UGH..NEED HELP with food..so confused again

Every dog is different but I personally find that if I rotate Zoe's foods, her system is less likely to go into shock when a new food is introduced.

 
So do you do something like this ? Or go right from one bag to the other?
 
Takes 7 days.

Day 1 and 2 - Mix 1/4 of new food with 3/4 old food
Day 3 & 4 - Mix 1/2 new food and 1/2 old food

Day 5 & 6 - Mix 3/4 new food and 1/4 old food.

Day 7 all new food

Dulce:  I didn't aim anything at you.  WDJ is the magazine Whole Dog Journal.  Very informative articles.
 
Terrierlover:  Yeah,  I remember the stomach trouble issue thread, but I'm sorry, I don't remember all of the details (I try).
 
I'm wondering if he is only eating once a day b/c it hurts his stomach to eat at all.  I just got over the stomach flu, and I found that for days I didn't want to eat b/c it made me feel like someone had punched me in the stomach.  I know I recommended this before, but I'm going to suggest again the Culturelle probiotics.  So, maybe that is why he is eating only once a day.   That might be a sign of something.
 
I've never used Evo, but according to the article I posted about earlier, the 42% protein should be alright.  I think if you choose this, that I would add other stuff in for awhile to reduce the protein level and let his system get used to it gradually.
 
One more food suggestion is another new food out called Life4K9.  It has very good olive oil as fat instead of chicken fat and is a baked food.:  chicken, barley, oats, chicken meal, white fish meal.  21% proteing, 9 % fat.  The also have a lamb variety.  
 
 I'm also wondering about the fat levels in the food you are feeding and how that might be making him feel.

I think Royal Canin would be a good option. Some of their sensitive formulas (and a lot of the regular formulas) have fructoligosaccharides which are GREAT for promoting the body's natural, healthy intestinal flora.

 
Yes I looked at that tonight... the bag that has the Westie on it... Protein was 30 but like you said made for sensitive stomachs and such.... So that is yet another idea Im pondering....
 
I do add homecooked to my dogs food....so Im trying to fact in that also....

I'm also wondering about the fat levels in the food you are feeding and how that might be making him feel.

 
That is exactly what Im thinking... and yes I think his stomach hurts.... he has such issues about not wanting to eat....It makes me crazy....I really would like to get away from having a biopsy done on him.. its alot to go through.. I did it with My Scottie Max when they diagnosed him with IBD....

ORIGINAL: chasza

Dulce:  I didn't aim anything at you.  WDJ is the magazine Whole Dog Journal.  Very informative articles.

Oh, ok!! I gotcha. Where do you get that magazine?

You can order directly, or probably thru Amazon.  I've subscribed for a couple of years and they have had some really good info in there.  Later this year, they are going to cover homecooking issues.  They recently had good issues on pica and other stuff that I've been quoting from last couple of days.
 
whole-dog-journal.com or 800-829-9165
 
Oh, terrier lover, the other food was Nature's Logic (there's another thread about it now).  It seems to only have millet as the grain and is around 36% protein, I think. But, it does have brewers yeast, and that might be an issue with your dog.  From what I've read, it can bother some dogs, others not.  Like everything else. [8|]
But, it seems to have a lot of ingredients, and that might not be a good thing with a problem stomach.

So do you do something like this ? Or go right from one bag to the other?

 
I think dogs who are used to variety can go from one food directly to another, while dogs who only get one food need a gradual switch. Cherokee can go 100% old food to 100% new food, no problem. Not all dogs are like that though..
 
And about protein: I would rather have protein be high. The alternative is high carbohydrates. But I think the percentages are a confusing way to look at food. I wish the dog food industry would use a system similar to the human-food system, like grams per cup.
 
Let's look at Innova Dog as grams per cup. 1 cup weighs 133 grams (didn't weigh it, calculated from info on the website), so it has:
 
32 grams protein
19 grams fat
54 grams carbohydrates
 
Innova Evo. 1 cup weighs 125 grams, so it has:
 
52 grams protein
27 grams fat
15 grams carbs
 
Innova Evo reduced fat, 1 cup weighs 120 grams, so:
 
62 grams protein
18 grams fat
14 grams carbs
 
And something, as you folks call it, more "moderate" in protein; TWO Wild & Natural. They say one cup weighs 150 grams, so:
 
54 grams protein
27 grams fat
47 grams carbs
 
Just something to think about...

And about protein: I would rather have protein be high. The alternative is high carbohydrates.

 
Tell me why that is... can you explain.... Im learning as we go here....
 
So are you saying that you don't think 40 something to 50 something is to high? In Protein...
 
One more thing to add to the mix here...
 
A year ago My Westie Zoey was showing to much protein in her urine.... Can you guys tell me what you think of that?? My Vet wanted me to lower the protein in her food...

Tell me why that is... can you explain.... Im learning as we go here....

 
Sure. Since dog foods go by percentages, a certain percentage is protein, fat, moisture, ash, and carbohydrates. If you raise or lower any of the percentages, the other values will be affected too. Make sense? If you have a food that's 25% protein, 15% fat, 10% moisture (water), 5% ash (minerals), the remainder is carbs, so 45% carbs, because those 5 values always add up to 100%. If you lower the carbs, the other values will go up, hence the "low-carb" foods being high-protein, fat, and ash.
 
If that doesn't make sense, I'll try again. []

[linkhttp://www.petshealth.com/dr_library/clost.html]http://www.petshealth.com/dr_library/clost.html[/link]
 
Okay I posted about Louie till Im cross eyed on these subjects. 

Tummy Troubles
Callie Help/Tummy troubles 
Nutrition

I just got home from the Vet. I had her do a diagnostics of Louies stool and this is what is going on.

Clostridial Enteritis ....... which is Clostridium bacteria and ALOT of it in his stool......

He is on meds for this...

This seems to be an on going chronic thing with Louie over the past years looking at the chart....
 


 

"I think your point is valid, but you cannot make a direct comparison between dogs in the wild and domestic dogs.  Dogs in the wild are more active, generally live in comparatively adverse climates, and don't necessarily eat everyday.  They require these high protein and fat levels just to survive.  A domestic dog doesn't necessarily have these requirements.  For a working dog, these high levels may make sense, but for an everyday housepet, I think it's too much. "
 
well, I wasn't comparing wild dogs to domestic dogs. I feed whole rabbits to my domestic dogs quite frequently.
 
I think non-working dogs are in even greater need of the high protein-low carb foods than working dogs. If you feed your dog three cups of a dry weight 21% protein food, what do you suppose you are feeding? tons of carbohydrates. What are carbohydrates? mostly empty calories. You don't need all those empty calories if you are a couch-potato dog.  And if you feed dogs high carb diets, they tend to put on lots of body fat and not develop much muscle, not really a condition you want to promote in a couch-potato dog.  For relatively inactive dogs, what you want to feed is a diet that is packed with nutrition without extra calories-- which leads you straight to the low-carb/high protein diets.  Feed your dog one cup of this stuff (or a rabbit), and he gets everything he needs to remain lean and healthy without all the empty calories.

I feed my lil westie Blue Buffalo.  You can find it online or at petsmart.  So far so good