# dog food rotation, what do you feed? opinions?



## lexichae (Oct 23, 2013)

Hi everyone, i was just interested in getting some opinions on dog food rotation. I have recently started rotating my foods. I was just wondering how much variation do you think is too much? I feed my dogs kibble only, i was doing some raw but that is too expensive for me. Here is a list of my thoughts for a rotation (I go through a large bag of food about every 1 1/2 weeks) 

1 wellness core ocean
2 evo herring and salmon
3 wellness core wild game
4 taste of the wild high prairie
5 evo turkey and chicken
6 wellness core ocean
7 evo red meat
8 taste of the wild high prairie

what are your thoughts? what do you feed your dog?


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## Bumper1 (Jul 14, 2013)

lexichae said:


> Hi everyone, i was just interested in getting some opinions on dog food rotation. I have recently started rotating my foods. I was just wondering how much variation do you think is too much? I feed my dogs kibble only, i was doing some raw but that is too expensive for me. Here is a list of my thoughts for a rotation (I go through a large bag of food about every 1 1/2 weeks)
> 
> 1 wellness core ocean
> 2 evo herring and salmon
> ...


So are you saying you give your dog a new food after 1 1/2 weeks? I don't rotate. Mine have been on the same food for close to 4 years and before that the same food for about 13 years. 

If you said you switched twice a year, that's one thing, but why in the world would you switch your dog every 10 days or so?

What are you trying to achieve? Most of those choices are very unhealthy by the way.


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

I rotate on occasion, I think it is useful to know several foods that work well for my dog or dogs and that are easy to get locally. I don't go through a bag so quickly so I don't have experience switching dogs that often. It takes maybe 4-6 weeks between food bags for me. I do switch my foster dogs cold turkey to a new food because I rarely know what food they have been eating and I haven't ever had a problem with this.

I like to introduce a few foods at least so that I have the option of picking the best priced food or if a store is out of a food then I can pick another that I know will work. I also figure that every food has a slightly different mix of ingredients and nutrients so having variety over time isn't a bad thing in covering a dog's nutritional needs.

I feed everything from raw to fairly cheap dry food. What works for specific dog is most important aside from general quality control and cost. For cheap but reliable manufacturer, I like Fromm Classic. For dehydrated I like Grandma Lucy's PureFormance line. For lower mid-range dry kibble, if you are okay with Diamond products than TOTW or Premium Edge (grain inclusive) have done well with the dogs I feed and are easy to find. For some dogs, I find Earthborn to work the best for their formulas without grains, chicken or potato. Yes, they are heavy on the peas/pea protein but they have worked well and are available to me locally.


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## lexichae (Oct 23, 2013)

Bumper what food do you feed? And why are these unhealthy? I'm interested in expanding my knowledge. I would like to feed orijen but it is so expensive


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## BernerMax (Mar 15, 2013)

I feed a mix of Solid Gold Wolf cub (large breed puppy) and Annaemet Venison adult..... was thinking of switching to the latter but its not that much more reasonable and I just got some of the former on sale for cheap (50 for the big bag with free shipping) so am mixing that back in--- I also add raw goats milk and raw bones ... Puppy is 50 lbs at 19 weeks so we def have large breeds..... they all eat the same kibble...


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## domika (Jul 1, 2012)

I feed a mixture of kibble and The Honest Kitchen. Sometimes just kibble, sometimes just THK. Right now the kibble I use is Annamaet Option and then I have a few sample boxes of THK so I can switch the flavors around. It takes me about 2 months to go through the smallest bags of food so I switch every bag. Up next I think I have some Go! Daily Defense Lamb.


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## zhaor (Jul 2, 2009)

lexichae said:


> Bumper what food do you feed? And why are these unhealthy? I'm interested in expanding my knowledge. I would like to feed orijen but it is so expensive


If your dog isn't getting the runs from every switch, then the frequency doesn't really matter. People generally just switch when they get a new bag because that's a convenient time. So if that's how fast you go through even the largest bags, then that's what it is. Your food choices are fine. Petcurean and Annamaet are a couple other brands you can try. NV Instinct and Earthborn would work too. Fromm is also something I'm fine with feeding once in a while, just not regularly.

You don't necessarily need to go too much out of your way to follow a specific rotation schedule or anything since with commercially balanced meals, the nutritional aspects of rotating isn't really a big factor and the validity of switching foods for the sake of avoiding allergies is questionable at best. Rotating is pretty much for variety.


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## BubbaMoose (May 14, 2013)

I agree with a lot of the above suggestions. How large are your dogs OP?! That's a lot of food in a really short time. 

What do you have against feeding Fromm regularly Zhaor?


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## Bumper1 (Jul 14, 2013)

zhaor said:


> If your dog isn't getting the runs from every switch, then the frequency doesn't really matter. People generally just switch when they get a new bag because that's a convenient time. So if that's how fast you go through even the largest bags, then that's what it is. Your food choices are fine. Petcurean and Annamaet are a couple other brands you can try. NV Instinct and Earthborn would work too. Fromm is also something I'm fine with feeding once in a while, just not regularly.
> 
> You don't necessarily need to go too much out of your way to follow a specific rotation schedule or anything since with commercially balanced meals, the nutritional aspects of rotating isn't really a big factor and the validity of switching foods for the sake of avoiding allergies is questionable at best. Rotating is pretty much for variety.


Exactly, rotating is for the owner's pleasure rather than the dog's needs. Pick one food and stay with it unless it is not available anymore or a problem arises. It is much more important to feed a low-ash, animal protein-based food rather than variety.


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## zhaor (Jul 2, 2009)

BubbaMoose said:


> What do you have against feeding Fromm regularly Zhaor?


I probably came across more negative than I meant to. Mostly I just find Fromm to be a bit high in plant content than what I prefer. Nothing really stands out about Fromm other than the company's reputation.


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## Bumper1 (Jul 14, 2013)

zhaor said:


> I probably came across more negative than I meant to. Mostly I just find Fromm to be a bit high in plant content than what I prefer. Nothing really stands out about Fromm other than the company's reputation.


Reputation for what? They are very good at creating an illusion of selling home-cooked meals but in fact they use very inexpensive ingredients and charge top dollar for most of the formulas. The company's "nutritionist" used to work for a company that made spoiled bakery garbage into low-end petfood. Despite several attempts, I have asked for animal protein content and was told "it didn't matter".

Other than marketing and packaging, the company has virtually no reputation to speak of.


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## SheltieQuirks (Dec 1, 2011)

Opinions vary on rotation, clearly. I can't really say I've read any hard and fast research about the benefits or detriments of frequent rotation. Regardless, with my last dog, we rotated kibbles pretty frequently, more out of convenience than anything else - I wasn't in charge of the feed bill, so he just got whatever was available and on sale at the time (within certain parameters - no Pedigree, Beneful, etc). We rotated between EVO, Instinct, Wellness Core, and Taste of the Wild - so similar to a lot of the stuff you're looking at, OP - and he did well on that. Every 1.5 weeks is quite a lot of changeover (we rotated, from my memory at least, about once a month perhaps?), but if he does well on it, there's your answer.

With my pup now, I don't specifically rotate his kibble. He gets Annamaet Salcha, and if he continues to do well on it, I'll keep him with Annamaek stuff, maybe trying out other flavors (I have a small bag of Aqualuk to try). I do rotate his wet food every couple days, however, and I've noticed no ill effects. I go between various formulas from Hound and Gatos, Tripett, and Ziwipeak. I don't transition, just throw a few spoonfuls of whatever I bought most recently and is already in the fridge into his Kong for stuffing, and he loves it.


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## Bumper1 (Jul 14, 2013)

SheltieQuirks said:


> Opinions vary on rotation, clearly. I can't really say I've read any hard and fast research about the benefits or detriments of frequent rotation. Regardless, with my last dog, we rotated kibbles pretty frequently, more out of convenience than anything else - I wasn't in charge of the feed bill, so he just got whatever was available and on sale at the time (within certain parameters - no Pedigree, Beneful, etc). We rotated between EVO, Instinct, Wellness Core, and Taste of the Wild - so similar to a lot of the stuff you're looking at, OP - and he did well on that. Every 1.5 weeks is quite a lot of changeover (we rotated, from my memory at least, about once a month perhaps?), but if he does well on it, there's your answer.
> 
> With my pup now, I don't specifically rotate his kibble. He gets Annamaet Salcha, and if he continues to do well on it, I'll keep him with Annamaek stuff, maybe trying out other flavors (I have a small bag of Aqualuk to try). I do rotate his wet food every couple days, however, and I've noticed no ill effects. I go between various formulas from Hound and Gatos, Tripett, and Ziwipeak. I don't transition, just throw a few spoonfuls of whatever I bought most recently and is already in the fridge into his Kong for stuffing, and he loves it.


Salcha is excellent food.


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## Abbylynn (Jul 7, 2011)

I rotate when I can. I have tried so many different 4 and 5 star foods my head is spinning! It all boils down to what my dogs will eat. Right now they are stuck on Chicken Soup for the Puppy/Dog Lover's Soul ... their choice. But I also mix it up a bit by adding some cooked meats, pumpkin, peas, carrots, green beans, yogurt ... etc to their kibble so they do get a bit of a change.

I will try and rotate again in a couple months or so. I really like Fromm Gold ... but the dogs are not too keen on it? I just have strange dogs. Lol!


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## Salina (Sep 2, 2012)

I rotate with every bag and always feed a grain free food in the morning and a "normal" food at night. 
I feed taste of the wild, merrick, fromm, 4health, orijen, acana, pioneer, ...


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## SydTheSpaniel (Feb 12, 2011)

I rotate all varieties of TOTW and just recently started mixing it with Primal Freeze Dried (at the moment, we're doing Chicken). When I was only feeding her TOTW, she'd just graze throughout the day, but since I've added the Primal, I feed her twice a day and she scarfs it down. I love seeing her really enjoy her meals now.

I also do not see anything wrong with your current rotation. If your dogs do well on it - that's all that matters.


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## PureMutt (Feb 6, 2009)

Bumper1 said:


> So are you saying you give your dog a new food after 1 1/2 weeks? I don't rotate. Mine have been on the same food for close to 4 years and before that the same food for about 13 years.
> 
> If you said you switched twice a year, that's one thing, but why in the world would you switch your dog every 10 days or so?
> 
> What are you trying to achieve? Most of those choices are very unhealthy by the way.


Would like to know why you think most of those choices are unhealthy...


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## Bumper1 (Jul 14, 2013)

PureMutt said:


> Would like to know why you think most of those choices are unhealthy...
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


Evo is way too high in mineral content (ash), Same for TOTW and uses lots of pea and potato proteins. I wont ever use a Diamond product, its brands or made there. Core is high in ash and minerals as well. I just believe these foods don't offer any benefit but introduce certain risks.

When you compare them to other foods with similar protein you can easily see they use inferior ingredients.


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## SydTheSpaniel (Feb 12, 2011)

Bumper1 said:


> Evo is way too high in mineral content (ash), Same for TOTW and uses lots of pea and potato proteins. I wont ever use a Diamond product, its brands or made there. Core is high in ash and minerals as well. I just believe these foods don't offer any benefit but introduce certain risks.
> 
> When you compare them to other foods with similar protein you can easily see they use inferior ingredients.


Going to repeat this.

*If your dogs do well on it - that's all that matters.*

Seriously, it's all that matters. My dog has been on TOTW for years and she's never had a major health concern, her coat is full and healthy and her teeth are immaculate for a small 7 year old dog. Dogs are individuals, you can't just pick one food you think is perfect in every way and expect your own dog to do perfect on it.


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## zhaor (Jul 2, 2009)

_Fanatic_
a person filled with excessive and single-minded zeal


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## MonicaBH (Jul 5, 2008)

I don't usually rotate foods, but I am now; we got a bunch of free food a couple of weeks ago.

Currently, they're being fed Canidae PureLand, then next PureSky. Then they go on to Hill's Ideal Balance, and once that's gone, they'll be put back on either Diamond Naturals or Kirkland (lamb or chicken). They've also been fed ProPlan in the recent past.

My dogs don't do well on the super premium type brands. They do best on midrange brands.


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