question about rotating different brands of food & supplements

lingmorton

i noticed recently that many people on the forum rotate their kibble.
i think its a great idea, since my shibas are such picky eaters and get bored with the food easily, also i think its great for them since different food have different advantages. i would like to start rotating my shibas food.
i have a question though... how often do you guys rotate the food, so they dont get stomach upset from the change? (vet said my shibas have really sensitive stomachs)
thanks in advance

ljowen123

There's actually two parts on this -
1. Doing the transition - I was very cautious (see overly) in the beginning. 1/4 new, 3/4 old first week, 1/2 & 1/2 the 2nd week, and 3/4 new, 1/4 old the third week. I still do this when we transition to a brand new food. I want to make sure Jazz isn't going to have a problem with the food. When we transition to a food she is used too, we do it in 3 days.

3. How often - I rotate after every bag, so roughly every month.

lingmorton

thanks
so each time you rotate, you gotta go through the "transition process" every month?

brandon_w

I rotate about every four months.

Ryu

I go through the transition process every time we rotate. We take about a week to transition and we rotate roughly every 2-3 months.

lingmorton

thanks all for the advice
am planning to start rotating soon, they have been on innova for awhile now, am planning to start them on Orijen and honest kitchen

ljowen123

I do a transition of 3 days when it's food we have been on before - I only do the long transition when we are trying one that we haven't tried before.

KFontaine04

My kids rotate every 2 months between Orijen and Evo. THey are used to it and we go through a 3 day transistion.

3/4 old 1/4 new the 1st day
1/2 and 1/2 the 2nd day
1/4 old and 3/4 new the 3rd day

Since they got used to this rotation they have no tummy problems or anything!

Romi

I switch between 3 different brands right now and usually switch every 3-4 months. Transitions usually don't take more than a week - if it is a food they have been rotated on before, however, if you are trying a new food, you should take it slower since you don't know how they will react to the new food.

lingmorton

thanks all very helpful info!

another question...

my doggies are on "solid gold seameal" and "glucosamine chondroitin chewables" supplements on a daily basis now, i was hoping to add another supplement to their daily diet, which is the "the honest kitchen-perfect form".
is it "too much" to have 3 supplements on a daily basis? also, how old should the doggy be to start supplements, can pups start on supplements too?
how do you guys go about feeding the supplements?
thank you all

brandon_w

I think that supplements are safe for dogs of all ages. Nemo is currently on three powder supplements and three pills. I asked my holistic vet about over supplementing and he said with the products I use, there is no need to worry. I use Standard Process supplements that all target different things. He said in his 20 years of experience he had never heard of a dog running into problems from too much supplementation as long as they are fed in the proper dosage. However just like humans, I'm sure a lot of it pees right out.