Saturday, 20 August 2011

Diet Transitioning - piece of cake

Fact of the matter is, sometimes your pet will have to change diets. Whether for a medical reason or maybe something as simple as they don't manufacture their favorite food anymore. So now what? How you know which diet to choose and if Fido or Fluffy will even like it?

The good news is: You veterinarian or veterinary technician can definitely recommend a new diet. The other good news is that if you choose to feed a veterinary exclusive diet, they usually come with a money back guarantee if your pet refuses to eat it. The third piece of good news, is that it can often be cheaper to feed than the grocery store brand (find out how on Earth this is possible here). 

Now that you have the new food, though, here are some tips to make it go smooth so that your pet accepts it: 

  1. Do a one week (at least) transition from the old food to the new food. This is recommended so that your pets gut has a chance to be slowly introduced to the new food without getting upset and having diarrhea all over your new carpets.
  2. The transition starts with a 25%:50% mix of new food:old food. Once you are happy your pet is willing to eat this without a second thought (~2 days), you can move on to the next stage.
  3. The next stage is, you guessed it, 50:50 mix of old and new diets. Again, continue this until you are happy there is not a second thought about what is in that bowl and no signs of diarrhea (~2 days).
  4. Then you move on to the 75%:25% new : old diets. Repeat above recommendations for about 2 days.
  5. On the final day, your pet is ready to take on 100% of the new diet. You did it! 

If at any point your pet is unhappy with the new diet, you can encourage its consumption by pouring on a little tuna juice (cats) or a little low salt chicken or beef broth (cats or dogs) to make it a little ore appealing. Another alternative is to go back to the stage where your pet was eating it all and spend a few more days on that before trying to increase the mixture of new to old foods. 

Need more advice? Ask Mel 

Until Next Time,

Mel, RVT

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