My puppy refuses new food during transition. What should I do?

You can try mixing the two foods together if you switched abruptly because some dogs do not handle a quick transition well. Mix the old food and new food together in a bowl for a week or two to gradually switch her over. You can also try things like soaking the new food in warm water to soften it or with a low sodium chicken broth to try to make it more appealing initially, then gradually decreasing the amount of liquid added to the food. Some pet stores also have a satisfaction gaurantee if you pet will not eat the food, so you can also call and find out if the store offers this and will let you exchange the product if she still refuses to eat it.

It is possible that something is medically wrong with her however, I would first recommend feeding her the old flavor of food to see if that's the issue. If she eats that flavor then you may want to consider keeping her on that food. If you would rather switch you can slowly transition but mixing the two together and slowly transition the old one out.

The problem with changing foods too quickly is that dogs can get GI upset (especially diarrhea) with a sudden diet change. If a dog is not eating the old food anymore, sometimes we will use a bland diet (1/2 cooked white rice and 1/2 cooked white meat chicken without any skin or bones) as the other food to mix with the new food to allow for a gradual diet change to the new food to (hopefully) prevent any GI upset, so you might consider that option. Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Rather than using a 50/50 mixture for a diet transition, I would instead ideally recommend starting 75/25 old/new food for 2 days, 50/50 for another 2-3 days, then 25/75 old/new food for another 2 days. Chloe is more likely to experience gastrointestinal upset without the more gradual transition. That said, it is possible that she could be perfectly fine with a more consistent 50/50 transition over 7 days. If she does not normally have a sensitive GI tract, you can try a 50/50 mix for 7 days, but if she does develop signs of a GI upset (vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite), a more gradual transition will be necessary. I hope this helps clear up any confusion!

If you are wanting to switch Kiko to a new food the best way to do it is to transition him slowly from the old food to the new food over about a period of one week. I usually recommend doing about 25% of new food to 75% of old food for 2 to 3 days then increasing that to 50-50, then increasing it 2 to 3 days later 75% new to 25% old and so on. By the end of 7-10 days you should be able to successfully start them on the new food without any problems. Signs to watch out for that can indicate a food intolerance to the new food include vomiting and diarrhea/soft stools. Good luck.

What about a canned or dehydrated food? Those sometimes are preferable to young dogs. The dehydrated foods are great because that are a lot like homemade food but don't require the time or effort needed. Canned foods are not bad for them either. You can start that or mix it with dry food to help encourage her to eat dry food. I hope this helps!

Hi there! You can transition her like you would normally with other diets. The key is going to be to do it slowly which is always true for dogs. What I typically recommend is to do it over 4 days as follows. Feed 25% of new diet and 75% of the old diet on day 1. Feed 50% of each on day 2. Feed 75% of new diet and 25% of the old diet on day 3. You can start feeding the new diet entirely assuming that the transition has been well-tolerated and has not resulted in any gastrointestinal signs such as diarrhea, nausea (manifests as drooling, lip smacking and/or decreased appetite), vomiting or anorexia. This approach usually works very well. Good luck with Chloe! I bet she is super cute!