We're switching our 16 week old male Dobermann from Nutro large breed to Burns canine extra (for large breeds). He's 20kg and currently has 480g of Nutro a day (160 x 3). Just incase anyone is interested why we are changing, my other post is 'Nutro - hyperactivity?'

I've read that you should change over by giving just a 1/4 of new food added to 3/4 of the old food for the first few days, then 1/2 and 1/2 and so on. However, the feeding guidelines are hugely different and he'll actually end up on less Burns than he is on Nutro now so I'm not sure what amount of the new food I should start of with.

The weight range he comes under for Nutro is 20-25kg dog with a food range of approx. 430g-510g of food a day, whereas the Burns says a 20-30kg dog should have approx. 200-300g a day. How come these amounts are sooo different? I'm assuming the Burns is somehow more condensed so he'll actually be satisfied with less..?

Any rough ideas of what would be a good amount of Burns to add to the Nutro to begin with?

Thanks for any help :)

hi
I think Burns recommend switching over a period of about five days to avoid any upsets but it will depend on the dog to some degree.
Burns recommend 10g/kg of dog, I think this is a fair giudeline, it may do as well to remember that most feeding guides are normally over the max. It also depends on the absorbability of the food itself, the easier the dog can absorb the nutrients from the food the less you will need to feed. Hope this helps a little.

Hi,
I wouldnt worry about the percentages of this food or that.Each day just add a little more burns and take away a little more nutro until by day 5 when you should be feeding 100% burns.
Gosh i have 4 different brands of dry foods that i feed my dogs,they may get the same brand for a couple days then i might swap to the other brand,i have never slowly introduced anything,once one thing is finished then they get something different for their very next meal,i think my dogs just have cast iron stomachs(shih-tzu's) :D Their tum's are used to a huge variety of foods.

christine