We decided to switch Olive's food to Wellness and see how she does with it. I went out to get Diamond but no one local carries it. Little did I know that Chicken Soup is made by Diamond! Anyway, I've heard and read good things about Wellness so we're going to give that a shot. When I opened the bag tonight I thought for sure I opened a can of cat food! That stuff stinks bad! Anyone else notice that?

I know Hitch is having success with Wellness, is anyone else? I mainly wanted to change Olive's food because she has terrible dandruff/itchy skin and I wanted to give her something healthier. Another reason being that several people suggested that a better food might help with her behavior. Less poop would be an added bonus!

I replaced 1/4 cup of her regular food serving w/ Wellness tonight. Is that a good amount to start the switch? Also, how long should it take to fully switch to Wellness? We have *plenty* of her old food left.

Wish us luck!

Which Wellness? The Fish and Sweet potato is not the most pleasant smelling food. Starting at 1/4 cup of new food is a good place to start. It can sometimes take up to 2 weeks to completely switch over to a new food.

We got the puppy mix because our vet said that Olive should be on puppy food until 12 months. I guess mainly because of her small size?

Considering that 2 out of the first 3 ingredients are fish, it probably would smell like cat food.

We switched Madison at 7 months to adult food because I couldn't keep her out of Hudler's bowl. But don't let the small size of your pup fool you, she could just be a smaller lab...and oddly enough, smaller is closer to the "standard". Maddy topped out at 59 pounds and is holding. She hit that approx. weight at 7 months and slowly gained that last 10# over the last 3-4 months.

Maybe someone knowledgeable in food can answer this, but since I have had to pay attention to protein % because I was instructed to find something within a certain range for Maddy's ED, I keep looking at it, now I am curious...

Most puppy foods run about 26-28% protein. Adult foods 22-26% and we were instructed to stay under 24%. WHAT does this all do or mean for dog development? Does the lower percentage mean slower growth? And I have always understood that slower growth is better for LB joints.

Jstar, I was wondering the same thing myself. Olive is 7mths old and weighs in at approx. 45lbs. She is very trim and fit. Not too skinny by any means and is very muscular.

When we adopted Jack and Gusty they were eating Wellness, while they loved it, it seemed too "rich" for them and they were putting on some weight. I didn't care for the fish/sweet potatoe smell either. We tried Canidae..gave our girl really yeasty ears. We have since gone to the Chicken Soup and they are doing absolultely wonderful on it and it smells great too when mixed with warm water. I do love OMH's treats for the kids though.

We feed Boyd Wellness Lamb and it doesn't smell bad at all. It was the first thing I noticed when we went from IAMS to Wellness.

Albert