Tips For Transitioning Your Dog Onto A New Food

There may be a number of reasons why you are looking to move off of your dog’s current diet. Food recalls are on the rise, maybe your pup just isn’t loving their current diet, or maybe you are looking to move towards a fresher diet in the new year. Transitioning your pup onto a new food can be stressful, especially if your dog gets an upset stomach just by looking at a new food! Luckily, you’ve come to the right place for tips and tricks to ensure a smooth and successful transition. 

The Timeline for Dog Food Transitions

We recommend a 10 day transition for the average pup. If you have an especially sensitive dog, you may want to take a few extra days to complete the transition. Rushing the transition or going cold-turkey onto any new food is almost certainly a surefire way to give your pup the runs, so if you can avoid it, don’t rush the process! In this scenario, slow and steady wins the race. In the instance that you are changing foods due to a recall, or if your picky pup picks around their old food, this might not be possible. If it is necessary to go cold turkey, keep reading for ways to boost and support your dog’s GI system during the switch. 

The ideal 10-day transition should look something like this: 

Days 1-3: 25% New Food, 75% Old Food 

Days 4-6: 50% New Food, 50% Old Food

Days 7-9: 75% New Food, 25% Old Food 

Day 10: 100% New Food! 

The vast majority of dogs will be fully transitioned by day 10. However if you are noticing any GI upset symptoms such as excess gas or diarrhea, you may want to take a few steps back and introduce GI health boosting ingredients. Pumpkin puree and probiotics are the perfect duo to add to any dog's bowl, but these ingredients can be particularly helpful to one that is transitioning onto a new diet. The pumpkin puree adds healthy fiber, and the probiotics give the gut a boost of good bacteria to aid in the digestion process. Probiotics are found in a few different dog-safe foods like plain unsweetened yogurt or kefir, but a dog formulated probiotic powder will likely give you the results you are looking for a lot faster.  

What to expect: 

Call us weird, but we love to talk about poop at Sundays. Looking at our pup’s poop gives us a glimpse into their overall health, and can oftentimes be the first sign we notice if something isn’t quite right. Changes in stool during a food transition are normal and to be expected as their bodies adjust to the new diet. Some dogs may experience a change in their stools color or consistency. Sundays co-founder Dr. Tory Waxman dives into what the ideal doggy BM looks like in this blog. When any dog transitions onto Sundays, our goal is for that pup to have smaller, less smelly, perfect poos.