One reason to feed more than one food

[smartrock]

I feed my dogs both ProPlan Sensitive Skin and Stomach and Royal Canin Labrador Retriever. They get 3 meals a day, 2 of one and one of the other. Why? The reason will become clear.

I order from Chewy and my order this time arrived without the Royal Canin. Did I accidentally omit RC from this month's order? Am I still awaiting a box that doesn't appear to have been shipped yet? I call Chewy and I'm told, Oh yeah, it's temporarily out of stock. Well, that would have been nice to know. And it's not just the Labrador Retriever variety but probably most varieties. One of the Petsmart stores near us claim to have some so I ordered a bag for pick up. I'm just waiting to see if they actually have it. The Royal Canin site says they are having "product availability issues." This was not expected!

All this is to say, I am happy and fortunate that my pups have more than one brand of food that they eat regularly so that if one brand is not available for any reason, I know that there's at least one other food they can eat right away. Not just 2 different flavors from the same brand but 2 foods of different brands. I could probably change Lark's food to anything cold turkey- the girl eats all manner of disgusting stuff off the ground if I don't pry it out of her mouth and never seems to have GI issues. Henry might not have the same iron clad constitution for cold turkey switches. I know some of you feed raw or homemade and that would pretty much eliminate the problem of availability but for those of you, like me, who feed mostly dry dog food, it might be worth looking for another food to accustom your pups to, in case.

[Snowshoe]

I rotated three foods. I kept the food he came on from the breeders. It worked fine, no issues, but I read up and decided to add in two more, kept the fat and kcal/cup numbers as close as I could, since they worked, but each had a different main protein and main carb.

[Whistle]

I agree - the current craze for lockdown dogs is actually causing problems with getting dog food here. (Not just dog food either, but also all sorts of small animal food - believe it or not I've had to start making my own hamster/mouse food as couldn't get any of that!!)
I used to swear by Royal Canin, sadly when it was sold they started putting wheat in it so I had to change, but now have found two mid range gluten free foods, and have kept them on the two so if I suddenly can't get one, it's not a disaster!

(All my dogs always get three meals a day all their lives too)

[lovemylabby]

Good information!

May I ask...(I don't mean to hijack)..you mentioned you feed your adult dogs three times a day. I know puppies will eat three times a day..but I always thought of adult dogs as eating twice a day. Breeders will tell you to drop the mid time meal at about 6 months or so. Is there any benefit to feeding 3 times? I know all dogs are different.

[MightyThor]

Good advice! A year ago when we were going into lockdown I had to head to Costco not for human food (we have a big well stocked pantry) and not for TP (I had recently restocked paper supplies), but for dog food! They were out of our normal chicken based formula so I picked up a couple of bags of the lamb formula of the same brand. I blended with the remaining bag I had of their main food and we had no problems, but I would have felt more comfortable knowing that I wouldn't have issues.

[smartrock]

Good information!

May I ask...(I don't mean to hijack)..you mentioned you feed your adult dogs three times a day. I know puppies will eat three times a day..but I always thought of adult dogs as eating twice a day. Breeders will tell you to drop the mid time meal at about 6 months or so. Is there any benefit to feeding 3 times? I know all dogs are different.

I feed 3 meals a day because my younger boy, who is now 2 1/2, was having issues with throwing up bile early in the morning if he only had 2 meals a day. I usually fed him at about 7 am and 5-6 pm and that interval between dinner and breakfast must have just been too long for him. Even giving him a large Milk Bone before bedtime did not always keep him from early morning yakking. So, I switched to 3 meals a day with a Milk Bone at bedtime and he stopped throwing up before breakfast.

My older girl and our last lab did well on 2 meals a day. Henry just seems to be more sensitive in that department. These days breakfast is at about 7, lunch at 3, dinner around 8, and bedtime at 10-ish. Also, the ProPlan is pretty calorie dense so he gets more calories with a smaller volume of food. I picked the Royal Canin that has fewer calories per cup so he gets a little more food volume without getting more calories. It makes some kind of sense in my brain and I'm usually home at those times of day anyway. My work days, when I have them, rarely keep me away from home later than 4 pm, so it works for us.

[Annette47]

I feed 3 meals a day because my younger boy, who is now 2 1/2, was having issues with throwing up bile early in the morning if he only had 2 meals a day. I usually fed him at about 7 am and 5-6 pm and that interval between dinner and breakfast must have just been too long for him. Even giving him a large Milk Bone before bedtime did not always keep him from early morning yakking. So, I switched to 3 meals a day with a Milk Bone at bedtime and he stopped throwing up before breakfast.

My older girl and our last lab did well on 2 meals a day. Henry just seems to be more sensitive in that department. These days breakfast is at about 7, lunch at 3, dinner around 8, and bedtime at 10-ish. Also, the ProPlan is pretty calorie dense so he gets more calories with a smaller volume of food. I picked the Royal Canin that has fewer calories per cup so he gets a little more food volume without getting more calories. It makes some kind of sense in my brain and I'm usually home at those times of day anyway. My work days, when I have them, rarely keep me away from home later than 4 pm, so it works for us.

We used to feed Royal Canin (to Scully and Mulder) because of the greater volume of food factor too. Our younger two do well on Pro-Plan while Chloe switches between two Annamaet formulas (which are both lower in calories than the Pro-Plan). They have all eaten the other kind though when bags were running low or their weights varied (fat girls get Annamaet, skinnier ones get Pro-Plan, LOL). If I can ever find the Royal Canin, I might pick some up to try for Chloe - she has been severely restricted lately because she is so inactive while recovering from her TPLO that she is hungrier than usual, and gaining weight even on small portions of lower calorie food. I'd forgotten all about that one and it might be a good option for her to make her feel like she's getting more.

[SunDance]

Good information!

May I ask...(I don't mean to hijack)..you mentioned you feed your adult dogs three times a day. I know puppies will eat three times a day..but I always thought of adult dogs as eating twice a day. Breeders will tell you to drop the mid time meal at about 6 months or so. Is there any benefit to feeding 3 times? I know all dogs are different.

Sunnie and Danny ate three meals a day. They both had empty tummy syndrome and couldn't go 12 hours between meals without the probability of getting upset. Breakfast had been their largest meal...I just split that in half for Breakfast 1 and Breakfast 2. They were better overnight and made it through the night with just a biscuit or two at (Bob's) bedtime.

[lovemylabby]

Makes perfect sense regarding the empty tummy syndrome. And smaller meals, three times per day. Glad it's working (worked) for you both.

[jimgets]

If your dog is suffering from health problems, the right diet should be an integral part of his treatment.