Rotation Diet For Dogs

How would you feel about eating the same dry cereal—and nothing else—day in and day out, year after year?

In the past, that seemed to be just what many veterinarians recommended for our pets. The thinking was that changing an animal’s food would cause stomach upset and gastrointestinal problems. And yet, that always seemed strange to me. How could a creature designed by nature to be a hunter/scavenger have such a sensitive tummy? I came to my own conclusion (rightly or wrongly) that it was actually the other way around—feeding dogs the same thing day in and day out, I came to believe, caused their systems to be intolerant of other foods.

I know that seems to be true of my own digestive system. By way of example, many years ago when I worked next door to a fabulous Indian restaurant where my coworkers and I frequently ate, I was able to tolerate the rich and spicy fare. These days, I try to stick to simple, healthy, easy to prepare, unprocessed foods, but when I do splurge on Indian food, my stomach protests. I think it’s just a matter of what a body is used to.

With that attitude, I can’t say I ever really followed the advice to feed my dogs the same food every day. What a relief it was for me when I stumbled across the notion of the “rotation diet” for pets in the Whole Dog Journal. According to the Whole Dog Journal: Handbook of Dog and Puppy Care and Training by Nancy Kerns, Pat Miller and C.J. Puotinen, switching your dog’s food every four to six months may actually prevent your dog from developing intolerance or an allergy to that food, as well as other health problems.

That very week, I began to transition my dogs from Orijen to Acana Grasslands. The following weekend, while at an event at Laundromutt in Cambridge, I took the opportunity to hear what representatives of Nature’s Variety, a small independent business in Lincoln, Nebraska, had to say about the topic.

One thing I liked about this line was how many different variations of protein sources they offered: in grain-free Instinct dry kibble, they offer Chicken, Beef and Lamb, Rabbit, Salmon and Duck and Turkey. Instinct raw diet options include Chicken, Beef, Lamb, Rabbit, Venison (my dog, Tatsu’s favorite) and Bison.

I collected lots of samples to have my dogs try out. They both loved Rabbit the best, so I picked up a bag of it at Laundromutt that day to add into our rotation. I also took some samples of the raw beef food in the medallion size for my boys to taste-test. I thought Tatsu’s eyes would pop out of his head, he got so excited! As if his luck couldn’t get any better, I’ve since discovered that the raw Venison version of Instinct is his favorite.

It’s amazing how fast two large dogs can blow through food! I suddenly found myself nearing the end of a bag, and in a rush to get something else that fit into their new rotation diet. Alas, Go Play only had Nature Variety’s Prairie line in stock, while I prefer to feed my guys the grain free Instinct line. They offered to special-order it for me, but I was in a hurry to get my hands on a bag sooner than that. Petco Unleashed had the raw, frozen version of the grain free Instinct I was looking for, but not the kibble.

It was Pet Source in Lexington where I hit jackpot, finding the full array of options from which to choose. In fact, Claudia at Pet Source was extremely knowledgeable about pet nutrition and was so very helpful and generous with her time. She heartily approved of rotation diets for pets and reminded me to very gradually switch between brands over a week or so to prevent digestive problems. She cautioned me to take note of the protein levels in each food, explaining that more care was needed when switching from a lower protein food to a higher one than the other way around, and that different breeds and individuals might do better on higher protein levels while others might do better on lower levels of protein. I had only a short time to absorb all the great information she shared, but I’d urge anyone with questions about what food their own pet might do best on to stop in to pick her brain.

All of this new information certainly makes me feel better about switching it up when it comes to what I feed my pets. No longer do I have to feel guilty for my lack of complete loyalty to any one brand or product. Now I can feel good about offering my pets variety to please not only their palate, but also their constitution.