[julesh]

From what I understand, it's good for a dog if you rotate their food. (I'm not sure if this is just to give them variety or if there's other health benefits.)

My question is how should one do this? Should I get four different brands and rotate them on a daily basis? Or should I get a bag of one brand and go through that and then move onto a new brand?

Also, if you are rotating through different high quality foods, do you need to gradually switch between them, as you do when moving from a low quality food to a high quality food?

Finally, how necessary is this? Is it better to keep a dog on one food that is working well, or is the variety really very important?

Thank you for any information!

[Renoman]

It's a personal preference really. The thinking is that it's good to rotate foods so your dog gets more nutritional value from different protein sources.

You could rotate each bag or every 2 bags - it's all in what you want to do. Some people advocate slowly transitioning however some dogs don't require a slow switch. You would have to make that call since you know your dog best.

If you are feeding your dog a food that is a high quality and it's working for him, stick with it. One thing you could do if you wanted to is buy a small bag of another food and just mix it with his regular kibble - he gets a variety and a different protein source.

Hope that helps.

[BoxMeIn21]

Here is a good article on the benefits of rotating foods.
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/how-o...nge-foods.html

When I fed kibble I would rotate every bag or two. As for how - it really depends on your dogs digestive system as to how quickly or how slowly you go. I can switch my dogs food without batting an eye, but they both have iron clad stomachs.
A good rule of thumb is to mix 75% of the old food with 25% of the new food. See how the dog does for a few days, then do 50%/50%, then 25%/75% and so forth.
Make sense?

[julesh]

Thanks for the replies!

[cookiesowner22]

also be careful on how fast u changes cause it can upset a dogs belly it good to mix foods somtimes before fully changeing or u could end up with a bad mess on ur floor or in your yard

[DogsforMe]

My dogs get variety by having raw bones 3-4 times a week, mostly chicken, sometimes lamb. An occasional egg & table scraps.