Changing Your Pet’s Diet

We’ve all done it, once or twice. You have a lovely breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast. Then lunch comes around and that Cajun chicken wrap is looking amazing! And then followed up with All You Can Eat sushi for dinner! Sounds like a bunch of good eating to me. And maybe a bit of a stomach ache. Variety is the spice of life, after all.  Who wouldn’t want to change up what you eat all the time?

Your pets.

Unfortunately, our pets don’t have quite as resilient a stomach as we do. We can switch from a salad to a steak to tasty carbs. Our pets aren’t as lucky. Any quick changes to their diet can have some unwanted side effects, like diarrhea, or upset stomach. No one likes diarrhea. So, the best bet is decide which food you want to change your pet to and making sure it is a suitable diet for whatever needs they may have. Make sure you have a decent amount of their old food left, as well. You will need this to mix with the new food for a while. The mixing ratio should look, roughly, like this:

Day 1-3: 75% old food – 25% new food
Day 4-6: 50% old food – 50% new food
Day 7-8 25% old food – 75% new food

Keep in mind, if there are any hints that the new food isn’t sitting well (diarrhea, upset stomach, overly gassy) you should dial down the new food to the previous step before trying again. Picking up a type of probiotic under the advice of your vet, of course and adding it to the food can help minimize the stress on the stomach.

Also, if you want to give your pet a different type of something as a treat, you can always talk to your vet about which veggies and/or fruits would be an appropriate (and occasional) treat for your pet. Be sure to ask your vet first, as some veggies and fruits aren’t appropriate for all animals!  And, feel free to give us at Coxwell Animal Clinic a call, and we can go over any of this with you.

Happy Feeding!