switching puppy food from pedigree to nutro max puppy.?

Question

i started last night mixing 75%pedigree25% nutro. he ate more of the nutro but took a very long time to finish the bowl like the entire night. i did the same thing b4 i left for work at 4pm & he still was not eating very much hes 5 months old i have heard good things about nutro so i do want to change the food from pedigree any tricks to get him to eat or will this just take a while naturally?

Answer 1

Just keep what you are doing. Although take the food away after 20 min. The dog will eat more the next time.

Answer 2

A lot of the advice you are being given here is for the US and looking at the flag and seeing Bakers then I assume you are UK. First of all ABSOLUTELY NO BAKERS. If the breeder was feeding him that crap then that tells me a lot about the person that bred him. Truly, Bakers is THE worst food you can give him. It is full of colourants and preservatives. Canned pedigree food is no better and for a large breed puppy he needs the best diet possible to ensure he has healthy bones and joints. If you are going to feed a kibble then he needs something like Arden Grange which is expensive but necessary. Please make sure you insure this dog as rotties cost us a lot of money in health problems - I mean thousands. Also make sure you stick to the 5 min per day per month of life for exercise as well, otherwise you will face joint problems at about 8 months old. If you would like to feed the very best diet for your little man then you need a raw diet. I am quite happy to send you lots of stuff on raw feeding, and give you UK websites / forums to join to help you with any problems you may come across. Keep my email details also and ask if there is anything you need to sort out. So......... two choices really... a good food like Arden Grange - or go completely raw which is actually quite cheap if sourced correctly, and excellent for a growing rottie. Have you got paperwork with this dog. I know most of the UK breeders (well, good ones) and am interested in pedigrees. Keep in touch is you need to. Add on -- Needs.... vets and petstores really do NOT know best when it comes to nutrition. Sorry.

Answer 3

Nutro is not what I would switch a puppy to. There are some dogs that seem to tolerate it fine, but I used to feed it to my dogs and it was not uncommon for them to throw it up, hours later and the kibble would still be hard. For this reason, not to mention ingredients in general, I wouldn't feed this food to a dog.
Their Ultra line of food is their top of the line product, not designed for puppies though. If I had to pick from a common pet store brand, I'd choose this or Nature's Recipe- their meat blends that are Venison, Rabbit or Duck.
If I had the ability to either get my food from a store that sold healthier food somewhat costlier, I'd go with Wellness, Newman's Own Organics, Eagle Pack Chicken and Rice, Canidae, or I'd home cook.
Of all the choices, I'd prefer home cooked choice with occasional raw (chicken back) meaty bone.
If I fed any raw, I'd include sprinkle some acidophilus over the food or feed occasional yogurt (with live bacteria- the good kind).
I am kind of disgusted with dog food companies in general. I was researching Timberwolf recently, which has some great ingredients, but at their home page they stated they were no longer affiliated with Diamond foods, but they also stated they would not say where they were producing their foods. I don't understand. I want to know where these companies, every single one of them, are producing food at.
Do you know at what plant your dog food is produced at? This made me think. Although my dog food was not recalled during the scare, I don't know where their plant is at!

Answer 4

I feed my dogs Nutro with a tablespoon of BARF patty to moisten it. I'm also hedging my bets as I'm not 100% convinced that a dry food can contain everything they need. Figure if I give them a high quality dry food and a high quality wet food then I can't lose! They love it and are in great health. My JRT used to always bring his food up until I started him on Nutro. It's a great dog food. Stick with it but don't be afraid to add something to it.

Answer 5

It can take a little while but don't give up. Try mixing them 50/50, put the food down and give him 15 minutes to eat. Then take the bowl up and don't offer him anything to eat, nothing at all, until his next meal time. Then put his dish down for 15 minutes again and do the whole procedure over again. Trust me, by day three, he will be eating whatever you give him and when you give it to him. While it may seem a little mean, it really isn't as you are offering him food and it's his choice to eat or not.

Answer 6

I don't know, but Nutro is a really good food. Is it the same kind like lamb and rice or whatever, if not maybe that's why. My pup had no problem switching from Purina, the yucky stuff the breeder had her on, to Nutro.

Answer 7

Well first of all, thank goodness you are taking him off Pedigree!! That stuff is such crap! Anyways, once you've started adding 75%Nutro and 25% pedigree, is try mixing in some wet dog food (just a little to give it more taste), stir it up real good so it coats all the kibble. Another thing you can do is add a little warm water so it softens things up a bit, and really mixes the tastes together. There's also 'gravy' for your dogs food, but I wouldnt use that with a puppy.

Answer 8

Get a better quality of food. Something like Pinnacle, Eagle Pack. Try mixing some wet food in, like Merrick's. IMO no need for puppy food, it's too fatty.

And yes, do only leave it down for 10 or 15 minutes.

Answer 9

You are right to mix the food when switching, but there's a chance he doesn't like the new food. When I switched mine, they wolfed down the new stuff.

There are lots of high quality choices out there - look for Canidae, Innova, California Natural to name a few.

Answer 10

Don't add any canned food to spice things up. The more you mix with the kibble begging the dog to eat it, the more he will become sucky and a finicky eater.. Put down the kibble and leave it for him. He'll eat.. If he doesn't after 15-20 minutes pick it up and offer it again at supper.. If he doesn't eat it again, pick it up and offer it for breakfast.. Eventually he'll eat the food.. Dogs will not starve to death..

No tricks to getting them to eat.. Quality dog food is the answer.. Dogs know if they get the nutrition from the food they eat... Eventually they get bored of eating garbage trying to fulfil their nutritional needs and just pick ..

Nutro Max Puppy isn't a good food at all.. Read the ingredient list.. BLAH.. He wants quality dog food..

Chicken Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Wheat Flour, Poultry Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Ground Rice, Rice Bran, Dried Beet Pulp (sugar removed), Whole Wheat, Lamb Meal, Natural Flavors, Potassium Chloride, Brewers Dried Yeast, Lecithin, Choline Chloride, Dried Buttermilk, Dried Egg Product, Dried Kelp (source of Iodine), Magnesium Oxide, Vitamin E Supplement, Ferrous Sulfate, Biotin, Ascorbic Acid (source of Vitamin C), Iron Oxide, Zinc Oxide, Manganous Oxide, Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement (source of Vitamin B2), Vitamin A Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of Vitamin B6), Sodium Selenite, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of Vitamin B1), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Copper Oxide, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Calcium Iodate, Folic Acid.