Trials in Dog Food....

As per my assignment (the primary reason for starting this blog), I put a poll up after my last post as to what y'all wanted me to write about his week.  "Switching Emma's Food" won by a landslide.  Okay, there was only one vote, but 100% is 100%!  So here we go...

First of all, there are a few things you should know (if you don't already) about switching a dog's food.  For one, the switch should not be an overnight thing.  You need to start out with about 1/4 old and 3/4 new.  After two days or so, bump up the ratio to about 1/2 old and new.  Again, keep this ratio for another couple of days before moving to 3/4 new and 1/4 old.  In (you guessed it) a couple of days, you can phase out the old food completely.  If at any point your dog seems intolerant of the new food (diarrhea, vomiting, refusal to eat, etc.), give it up - they won't get used to it.  However, I would like to add that puppies can throw up from eating too fast or too much.

Secondly, choose a good food!  All dog foods have their ingredients listed on the back (or on the side) of the bag.  These ingredients are listed in descending order of use.  In other words, the first ingredient listed is used more than the second and so on and so forth.  A food may claim to use "real chicken", but if it's 10 or 15 ingredients down the list, then it's probably not enough to make a difference.  This is one of those things where you get what you pay for!

Third, choose the proper food for the type of dog you have.  A puppy needs to be on puppy food for about 12 months.  Some formulas are designed for the entire life of a dog (Natural Balance is one of these), but most will have separate formulas for puppy, adult, and senior.  Some brands even have breed specific formulas.

Before we brought Emma home, Chad and I decided we were going to switch her to Science Diet.  Not that we didn't like what the breeder had her on, but I had never heard of it and I thought Science diet was a good, quality food.  When I was in high school, we (my family) fed it to our Bijon per vet recommendation.  We started at 1/4 Science Diet, 3/4 PMI Exclusive (the food fromthe breeder).  She loved the Science Diet and it didn't seem to cause her any trouble.

I guess dinner was good...

But then we got to 1/2 and 1/2.  She started having blood in her stool (which ended up being a round worm....) and then an episode of really bad diarrhea.  I freaked out.  I thought she had Parvo and was going to die (because I'm paranoid like that).  After talking to the breeder (Ree), we put her back on PMI and she was fine.  Turns out Ree wasn't a fan of Science Diet to begin with, but she felt it should be our choice what we fed our dog.  I looked at the ingredients of Science Diet and saw corn was the primary ingredient and chicken wasn't even on the list (chicken by-product meal is not the same thing as chicken).  This wasn't the food for us to begin with (every "expert" I've spoken with has told me you want chicken as the main ingredient).  At this point, Emma was only 7 1/2 weeks old.  We decide that eventually we would try again, but for now we would just keep her on PMI.

*sigh*

I was worried Emma had a sensitive stomach and that was part of why she was so intolerant of the Science Diet.  At home, we do not let Emma lick off the floor ever.  However, as she has gotten a little older, we have noticed she quite enjoys earthworms and has been known to eat crayons when they are left on the floor.  We started thinking that maybe we could try switching her again.  She was now 18 1/2 weeks old.  If you know me, you know that I research things before I buy them. Usually I only do this with "larger" purchases, but Emma's food was no exception.  We decided to go with Eukanuba (You-kuh-new-buh).  They use Chicken as the primary ingredient and are known as one of the best foods around.  I also found out the brand is owned by Proctor & Gamble, and I always love me some P&G!

The only issue we had picking out Eukanuba is that they have three standard puppy formulas:

• Small Breed Puppy - for puppies that will be 20 lbs. and under at maturity (Emma will be heavier than 20 lbs. - maybe)

• Large Breed Puppy - for puppies that will be 51 lbs. and over at maturity (Emma will be nowhere near 51 lbs. - unless we're the world's worst parents)

•  Puppy Growth formula - recommended for puppies 1-12 months (but no weight?  Why not 21 lbs. - 50 lbs.?  I need more direction!!) 

I had the brilliant idea to ask the lady at Petsmart which formula we should go with.  Normally, I find the people at Petsmart extremely informed and helpful - she was an exception. She was nice, but not so helpful.  First of all she told us we needed to buy puppy food.  Yeah, I think got that one down (I was holding two bags of puppy food).  Then she said we were feeding her way too much when we told her she ate about 1 1/2 cups a day.  We are not feeding her too much.  Emma's brothers and sisters were eating that much long before she was!  So after about 5 minutes of telling us about dog food, she said a Corgi is not a small breed.  So I inferred that we needed to go with the Puppy Growth formula.

When we got home, I pulled one kibble out of the bag and gave it to Emma.  She ate it! You should probably know that she is a little picky.  She will not take treats from strangers - only Milkbones.  Chad went ahead and filled her bowl with 1/4 cup Eukanuba and 3/4 cups PMI.  She ate all of the Eukanuba and perhaps a kibble or two of the PMI.  We both thought, "Oh crap.  She is going to get sick!"  All she had on her little tummy was new food that she had never had!  We waited.  She never threw up or acted like she had an upset tummy.  She did nothing but look at us asking for more food.  She still had a ton of food in her bowl, but it was all PMI (the old food).  We repeated the same ratio that evening, this time mixing the two so the Eukanuba wouldn't just be on top.  You see, sometimes when switching food on a dog, they will pick around the new food and only eat the old food that they're used to.  We had the opposite with Miss Emma.  She would grab a mouth full, spit it out on the carpet, pick through it, eating only the Eukanuba.  

 

I was left with a floor full of dog food....

Again, when she was done, she just looked at us as to say, "More, please!"  We knew she was hungry, but we didn't want to risk her getting sick by just switching over.  The next evening, we went ahead and bumped up the ratio to 1/2 and 1/2.  She still only ate the Eukanuba.  We never noticed any change in her stool and she never threw up - it seemed to be working just fine!  By the fourth day, we were giving her all Eukanuba with a splash of PMI on top.  She probably wondered why the heck we were still giving her this food she wouldn't eat!  We finally just stopped wasting dog food. 

Now having been on Eukanuba for a week, Emma seems to be doing great!  She seems to actually be gaining weight (she was the runt of the litter - so this is a good thing) and has more energy - although the energy may be a side effect of her growing up.  I am really pleased with this food.  I feel she is getting the nutrition she needs and is a more energetic pup.  So if anyone needs a bag of PMI Exclusive Puppy Formula that has about a cup missing from it, give me a call! 

God Bless!

-Shelley