[MEJ]

What is the best dog food for a Havanese? She got very sick when we gave her fresh pet dog food.
MEJ

 

[EvaE1izabeth]

I don’t know about that particular food, but when you switched foods did you mix it with the old food? I change foods over about a month by mixing about 1/10 of the new food into the old and increasing it after a few days or a week, and I mix it all ahead of time. I think this is longer than most people, it seems common to do it in a couple of weeks, but most Havanese do benefit from any gradual change. Mine has a sensitive stomach and going slow makes it obvious if it’s an adjustment period or the food is causing a problem. I usually start with a good portion of the old food and set some aside in case I need to add more of it at some point, or the food change doesn’t work out. When I mix up the rest, I do it all ahead of time, and I use food storage bags and increase the new food in each by small 1/10 increments. The first two weeks I go more days without increasing the food and only increase a little at a time, but if I start to run low on the old food as I’m mixing, I’ll jump to to larger amounts of the new food the last two weeks. By then it’s clear if there’s a problem, and if the change is going well, he’s adjusted pretty well.

 

[MEJ]

We
could

not find any of her old dog food so we got fresh pet. She vomited and was very sick. We found out that Fresh Pet has a high fat content. She was put on a special GI food by my Vet.
Gracie is doing fine now and is her normal self.
MEJ

 

[EvaE1izabeth]

We
could

not find any of her old dog food so we got fresh pet. She vomited and was very sick. We found out that Fresh Pet has a high fat content. She was put on a special GI food by my Vet.
Gracie is doing fine now and is her normal self.
MEJ

That's great! When you do choose a new food (there are tons of threads on it), I would do it before you run out of the food she's on now, or get a bit more from the vet, so you can transition slowly. If you know what protein she was on before, between that and the protein in your GI food, that gives you a safer place to start.

There are tons of opinions on food, so if you start with a couple of ideal proteins, whether or not you'll feed grain, and your budget, you'll have lots of choices. There are so many different approaches - kibble, frozen, add your own protein, freeze dried, fresh delivered - it's like the golden age for pet food.

 

[MEJ]

Thank you so much for the excellent advice, Eva Elizabeth.
MEJ

 

[momonbraggslane]

We feed Health Extension which is one of the things the breeder was giving him. We add Stella and Chewys bone broth to it. He seems to love it, that’s for sure. He’s had no troubles with it at all.