I used to feed my dog Merrick's kibble and a little bit of canned mixed in. Merrick's is human grade and excellent quality, but it has grains. Good grains: brown rice, and barley. My dog was very very healthy, she had a beautiful bright white soft coat and clean teeth and clear eyes, no tear stain. Then I fell for the %26quot;grain-free, dogs are carnivores%26quot; thing and started feeding my dog grain-free Orijen. Well.. it changed my dogs coat. It made her coat a tinge yellowy and caused a lot of tear stains. I switched to another high quality kibble that was grain-free and same thing. I did this for about 2 years. I hope I haven't ruined my dog's health by feeding grain-free for those 2 years. Do you think I did?
Now I went back to high quality kibble with grains, but only oats, no other grains. Mostly meat and she is better.
Have you changed your dog's food at one time, only to go back to the old one because your dog was worse on the grain-free?
Have you ever changed your dog's type of food? How did it go? Did you go back to the old food?
A great book 'Real food for cats and dogs' by Dr Clair Middle will give you all the answers your looking for. Dogs are actually omnivores, in the wild if they ate a rabbit or a bird, they would have grass and vegetables and grains in its stomach, predigested for the dog, this is how the dogs get their vegetables. This is why some dogs eat grass, they have a strong meat only diet, causing them to be lacking in Essential vitamins and minerals, and their bodies crave some kind of vegetable, thus grass is right there, only their stomachs cant digest it as well, so they often vomit back up again. Dogs should be fed raw meat, and bones, never cooked as the good fat on meat turns to toxic bad fat when cooked, then they should also have a mixture of fruits and vegetables chopped finely or mashed added to their feed. the book is very detailed and great for your pets, and proven to help with many diseased pets get also. Kibble or biscuits, rice and pasta and all bad foods for dogs as they are high in carbohydrates, a un-natural food for a dog. you would see him scoffing a bowl of biscuits or past in the wild, and no other animal would either. These foods require a low pH stomach to digest, except the dog has a high stromach pH to digest hard pieces of bone. This caused intestinal problems feeding dogs high carb foods all the time, and it gradually lowers their stomach pH, so when you try to give them meat or a bone, their stomach can dissolve it and the vomit it back up. it will however graduall go up to high levels again. Try adding bits of bone (chicken, lamb, camel, kangaroo, fish etc) and meat slowly to your pets feed, along with thigs like grated carrot, capsican, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, apples etc to be on the way to a natural healthy diet.
Have you ever changed your dog's type of food? How did it go? Did you go back to the old food?
Not all dogs do well on all food. In other words what works for one, might not work for another. I had one hound who from day one had a sensitive tummy and whereas I fed my others on one maintenance feed, he had something completely different.
My advice would be if she was doing well on the diet you had her on before, and now she's not, switch her back to the one she did well on, regardless of what others say!?
To change their diet you MUST mix their new and old food in slowly untill it is 100% the new food. if you dont the dog can get sick and get dihorrea and vomiting.
sorry for my bad english :S my brain isnt working todaii
My dogs do well on grain free and grain food.They also get some meals of raw only.If I have a coupon for Evo,the dogs get switched to that even though Wellness is what they eat usually It sounds like you know good from poor food and found what works.
Yes, introduce the new food gradually. Even if they are similar, changing suddenly could possibly lead to her having an upset tummy, which would be miserable for everyone. but do give her the best you can afford - she's worth it. Keep an eye on her weight. It sounds fine at the moment, but Labs are garbage bins, and weight can start to go up very suddenly. A good diet and plenty of exercise and she should be just fine. Enjoy!
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