When Should You Switch Your Dog’s Food?

As a responsible dog owner who loves your pet, you will want to make sure you have chosen a high-quality dog food for them. Once you, you may think your work is done and you can just keep feeding them the same food indefinitely. However, there is a strong recommendation that you should switch your dog food. In the following post, we will look at why this is so important ultimately answer the question of how often you should change it.

Why It’s Important to Change Your Dog Food

Although it may have taken a lot of research and perhaps trial and error with your dog to find a brand and line of dog food that they actually like, it shouldn’t really end there. There are some very good reasons why you may want to change your dog food on regular occasions.

• For one thing, dogs like all other mammals need to eat a wide variety of different foods to get different minerals and vitamins. Dogs, therefore, do not do well on just eating one type of food all their life. When you change the food you give your dog, the actual ingredients, you enable them to enjoy the variety their bodies are designed to cope with.
• Secondly, as the phrase suggests – the spice of life is variety. Do you enjoy eating the same fixed ingredients and food every day? Not just for a week or two, but for months and even years? For the same reason that you like to eat a lot of different food and ingredients,to stop becoming bored or frustrated with their food. There is no cause to worry it will create a fussy eater, as we are not suggesting you change it every time.
• Thirdly, there is not a single dog food out there that has everything. Even if they claim to, they don’t.
• Finally, and this may be the most crucial reason for changing food regularly of them all – it can help prevent allergiesfrom developing. There are only rare cases where dogs are instantly allergic to particular ingredients. Normally, allergies develop slowly due to constant exposure to certain ingredients. For example, your dog is most likely to develop an allergy to pork, beef, or chicken, if they are fed that every day for a long time.

Now that you understand the why, that leads us to the question posed at the outset and in the title of this post.

When Should You Change Your Dog’s Food?

This is really dependent on your dog and his or her health and how they react to food changes. Generally speaking, though, you should aim to change their food every 3 months. You could change it more regularly if he or she does not have digestive issues due to the change in diet. Even switching it when a bag is finished.

How Much Variety Do You Need?

This is also a good question. It is a good idea to have a minimum of 3 to 4 different types of dog food (both with different primary meat sources and supporting ingredients). However, more is always going to be more beneficial. Check out our Farmers Dog reviews as they are particularly popular right now.

What about if there is a particular brand or recipe that your dog likes? You can choose to switch back and forth between several different dog foods, including those your dog especially likes. As long as you are switching between them regularly enough you should still get the benefits without inadvertently causing your dog to develop allergic reactions to any of the individual recipes.

Although not all dogs suffer stomach or digestive upsets when their food is changed, some do. Therefore, it is always a good idea to err on the side of caution and change food gradually.

admin