Switching food every so often

[reck0n3r]

...just so your dog doesn't end up having excess levels of vitamins in some areas and deficient in others, also just so the dog doesn't get bored of it?

I vaguely recall some people switching things around every so often just to keep it interesting, so how many of you here do this yourselves or support doing this?

For example, I have Rusty on Acana Wild Prairie for 2.5 months now. Would it be beneficial to try some of the other Acana grain free kibble (ie: Pacifica) every 3-6 months?

Thank you for your opinions.

[Courtney]

I fed Acana to my boy when he was around 6 months and he did good on it, switched between the different varieties. He's been on raw for over a year now (Bravo & Primal premade raw) and I switch the protein sources often.

He seems to appreciate the variety

[Freddy]

I rotate Acana formulas for my 2 GSDs. I started on Ranchlands because Orijen was too rich for my female and I couldn't put a little more weight on my male without mushy poop. After about 3 bags of Ranchlands I switched to Grasslands, and just finished a 2 bag rotation of Wild Prairie. I haven't tried Pacifica because one of my training buddies' GSD didn't really like it as much.

They do well on all of them but my pooper scooper (wife) says stools are smallest on Grasslands. When I'm about to switch, I wait till I have about 20% left and mix 50/50 with what I'm rotating to next to ease the transition. Don't know if that's necessary or not, just what I do. If I had to pick 1 to continue on instead of rotation, it would be Grasslands.

[AngieW]

With my golden, I always fed Royal Canin in the morning, but what I fed her at night varied. Whenever I finished off a bag of the night time food, I would buy whatever premium food was on sale. She had Taste of the Wild, Blue Buffalo, Natural Balance, Wellness, and others that I don't remember right now.

The vet says to choose one food and feed just that one food for the dog's entire life.

That doesn't make sense to me.

How often should I change dog foods?

Switching periodically does make sense to me.

[Elaine]

With how good kibbles are these days there is no real reason to rotate foods and every reason not to do this. With how many dogs that have food allergies and sensitivities, if you expose your dog to every protein under the sun and then you discover your dog has a problem, you have nothing left to feed him.

People really rotate foods because they, personally, would get bored eating the same thing day in and day out, and then think their dog must think so too. Most dogs will be thrilled every single meal time for their entire lives to be fed the same thing. They don't need variety; the owner does.