Hi everyone,
im getting a puppy this week and think the breeder is feeding iams.  i wanted to change this to burns mini bites and natures menu or diet (havent decided yet!) and wondered how soon you can change?i was going to feed half the daily amount of each so it equals her daily amount.  she is 10 weeks old.  is it best to wait until shes settled in for a while or change as soon as poss?also, ive read about slowly changing the food over so ill do that so wouldnt do it suddenly!

also, on the natures menu it says junior but doesnt say a minimum age so is it ok to feed thisto pups at 10 weeks?
thank you

Gem

Hi Gem

I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry to change from the existing diet unless it was one which I really disapproved of (in which case I'd have been unlikely to be getting a pup raised that way ;) )

The change in store for a new puppy, i.e. lack of mum & siblings company, travelling from breeders, arriving at strange and (to baby puppy) scary surroundings with new people etc can all affect a tiny tum.  Not least, if you stay outwith the breeder's local area, your water may well upset the pup's tummy initially too :)  Add to that everything else the puppy has to experience which will be so different from it's place of birth and there's usually a lot of stress in store so I believe we have to minimise the stresses where and when we can (diet being one of the few we can control :) )

I'd personally wait a minimum of 2 but pref 4 weeks after bring your new pup home before implementing major diet changes and then phase same in over a further 10-14 days :)

HTH, Teri

Hi Gemma81 when we got our puppy at 8 weeks we gradually mixed in the new food with the old food until we were completely feeding the new food. We did this to begin with just mixing dry biscuits and when she was fine with that we gradually introduced wet food aswell. We are doing the same with our new 8 month old boy and have also been using the new food as training treats as another way of helping him to get used to them. This approach worked well with our bitch and is working well with our new boy. I would judge how gradually you need to introduce the food on the individual dog. Some have more sensitive stomachs so it may take longer to change the diet completely.

Hi
The text books say to take it slowly and if possible I would wait until she is well settled.  There are so many stresses that could cause dire rear in a young pup that the last thing you really want to be doing is changing her food - a change in water, environment, car journey, new routine etc etc are all possible causes of the squits!  ;-)

HOWEVER, having said the above, if you have any other dogs and she decides she prefers what they are getting you may find that she makes the decision for you!  My bitch pup came on Royal Canin but on day two made it clear that she was having none of it and would rather have some of the raw diet that my other dog was having thank you very much!  I don't advise this route, but guess sometimes pups vote with their feet!

In my experience it would depend upon the food being fed and the food you want to feed. Pups that come to me on dry go immediately onto raw the same day without any tummy upset. Pups that find raw a bit 'strange initially' are offered Naturediet to start and I have never had a puppy with an upset tum this way. Contraversially, if I leave the pup on dried it usually has a runny tum until I change to raw. If you are thinking of changing to Naturediet I would think you should have no problem at all.