Switching food for 7 wk old puppy?

[sharper22]

We get to pick up our gsd puppy tomorrow - got the call tonight - and the breeder is currently feeding the Sam's club puppy food. I don't want to keep feeding him this, but have been told that switching foods quickly is not a great idea. Don't really want to buy 40 lbs if I am going to switch over slowly, though. We want to put him on Avoderm or Blue Buffalo as quickly as possible, but am concerned about going from a very poorly rated food to one of these.
I Totally over-analyze things; I just don't want to mess up his tummy.
Any puppy experts with advice? TIA!
Suz.

[krazyaboutkatz]

Hi and welcome to PT. I'm actually from the catside but I agree that you shouldn't switch over too quickly. Just ask for a small bag of some of the Sam's Club Puppy Food from the breeder so you don't have to buy any more of it. Then just gradually mix in the new food with it. I think that you can usually make the switch in about 1 week or so. Good luck.

[Karen]

As she said, ask the breeder for a small bag of the food when you get him, and then mix it with the better food, gradually decreasing the bad food and increasing the good stuff, and he should be fine.

[IRescue452]

Switching gradually between different quality foods can prevent stomach issues. Its not life threatening to do this to a healthy adult dog but since its a very young puppy (too young to be legally sold in many states) I suggest it. A 7 week old doesn't have much body weight or hydration to lose before getting really sick.

I would like to suggest Avoderm of the two foods you mentioned. The only things I don't like in their basic chicken food is avocado and alfalfa.

I consider Blue Buffalo to be sweetened poop pellets. There are two artificial sweetners in Blue, both saccharides. These can be bad for dogs because it messes with their blood sugar and why would they need artificial sweetners? Then the last 5 ingredients in Blue are scientifically named bacterias, including Enterococcus Faecium. This bacteria IS poop. Its a by-product often called "animal digest" unless the food company is trying to cover it up. Blue Buffalo is definately trying to cover this up. This is why they need the artificial sweetners.

Make sure if you don't know an ingredient you look it up on your own. Don't rely on potential high school dropouts working retail at the pet store. If they were experts they wouldn't be working a cash register for minimum wage.

[luvofallhorses]

Go to http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com You want atleast a 4-6 star food. Blue Buffalo is good, but may be too rich for a pup that young.

I would stay away from Ol'roy, Kibbles and bits, and Atta boy stuff like that is nothing but garbage.

[MonicanHonda]

Careful with the dogfoodanalysis website... while most show an accurate representation of the foods, some can be a bit biased by the boxer forum that created it.

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/

You can check out here and read up on certain ingredients/foods and make an informed decision based upon your research. Because the puppy was on a low quality food, I would do the slow transition, and expect some bumps on the way to a richer food. But by all means, please switch the pup over to a richer food. He will benefit in the long run.

[MonicanHonda]

Here is another review site too

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/

[luvofallhorses]

I beg to differ.. it's a really good website.

[IRescue452]

Actually I don't care for dogfoodanalysis much either. I use it to get an ingredient list. All they go through is protein and obvious by-products. There's so much more to food than that. They don't mention the artificial sweeteners in Blue Buffalo. They don't mention that those scientifically named ingredients are a hidden by-product made of animal digest. They don't mention anything about menadione as an unacceptable ingredient in foods that use it, and so many foods do use it, even ones they give high stars to. If you're going to use dogfoodanalysis I suggest you just use it to get a list of ingredients in the food you are thinking of getting and then look up each individual ingredient and its usefulness in a dog's diet separately.

[MoonandBean]

I switched my dog over to Pinnacle from Science diet when she was very young. I made the switch too fast and she developed colitis pretty quickly. When we made the switch gradually, she did fine.

[cassiesmom]

There's another site called www.petfoodratings.net that was suggested to me (I'm a cat owner) by another PT'er.