Do you feed kibble on rotation?

What I do is when I have about a quarter of a 40 lb bag left I start adding a bit of the new food working up to half and half.  This makes the transition easy, if you do have any problems I find slippery elm barks works fantastic for soothing inflammed digestive tracts.
 
I rotate with a few different kibbles/canned and I try to feed a raw home prepared meal every night.  I also experiment with freeze dried, dehyrdrated etc. 
 
Good luck.[]

When  I switched Max from Kirkland to EP I had to do it cold turkey because I stupidly let myself run out of dog food.  The EP lamb & rice looks and smells exactly like the Kirkland and Max didn't seem to know the difference. He literally went from Kirkland one day to EP the next with no problem at all.

Joyce

I was wondering some of the same things, Nicole. Penny has been on Innova EVO since about Febuary. I would really like to add some variety and switch every bag. I think I'd like to rotate with Canidae ALS, Eagle Pack Holistic Select Chicken, along with the Innova EVO. I may also consider adding Natural Balance into the rotation, too. Does this sound like a good idea? Is it even worth it? Or is adding different brands of canned food enough? Thanks! Sorry for the hijack...[sm=blush.gif] [sm=sad.gif]

Just my own humble way of looking at things, I think rotating between a few foods is ensuring you are meeting all your dogs nutritional needs.  I also use different canned foods and mix in with kibble...they can tolerate any canned and I don't make any slow switch.
 
I think your list of foods to rotate with sounds wonderful penny.  It also ensures your dog will not develop food intolerances by rotating.
 
The only advise I have is to keep a couple of novel protein sources out of your rotation just in case your dog does develop sensitivities. 

Thank you to everyone for the ideas and experience - Sounds like a number of people feed in a rotation.  I guess it makes sense - if one food isn't 100% complete, two or three together can be better, right?

And it would sound like Canidae, Eagle Pack and Innova are all good choices since they are all good food.  I didn't want to go with Innova solely because of price.... it's about $10-12/bag more around here than Canidae.  Granted, it's only about $1-2/week more, but somehow it just seems to be rather pricey.  The kirkland was under $20 for any variety, and still seemed very nearly as good as the Canidae, in my limited estimation.

Joyce, can I ask why you switched Max over from Kirkland?  Do you like the EP better after the switch?  Actually, about where is EP in price?  I'm pretty sure it's more than Canidae, but I don't remember pricing it when I was at the pet food place.
 
EDIT - Thanks Cally, I was thinking along the same lines at the same time!  I think I'd feel better going with more than one food, since like you said it gives them more chances to get all the nutrition they need, and perhaps some dogs like the variety as well []

My goldens, ages 11 1/2, 7 and almost 5 do not get kibble rotation.  Buck the old man had been on Purina dog chow since we got him at 6 months until a little over 3 months ago when he got a kidney infection and my vet put him on the Science Deit k/d for 3 months (which he did not like) and as soon as his kidneys were normal, my vet suggest I put him on Purian One senior.  KayCee was on Purina puppy chow, then dog chow.  Bad knees, surgeries 14 months apart, recovery time put poundage on here and it too the Science Diet r/d to get rid of it (only thing I found that worked.  She wasn't crazy about it, but did eat it) and once she dropped 15 pounds she was put on purina Fit & Trim.  Honey was right at a year old when we adopted her and she is a food hog and she put on to much weight, so I put her on the Fit and Trim with kayCee over 2 years ago.  But when i switched Buck to the Purina One Senior a couple of weeks ago, i switched them to the Purina One weight control. 
 
But I do vary their human food I fix for them.  Four nights a week they get either fresh caught, baked fish, or canned salmon or mackeral along with veggies.  The other nights they get meat (calf liver, chicken liver, chicken gizzares or hearts, ground turkey) boiled with veggies.    Tonight i did do a little different.  I had never given them brocolli, but tonight I chopped up some very fine and put it in with the chicken hearts, diced sweet potatoes and a diced apple.  I had never cooked apple for them before, but often give them applesauce.  They loved it.  
They get dry kibble for breakfast, sometimes just plain, sometimes with scrambled egg or spoon full of baby food food veggies or applesauce, cottage cheese added.  At night they get the cooked added to a little kibble.

NicoleS, I never heard anything bad about kirkland dog food.  It would be a great food to use in your rotation diet.  Plus you can pick up different canned foods to mix in as well.  I like adding water and canned to any kibble foods I feed as this helps the kidneys out.  Kibble by itself is not easy for the kidneys as most dogs will never drink enough water and rely on getting a big percentage through their food. 

I couldn't imagine eating the same food day in and day out, this is why I choose to rotate.  It is a preventative way of looking at the health of your dog[]  

I used to rotate between Eagle Pack Lamb and Rice and Merrick Wilderness Blend. But then my company picked up a new food called Nature's Logic. I didn't think my dog could be healthier, but after trying this food for now 6 weeks, wow, I guess he can.

Better muscle mass and the slight cloudiness in his eyes disappeared.

So, I think I'm going to stick with Nature's Logic for a while and switch between their formulas.

I also feed raw and canned. I switch brands and formulas with raw and canned all the time.

the more variety the better. You'd probably be better off buying two or three different kibbles and rotating on a daily basis though.

I rotate between raw and kibble. Does that count?
I do this only because I started feeding Ella raw in the beginning of a 16.5 lb. bag of T.O W&N and I didn't want the food to go stale. Kibble is also nice to have on hand when I run out of meat for her and can't make it to the store or something.

Odie has an iron stomach.  I can switch foods on him cold turkey and it doesn't bother him.  I used to do what Mudpuppy suggests and rotate foods on a daily basis, but that proved not terribly convenient.  Now I rotate between quality kibbles but do so by the bag.  He does get a different can of Evangers every night.

ORIGINAL: mudpuppy

the more variety the better. You'd probably be better off buying two or three different kibbles and rotating on a daily basis though.

 
Do you actually think that most dog's digestive tracts could take switching every day?  I would guess they would get used to it.....?  This probably wouldn't work well for me only b/c I buy a 40 lb bag and it lasts about 2 months....... having two bags would mean I'd have open dog food for 4 months!  And I'm sure it would go stale.  If I go with Kirkland's it's only sold in 40 lb and I like the price drop a bit over buying 40 lb so I dont think I would go to a smaller bag for this reason. 

ORIGINAL: Cally01

 I like adding water and canned to any kibble foods I feed as this helps the kidneys out.  Kibble by itself is not easy for the kidneys as most dogs will never drink enough water and rely on getting a big percentage through their food. 

 
I find it somewhat hard to imagine that it is still appetizing to a dog to have something meant to be crunchy be soggy.......  do you dogs like this better, with water?  I can see the value in making sure that they drink enough water, though........ maybe  I will do a bit of canned if Sammy will eat it.  He definitely likes crunchy treats, etc over the soft ones so we will have to experiment.  And this way he can get more variety as well. 
 
Do you usually stick with the canned food made by the same people as the kibble, if you mix it with kibble?  Ie, Candiae dry mixed with Canidae canned?  Or is this another good way to ensure better nutrition, buy using one canned and a different dry?

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I find it somewhat hard to imagine that it is still appetizing to a dog to have something meant to be crunchy be soggy.......  do you dogs like this better, with water? 
 
I don't rotate, but I just wanted to comment on adding water. Most dogs find it MORE appetizing to add the water. I think it increases the amount of smell the kibble gives off. I don't think they care much what the texture of the food is- they just like good, stinky smells []