My corgi suspicious of her food or just a picky eater?
Nala is now almost 7 months of age. I've been wanting to transition her from puppy food (Blue Wilderness) to an all life stage food (Lotus). Originally I wanted to do this at 6 months of age, but back in mid April, she caught giardia and has been on and off antibiotics for about a month. Likewise, I hid her antibiotics in her food. In the process of doing this, I noticed that she became increasingly not interested/ excited when it came to meal time as she use to be. Before, she couldn't wait till I fed her 2 meals a day. She could woof it down in <5 minutes. Most recently, even after prompting her to eat she would sniff around first and walk away, but come back after a few minutes and eat everything but a lot slower. So I figured either she's suspicious of me hiding meds in her food or she's getting tired of her puppy food.
Last Saturday I got the results of her fecal sample and she's finally negative for giardia! So that evening, I started the food transition. This went okay. However today, she only ate the new food and left the old food alone. I'm doing 25% new and 75% old right now. I plan on doing this over a month period.
Does anyone have any suggestions in making the transition as smooth as possible?
Comment
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Comment by Jane Christensen on May 27, 2013 at 11:14am
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Sounds like a good plan and since it's only 25% new I think it should work. I do agree with Anna that you shouldn't mix food with meds. I either just squirt the liquid in my dogs mouth or put pills in cheese or a hot dogs so my dogs don't "associate" the meds with their food. Glad she's eating:)
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Comment by Anna Morelli on May 27, 2013 at 10:59am
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The reason I recommended waiting a month was because her digestive system may still be recovering from the assault of Giardia and antibiotics. Your slow change of pace will work well, allowing for a gentle adjustment which would not have otherwise been needed.
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Comment by Catherine Robertson on May 27, 2013 at 10:36am
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This morning she did fine with the 25% new and 75% old. Hopefully this will continue. I've continued on probiotics even after treatment for giardia mostly because I bought a whole box of fortiflora. (Need to finish it. And it's good for her gut.) I wish I could just do a fast transition but I still have a near full bag of the old food. So I figured I'd do 25% for 2 weeks, 50% for another 2 weeks, then 75% until the old food is completely gone. Thanks for the advice.
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Comment by Bogart the Cardigan on May 27, 2013 at 7:12am
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I think, since she is showing a preference for the new food, that you can transition faster than planned. I have transitioned between foods in just 4-5 days with no problem.
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It's never a good idea to hide meds in the dog's food because it can make them suspicious, however chances are that at 7 months her growth rate is slowing down and this combined with the giardia and the antibiotics to take away some of her appetite. I would wait to switch foods another month, feed less food until you find the sweet spot where she is eating eagerly again and then take it from there. You could consider a vitamin-enzyme supplement for a short while to rebuild intestinal flora and make up for the effects of the giardia.
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