiny tiny fractions of salmon bones a problem? Also what looked like tiny cube of fish spine..:yuk: Anyone else seen this in feeding tinned fish? I used to give Holly tuna now and then but stopped because of the mercury.