Switching my puppy to Canidae?

[TinyTinaTunaFish]

Well, I've been pricing different foods and found a local pet store that sells Canidae, so I've been thinking of switching Juno to Canidae. She's almost 14 weeks old.

Right now she's on Purina One and I've noticed that her coat isn't as glossy and she itches a lot. I'm thinking it might be because of the food. She doesn't really get people food. Maybe one small tidbit of chicken or other meat here and there, but she usually doesn't get scraps from the table, so she's just had the Purina One and a few times a week I mix her dinner meal with some wet food.

What's the best way to introduce the Canidae?

Also, the bag of Purina One says to feed her 2 & 2/3s to 3 & 2/3s cups per day. I've been giving her one and one thirds in the morning and about the same at night but a little less on nights when I mix it with wet food. The Canidae says to give her 4 to 5 cups per day. That's a LOT of food, isn't it? I had told my husband that I thought that switching to Canidae would be better because while it does cost more money, we probably wouldn't go through it as fast, but it looks like we'll be going through it a lot faster.

I'm not sure how I'm going to justify the cost of it to him.

 

[jess2416]

You definitely not be feeding that much...

you should gradually make the switch over a short period of time, and gradually decrease the amount of purina while increasing the amount of canidae...

 

[TinyTinaTunaFish]

You definitely not be feeding that much...

you should gradually make the switch over a short period of time, and gradually decrease the amount of purina while increasing the amount of canidae...

I didn't mean feeding her the combined amounts. I'm going to gradually switch it over, but after she's eating only the canidae, am I really supposed to be feeding her 4 to 5 cups per day? The Canidae site says 4 to 5 cups as a puppy and then 2 to 3 cups per day as an adult. Do I just have to ride out the added expense while she's a puppy?

 

[jess2416]

I didn't mean feeding her the combined amounts. I'm going to gradually switch it over, but after she's eating only the canidae, am I really supposed to be feeding her 4 to 5 cups per day? The Canidae site says 4 to 5 cups as a puppy and then 2 to 3 cups per day as an adult. Do I just have to ride out the added expense while she's a puppy?

Generally speaking you will feed less of a better food, so Im not sure about the 4-5 cups...

I wouldnt think it would be so much....

 

[CharlieDog]

I wouldn't feed four to five cups of ANYTHING to a puppy unless that puppy is HUGE.

 

[Whisper]

Really, 4 to 5 cups doesn't sound right at all. I've found that on some dog food bags they say to feed more than what a dog needs.

 

[rutylr]

Canidae is a good food.It it to my dogs for years.
You don't want to over feed the puppy.You want to grow them on the lean side.Better for bone development.

 

[2dogmom]

Canidae is an all life stages food - they don't have a puppy formula, just one formula for adults and puppies.
Puppies do need a lot more calories than adults because they are growing so usually you see a recommendation of about twice as much.
But what the bag says can be misleading, it all goes by the individual dog.
I'm not sure how best to convince your husband you're doing the right thing. Her coat will be glossier, she is less likely to itch and she will also probably have less BO. Be prepared for your husband saying you take better care of the dog than you do him. We all get used to that I think.

 

[Maxy24]

That sounds like an awful lot to me, Max never ate more than three cups of food and he grew to be a larger dog about 65 pounds. I would feed about the same as you have been feeding. If she starts to get too thin feed more, she gets fat feed less.

 

[GlassOnion]

That does sound like an awful lot. I'd give maybe three cups a day at most for a puppy (1 1/2 in morning and 1 1/2 in evening). And that's assuming a good sized puppy too, which I'd assume a Lab/GS would be.

 

[TinyTinaTunaFish]

Okay, thanks guys. I'll try to feed about the same as I have been and just start slowly mixing it right now. Hopefully she won't get diarrhea or anything... that would seriously suck.

Maybe I'll just refrain from talking about it with my husband lol. He knows I want to change her food, and since I handle the bills, as long as we still pay everything and there's money left over for him to do what he likes to do as well, he probably won't notice, haha.

 

[SizzleDog]

I'd feed the same amount that you were feeding of the ONE, and adjust the amounts after that.

A word about cups though... I've had Doberman puppies - 14-20 weeks - that have eaten as much as 9 cups of food a day. When Ilsa was a puppy (20 weeks or so) she was eating 8 cups of food a day and still looked skinny - she ws impossible to keep weight on!

 

[Tazwell]

I just adopted out my last shepherd/lab pup last weekend. They were 11 or 12 weeks old, and about 16-18 pounds or so. They ate about 3 cups of Iams a day, each. Maybe more, sometimes. I know they WANTED more.

 

[MoonStr80]

You do this about 3 days, then you just give her one cup of Canidae for three meals. I'd add luke warm water as well. Be sure to use human regular size cups so you know exact the measurements

Mix the two dog foods for each meal
Breakfast
Purina: 3/4 Cup
Canidae: 1/4 Cup

Lunch
Purina: 3/4 Cup
Canidae: 1/4 Cup

Dinner
Purina: 3/4 Cup
Canidae: 1/4 Cup

 

[621mum]

How big is your puppy? The Canidae site recommends 4-5 cups a day only for a puppy that is 50-75 lbs.

http://canidae.com/dogs/all_life_stages/dry.html