August's Mommy

I decided that I would change August's food since he had started to show little interest in it. I was eating Purina Puppy Chow. I switched him to Fromm's dry Puppy Gold. We switched on Sunday, and I've been mixing some of the Puppy Chow with the Fromm's as half/half as I can get it to try to prevent upset stomach. I don't think it worked. He's had diarrhea and I can hear his tummy rumbling

Anyone know of anything else I can do to help settle his stomach until he gets used to the new food?

Barney'spal

Try adding some pumpkin or natural yogurt. They love it & it's good for their tummys.

Annie714

Well...there's your problem! Repeat after me: "It's not people food." Ok sorry, couldn't keep my smart-rear-ended comment to myself.

If you switched on sunday then you need to give it more time. Since you started at 50:50 keep going on that for a while, then 25(old food):75(new food) for a bit more, then you can transition him to 100% new stuff. Pumpkin is a good "binder" and the yogurt will replace the good bacteria in his gut while his intestines clear out the garbage. If you know anywhere near you that sells The Honest Kitchen supplements, they make one called "Perfect Form" and it's an additive to help your dog transition between foods. Also, be careful on the amount you feed him. I'm not positive, but I'd imagine with a higher end food like Fromms you will need to feed much less than with the Purina. Too much of a good thing will also cause intestinal distress.

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Wworm

lol, Annie..!!

oh yes.... 2 thumbs up for yohguht... i always get that when my tummy's upset.
--Worm

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Herzo

Yes I agree with Annie, Fromms is such a much better food that you will probably have to cute back how much you are feeding. But that's the good thing.

Mikey T

Mistake 1 puppies go through growth spurts the amount of food the need and desires changes dramatical if you change food every time the dog shows a lack of interest you end up with a picky eater because you have taught him ignore the food and you get something better.

The only real jusge of quality is how the dog does on it not some magical ingredient list or recoomendation etc. My dogs have never tollerate welleness a highly ranked dog food does make wellness bad just bad for my dogs that will happen with other foods and other dogs,.

the reason you get stomach upset from switching food is quite simple. When you feed the same thing over and over the flora and fuana in the gut become specialized and optomized to digest that particular food combination the more raddicallty different the new food is from the old the harder time the dog is going to have to adjusting. However if you regualar change foods often the flora and funa in the gut remain more diverse and can handle a change with causign an upset.


In such a case as yours a 50/50 mix is too radical the rule of thumb is 1/8 to 7/8 add an 1/8 to the new food and removing an 1/8 of the old every week it takes two months to complete the change on a practical note when you get past the 50/50 mark it is general safe to go 100% with the new after that,

pumpkin incease fiber sometime too much fiber is the problem in the first place the answar is not allway more fiber. and for the yuogurt make sure it has live culture. Paturized yougurt is useless in reguating the gut.

August's Mommy

Well I didn't see the live culture thing about the yogurt before I went to the store so I just got low fat vanilla yogurt....he seemed to enjoy it a lot....even if it doesn't help any.

charady2

All of our yogurt just says active cultures-is that the same thing or good enough? I bought some for the kong last night lol.

Mikey T

live = active

pasturized = dead = not moving


The yogurts promoted for digestive health ie "activia" likely have more active culture than traditional store yogurts but less than fresh homemade varieties.