Rotation diet?

Picklepaige

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#1
How many people do rotation diets? Have they worked? How many/what brands do you rotate through? How often? Do you switch cold turkey or do it gradually?

I have Finn on Wellness CORE (puppy formula) right now, but I would like to get him on a rotation diet. Maggie has been eating Blue Buffalo for a couple of years now, and she's starting to get bored with it, so I'd like to vary it up with Finn.
 

Julee

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#2
Once we're in WA, that's likely how things will play out... whatever is high quality, grain free, and on sale. :lol-sign:

I've heard nothing but good about rotation diets, though.
 

Fran101

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#3
Not sure if this is officially a rotation diet but I work at a dog store and basically take anything home that comes in ripped or expires or whatever haha lucky merlin
he is also on raw (we live close to chinatown. so he gets whole prey raw..fur,feathers and all)

The kibbles are usually a hoshposh of..
- TOTW
- Natural balance
- Wellness wilderness
- Orijen
- Acana
- Blue buffallo

and the raw is whole prey whatever is at chinatown (usually chicken, duck, pigeon)

I think he has an iron stomach because even on raw/kibble days or when I get a totally new weird kibble he doesn't get stomach upsets.
 

maxfox426

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#4
Not sure I do a true rotation diet... I always buy the same brand (TOTW) but buy a different flavor each time. No real rhyme or reason to it, either. Basically, I go to the pet store and try to find a bag that has a discount for ripped packaging or something. If there are none, I just buy a random bag that isn't what I bought last time. lol

Morgan does well with this. Honestly, he does great. He used to get 2-3 major ear infections a year. Since switching to this "system", I think he's had one mild ear infection in the past two years. I can't honestly say if it's the brand or the rotation or what that is helping him, but I will take it!
 

sojello

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#5
I do a rotation-
Horizon Legacy, Acana, Healthwise (before the recall), Holistic Select and I'm sure there is more.
Now I feed half kibble and half pre-made raw. I'm using Holistic Select and Spring Meadows raw.
 
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#6
How many people do rotation diets? Have they worked? How many/what brands do you rotate through? How often? Do you switch cold turkey or do it gradually?

I have Finn on Wellness CORE (puppy formula) right now, but I would like to get him on a rotation diet. Maggie has been eating Blue Buffalo for a couple of years now, and she's starting to get bored with it, so I'd like to vary it up with Finn.
I work at a pet food store, so I'm constantly getting different things. They get a mixture of dry, canned, pre-made raw, and freeze-dried.

I will honestly feed pretty much anything as long as it's a good quality food, and I try to stick to grain-free, but not always. I will get the large bags of dry food, which normally last about a month, and then we'll switch to something else. Packages of freeze-dried really varies, but a can lasts 2-3 days and a 3lb bag of premade raw lasts about 10 days, and then we switch. They're constantly getting different things. For example, yesterday they ate Fromm Salmon Tunalini and Natures Variety raw beef for breakfast, Fromm Salmon Tunalini and NutriSource Lamb & Rice canned for dinner, and got a Kong stuffed with Stella & Chewy's Lamb freeze-dried.

When I first started, I didn't do as much variety, and I changed food over gradually. Now I just switch completely cold turkey, and they're just fine.

I really like feeding a wide variety of brands, flavors, and types of food. I think it makes for a stronger digestive system, and gives them more well-rounded nutrition. I like having firsthand experience with feeding most of our products so I can give good, honest review to our customers.

One of the biggest "problems" that I've seen with customers is that they find a food their dog likes, does well on, and they feed it over and over and over again, never feeding anything different. And then something happens, and it gets recalled, or gets backordered, or is simply out of stock the day they choose to go buy dog food, and it's a major meltdown. They have zero clue what to buy, their dog has never had anything different, so feeding something else usually results in a digestive explosion, and so on and so forth. I think this can definitely be solved by feeding a rotation diet of different brands/flavors, and I try to recommend it as much as I can.
 

JessLough

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#7
I don't really do a rotation, but they get a mishmash of foods. For example, yesterday I bought a bag of Fromm, a bag of Orijen, and 2 varieties of Acana. It'll all get mixed into a bin and they'll eat them all at the same time, and it'll (hopefully) last 6 months, then they'll be switched to different mix of foods.

Though, I mainly do it to get proper nutrition and levels, and that way they can eat something even if there's some kind of recall and/or food is unavailable.
 

Laurelin

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#8
I will honestly feed pretty much anything as long as it's a good quality food, and I try to stick to grain-free, but not always.

When I first started, I didn't do as much variety, and I changed food over gradually. Now I just switch completely cold turkey, and they're just fine.

I really like feeding a wide variety of brands, flavors, and types of food. I think it makes for a stronger digestive system, and gives them more well-rounded nutrition.
Pretty much that exactly. ^^ I feed a bit of everything, dont' put much thought into which meal they get when or what the next bag of kibble will be. I pick things I like the ingredients in and try to keep a few different protein sources in the mix. Dogs have been great.
 

skittledoo

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#10
Pretty much that exactly. ^^ I feed a bit of everything, dont' put much thought into which meal they get when or what the next bag of kibble will be. I pick things I like the ingredients in and try to keep a few different protein sources in the mix. Dogs have been great.
This is pretty much what I do with the boys. I can't do rotation feeding so much with Cricket because of her allergies, but the boys get variety. My last bag I bought was performatrin grain free and this time I'm buying a bag of Fromm gold because I can get 40lb bags through my work for less than $40 because we use it as our house food.

I also mix foods sometimes. I may buy a small bag if Orijen and mix it in with their bag of Fromm.

I can never make up my mind on food so I keep buying different stuff.
 

Southpaw

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#11
I don't do a deliberate rotation. But we try a random assortment of brands and flavors. Sometimes I just get bored of buying the same food lol I like to try different things. I always switch cold turkey.
 

FG167

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#12
How many people do rotation diets? Have they worked? How many/what brands do you rotate through? How often? Do you switch cold turkey or do it gradually?
We do! I've been doing this for years and I adore it.

Before we added Pan (last summer), we just rotated whichever brand was on sale and of good quality (with or without grain). But, Pan has not been doing well on any of the grain-in foods we've bought, and he did absolutely terrible on Canidae Grain Free. Terrible. He also didn't do too well on TOTW.

Now (after Pan), we do Grain Free only - my absolute favorite is Merrick, then Holistic Select. We're trying out Blue Buffalo now and it's alright but not my favorite. I would ideally like to have 3 grain free foods available, one of which is for sure available at huge chain stores (we travel A LOT).

We usually buy 4-6 bags of the same food but different flavors, and then switch. Cold turkey. Obviously we go through a lot of food, about a bag a week (of 24-32 lb bags), or it might be about 1.5 weeks a bag.

The cats also get rotated but we switch every bag.

I mainly do it to get proper nutrition and levels, and that way they can eat something even if there's some kind of recall and/or food is unavailable.
This is also why I do it. I also like knowing my dogs' guts are pretty well able to handle changes. My dogs also get table scraps of whatever I happen to be eating (lately apples and chicken), random treats I think look fun to buy (usually also of good quality but I bought Kastle stinky Beggin' Strips today because they make him happy), food roll, hot dogs, string cheese, and we do raw as well.

My puppies I introduce to this sort of thing slowly though, I stick to one brand for quite awhile with the babies, and usually 1-2 kinds of treats and then slowly add things - just to make sure if allergies/sickness etc, I know what the heck they've been getting. The number of things Eden has eaten is very high and she's never sick.
 
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#13
I switch through the different Acana/Orijen flavours, if I didn't live so close to one of the plants I might use other brands, but its always fresh and easy to get so we stick to them, but we feed all the flavours.
 

Saeleofu

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#14
whatever is high quality, grain free, and on sale.
Pretty much this, except sometimes I'll feed grain-inclusive if it's high quality and a good deal - like the Go! that was on sale, or the By Nature Logan's on now.

Only down side is it makes it difficult to try to find a novel protein/carb source if you suspect food allergies down the line.
 

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