I saw this mentioned in a thread a little while back and was wondering what peoples opinions of it were. If you rehomed a dog that was on not a very good quality food such as Pedigree would you change them from it straight away or still change over slowly?

It was a slightly different situation but I remember when Sonny was having his digestive problems I changed straight over from Naturediet to Chappie and did not do it gradually. Sonny had constant runs on Naturediet though and I was desperate to find something which made him better so there was not much point keeping him on the one that made him ill.

I did an instant food switch with Ziggy, from one with rice to cereal free - cured her colitis within hours!

I'd agree, if a food is making a dog ill, one more mouthful is one too much.

However, if the dog is basically OK, then switching over gradually is probably better - less of a shock to the system. For a recently rehomed dog, who is bound to be under a lot of stress (whether it shows or not), a slow approach is less likely to cause problems. We all know the effects of stress on digestion.

I think, ideally, I'd try and do it over a week but some dogs (luckily, Henry is one of them) can adapt very quickly. Puppies - I would change them over about 10 days if possible. If I had a "rehome" and knew what they were feeding before, I would again do it over a few days, in an ideal world. I think the worse that can happen is an upset tum and like you say, if the dog is already upset on the food, there isn't much to lose with a faster transition.

I'd do gradually too. Some say that to change over quickly makes them more resilient and less likely to become sensitive BUT if you have one that IS sensitive, it can be a disaster. In my book, best do it gradually just incase

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"Life is mostly froth and bubble, Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another’s trouble, Courage in your own”

When I got my rescue dog I asked what he was fed (cheap nasty food) and decided to change him instantly. He was fine and is now looking fantastic a month on being fed a good diet

One of my working dogs has a very sensitive digestion and had the sh!ts from the day he arrived which is not easy to work a dog with so I changed him over in one hit and again was a success

I understand the reasoning for changing over gradually and get why people do but from experience I tend to change over instantly.

When I changed Indi's food he hadn't eaten in days and I was changing from complete dry to the ww trays. I tried to do it slowly but he would only eat the wet and picked round the dry he had been on.
So he decided for me. I just dropped the dry and added the ww dry. He's still not fussed on dry though.

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