Food suggestion/ questions

[common2man]

A bit of backstory to start- a friend of mine recently found a pit mix puppy (approximately 5-6 months old now) that he couldn’t keep. We took him in and I tried to do a bunch of research surrounding high quality kibble, since my friend was feeding him Iams Puppy.

Over the last 2 weeks, we’ve been trying to slowly transition him from Iams to Instinct Raw Boost Puppy. The recipe I’m using is grain free and has freeze dried raw pieces in it, since we don’t have the time to go completely raw with him. We are at about half and half on the food right now, but he has recently started to get diarrhea. We had him at the vet last week (prior to this bout) and they said he was in perfect health. He has no other symptoms and otherwise acts completely fine, so my guess is that it’s related to the food.

My question is do we continue to transition to Instinct? Or is that what is causing the issue? My MIL also suggested Whole Earth Farms puppy recipe as that is what she feeds her dog- I haven’t done a lot of research into that brand so any insight would be nice! Also if we do decide to change, do we transition with all 3? Or is this one we should do cold turkey?

 

[jamesdb]

@common2man Neither grain-free (DCM) nor raw (pathogen risk to your dog, your household, and the broader community) is a very safe option for your dog. Stick with a WSAVA-compliant food, as those are backed by science and research, rather than by marketing budgets alone.

 

[believingingod]

@jamesdb Agreed, sorry. I haven't done research personally but have a few friends who are vet techs or in vet school, as well as talking to my vets and noone recommends a raw diet or grain free. Unless your dog has special dietary needs, regular certified dog food (attractivenuisance says WSAVA, I'm not American so will piggyback that one) seems to be the best bet.

 

[ayen]

@common2man Read about how grain free can cause heart issues

 

[israelp]

@common2man I agree with going with wasva compliant foods, which are iams, purina, hills, and royal canin. I personally like purina pro plan and purina one the best, but have had good experiences with royal canin though they can be more pricey.

 

[johnm8269]

@common2man Grain free is the worst you can give a puppy or dog. Keep it on puppy chow types of Dry foods. Healthier for the puppy. For those fake raw foods are bad for heart health.

 

[hakjohn]

@common2man I am 100% with the other comments saying to switch back to the kibble. Raw and Grain Free have a whole slew of issues. Many people swear by it, but it’s a great conversation to have with a veterinary nutritionist. My dogs are on Purina Pro Plan sensitive skin/stomach and I love the Pro Plan line. Do not listen to those who say vets and techs get paid for pushing these feeds. If they do, I must be missing out on the payouts the most we get are free measuring cups and on a super rare occasion lunch when being told about a new diet line. Purina does tons of research on their food with real vets and nutritionists on real dogs. No matter what you choose, I hope your pup feels better and you two have a long and wonderful life together

 

[common2man]

Thank you all for the suggestions- given that the instinct formula is giving him diarrhea, should I still include some and try to transition him out of it? And mix all 3 formulas I have together?

 

[israelp]

@common2man I would stop transitioning and just go back to the food he was on before you transitioned. Iams puppy line is good for puppies as long as they don’t have any issues with chicken or anything else in the recipe and it seems like the new dog food is the issue.

 

[kristoffer1983]

@common2man I have personal experience with the Instinct Raw Boost Large Puppy food. We got our girl at 8 weeks old and immediately switched her off of NutriSource and over to the Instinct RawBoost. She is now 14 months old and after having dogs for 30 years and always feeding a premium dog food, I can honestly saw this was the best kibble dry dog food ever!!! We did tons of research before we go t our pup and Instinct is one of the top best foods! Our girl struggled some during the transition with diarrhea but our vet reassured us to add some canned 100%pumpkin to each meal and keep going with the switch. So glad we stuck it out!!! The diarrhea resolved itself just as our vet said. After that she always had nice firm SMALL poops!! Now we are working on transitioning her to the Instinct Rawboost adult or "all life stages". We switched proteins to beef and she is again struggling with a bit of diarrhea but just today I started adding pumpkin to her meals and tonight it is already better. I am confident that once again the Instinct Raw Boost will be the best food for her! Like you, all that I intensely studied about the different foods available, led me to want to be able to offer some dehydrated raw food to her without the commitment of going fully raw. It's a great food ... don't doubt yourself!! Keep going! A little diarrhea is TOTALLY normal when switching foods ... especially in puppies!