Switching Your Pet's Food

By Claudia Loomis


There are a few schools of thought on when it is appropriate to switch your pet’s food.

First, you should switch your pet’s food if any of the ingredients in your pet’s current food are the red flag ingredients such as: corn, wheat, soy, animal by-products, artificial colors or preservatives.

Also, some pets can develop food sensitivities over time. If this occurs you should change your pet’s food by searching for foods with novel (less common) protein or grain sources. Our Cherrybrook associates can help you sort through the large variety of high quality pet foods we carry to choose an appropriate food should allergies be an issue.

Some experts feel that a pet’s diet should not be consistent month in and month out and that variety is required to keep the body at peak levels of health. This can be accomplished in two ways: First, by choosing a food that allows for rotation within the brand. Good examples of rotation diet foods are Nature’s Variety and Merrick. These kibbles were developed so that you could switch out the varieties from week to week or month to month simply by purchasing a bag of a different flavor or variety each time you come in.

Or, you can make a wholesale change every 3-6 months by changing the food you were buying to another high quality food. When doing this it is best to transition to the new food over a two week period by slowly increasing the amount of the new food you combine with your pet’s current food. This transition should take place over 10 days to 2 weeks to reduce the amount of gastric distress your pet will experience. If you want or need to speed up the transition, then introducing a digestive enzyme such as Wholistic Pet Digest-All Plus will help you achieve this and prevent loose stool and gastric distress that can sometimes accompany changing foods.