[thr61]

In follow up to my other post (Picking a food is harder than finding a dog: http://bit.ly/39eGKJ ), I have moved Mia from Purina One to Orijen Adult. She is 11 months old.

I began by giving her 1/4 cup a day of Orijen divided between 2 meals. The balance of her 3 cups a day (divided) has been made up by equal parts brown rice and boiled ground turkey or chicken. I have also been adding 2 tbsp of canned pumpkin to each meal.

Today we are at a heaping 1/2 cup of Orijen, and scant 1/2 cups of rice and turkey. I have continued the pumpkin. Stools are pretty good and she is loving the new food.

Suggestions as to how quickly to move her to a full diet of just Orijen? I plan to give her 3 cups a day (in divided meals), but it feels like there is a long way to go at this rate.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

 

[Penny & Maggie's Mom]

How quickly you transition really depends on your dog's digestive system and how she's handling it. My only suggestion is to determine how many calories she needs and make sure you aren't over feeding. Foods like Orijen are very high calorie, probably more than the Purina you were feeding ( don't know that for sure... but it would be my guess). Many people way overestimate the amount of food a pupper needs and, believe me, it's much easier to keep them lean than to try to take off extra pounds. And the amounts suggested on the bags are ridiculously high in most cases.

 

[MurphyTeller]

I was just going to say the same thing as PMM - three cups of Orijen is a lot. I don't know your dog - but it just seems like a lot. When I fed Orijen my neutered 65lb boy maintained on 1.5 cup/day. My intact 67lb boy maintained on about 2/day. Both are active agility dogs and typically run (woods or fields) for an hour or more a day plus whatever training work they get - they are very active dogs but both are pretty easy keepers.

As for the switching schedule - I rotate my dogs every 2-3 months - everything from raw to dehydrated to kibble - protein sources from turkey to fish to buffalo to brushtail. I generally switch from one to the next over about 48 hours - not days or weeks. But neither of them have sensitive tummies.

E

 

[thr61]

Well, Mia arrived to us with fairly loose stools (on Purina One) and we were dealing with new water and the stress of changing households. She has been with us three weeks now and seems to have adjusted pretty well. Still, I don't want to rush the food change-over as Orijin is a pretty dramatic switch.

It is good to know that we may not end up with 3 cups as her diet. She is just over 50 pounds and 11 months old. She may add some muscle, but I am not expecting her to get much bigger. She is active about 5 days out of 7 in terms of either big runs in the woods or long training sessions. So, we may end up close to the 2.5 cups or even 2 cups per the bag and weight schedule.

I guess I could step up the pace on this, but was hoping for views on the subject.

Thanks.

 

[MyBentley]

I would suggest another 4 days of transitioning since this is the first time you've switched foods - plus Orijen is so different from anything Mia has had before.

Both my dogs eat Orijen Adult as part of their kibble rotation. There are 470 kcal/cup. My senior Bentley at 67 lbs. eats barely 2 cups per day; while my 2 yr. old 55 lb. lab eats 2 1/4 cups per day. I can tell if my dog is getting too much food if the end part of the stool starts getting soft. Glad to hear it's going well so far.