Switching My 6 months olds food and need help please!

[soon2bmom]

Hi,

I currently feed Maisey solid gold wolf cub mixed with two spoonfuls of Natural Balance canned food (all differant flavors) three times a day moistened. Usually her last meal we put in a bit of yougurt instead of the canned food.

My question is what dry kibble would be a good chioce to switch to and also should I continue mixing in the canned food or just go with the kibble.If I should still mix in the canned food is it ok to give all the differant types? We usually go through a can of chicken then a can of lamb etc..... Also should I still moisten her food or no.

At 6 months old what protein and calcium level should I be looking to get?

Sorry for all of the questions just want to make sure I am getting it all right!!!

 

[GoCougs]

At the top of this very forum are two sticky threads. Each very helpful in answering your questions. They are:

"Dog food reviews and ratings"

"How to choose a good dry dog food"


Those will provide you with the tools for how to decipher what is good and what is junk, how much protein and calcium to feed a puppy, etc. Use those tools to decide which food is best for your animal. No two animals are the same. What works for one won't always work for another.

The food reviews will help, with both dry kibble and canned food choices. There is nothing wrong with adding in canned food, but the same rules apply. High meat content, minimal fillers and junk.

 

[gmacleod]

Lots of questions!

I have one also though - when you say "moistened" do you mean you soak the kibble in water prior to feeding it, or you just mean the moisture it gets from being in contact with canned food? If it's the former case, there is no reason to soak the kibble, and no reason not to either. So it's really up to you whether to bother or not. The only proviso to that is that should you feed a food that uses citric acid as a preservative, then it should not be premoistened.

As for the rest of the questions:
I personally think that canned food (good quality stuff, that is) is better than dry kibble. Or put another way, the best canned food you can get blows the best dry food you can get out of the water. Unfortunately, so does the price So there aren't many people who're able to feed canned only. But I'd certainly suggest feeding 25% or more canned (or real!) food if you possibly can. There should be no problems with rotating the flavour between cans - in fact, it should be a good thing!

Rotating the flavour of her dry food periodically is a very good idea also. Here's a short article that gives you an idea of why: www.dogfoodanalysis.com/changing_foods.htm So, since you've been feeding Wolf Cub, which is a bison and salmon based food, choosing something with different ingredients would be a good idea for the next food. Something like Canidae (chicken/turkey), Timberwolf Organics (fish, chicken, lamb), Artemis Fresh Mix (chicken/turkey), Fromms Four Star, Innova (chicken/turkey), or Nature's Variety Prairie - just as a few options there. Plenty more options you could browse on www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews - just about anything in the 4 and 5 star categories would be suitable.

At 6 months of age, she's fine for an adult or all-life-stages food. Ideally, you'd be looking for something around about the 24-26% protein range, and below 1.5% calcium. From around the 14-18 month mark, btw, there is no need to restrict protein levels, so she'd be fine on one of the more natural foods with around 40% protein. But for the moment, it would be more prudent to stick with something around the 24% mark.

 

[soon2bmom]

Thanks so much gmacleod and GoCougs that really helped alot!

By moistened I meant with water, so i guess I will see if she takes to it without the water and if not then I will continue giving it to her moistened.

I think I am going to do the Canidae first and then start rotating others in.

Thanks for your help.

Marissa

 

[tianthai]

We have decided to switch food every bag (33 lbs Timberwolf). I do switch very slowly, a period of 10 days to make sure that he adjusts well on his new food. Now we will stick with Timberwolf for a while and will switch only to new sort of meat. I don't moisten the kibbles but I do add some banana or carrot or apple or guava for Oscar. He seems to have loose stool with all the good quality food (5 star on www.dogfoodanalysis.com) and I don't want to give him low quality food with *weird* filler such as corn and fruits seem to harden his stool nicely and he loves it. I give him also raw meat three times a week, a clove of garlic once a week, two boiled eggs once a week. Since I am feeding him Timberwolf Black Forest which is quite low on Protein (22%) so I add some raw meat to his diet.

 

[buffylvangel]

Timberwolf has worked wonders for Belle. She has "progressed" from totally grainless homemade to Timberwolf kibble. Her poos are great on the Lamb and apple. I'm not rotating kibble with her. Her system is just too sensitive. I'll just add some different protein. She's finally up to about 42 pounds at 5 years old. Remarkable gain since she was weighing only 29 pounds when battling colitis/IBD at 11 months old.

Try the Timberwolf. It works.