tucknroll

Goodmorning from chilly Northern California, y'all! In preparation for bringing our sweet baby Mila home at the end of this month when she will be 8 weeks old, I've been doing copious amounts of research on the breed so that we do the absolute best job we can in raising her. I myself haven't had my own puppy since I was a little girl, with the exception being after high school an emaciated half-Dachshund quarter-Schnauzer quarter-poodle female that I rescued from some idiot BYB in my area and rehabbed for 2 months until she was back to full-health, before giving her to my best friend who still has her and loves her to bits (and she retrieves fowl when they go hunting too!)

Well now that I'm in puppy research mode, I'm reading a lot of conflicting thoughts on feeding a puppy more than one brand of food at a time. I'm seeing some people say that its a good idea to feed pup one good-quality type of dry food while simultaneously adding a portion of either wet or dry food from a separate brand to the bowl, and they say it helps their tummies to not get so used to one brand that they develop sensitivities in the future. Others claim its better to feed only one brand for a long period of time. And others say its good to rotate after each bag is finished.

I'd love to hear some Doberman-experienced on this topic I'm aware that Dobies are notorious for their sensitive systems (as is our adult GSD). I'm fully versed in what makes dog foods good or terrible, and learning about why you shouldn't over-do it with your growing Dobie at the risk of causing them to develop poorly. My plan is to see how Mila will do on Nature's Variety: Prairie Large Breed Puppy (not extravagantly expensive, good nutrition panel, readily available about 45 mins away from our mountain community) and depending on what everyone thinks, I may look in to a good wet formula to supplement her with. Note: I'm in no way trying to get her to "max out in size", my sole concern is that she grows up healthy and balanced. I also plan to supplement her meals with Animal Naturals K9 Puppy Gold powder.

PatchworkRobot

Do you mean two different foods in one meal? I know a few people who do this (dry kibble) and I don't really see a point. Each food is formulated to be what a dog needs on it's own.

There are other people, myself included, who rotate foods. Most people that I know of who do this rotate with each bag. Using my household as an example, I rotate proteins with each bag but keep with the same food. So, my dogs eat Nature's Variety Instinct always but this month they're getting the duck formula. Then, when the next bag comes it will be the beef formula and the bag after that will be either salmon or rabbit. My main reason for doing this is so that my dogs don't eat the same thing all of the time - something I imagine to be quite boring. Occationally, when I run out of the current food before the net one comes in (I order online) I'll run to the store to get a small bag of a different brand (yet equally good quality) and they'll eat that for a few days. At first I'd switch over the food slowly (over a couple of days) so that their tummies could get used to it but now, after months of rotating the protein source, I can do a hard switch no problem. I've found that, in comparison to other dogs I know who eat the same food all the time, my dogs can eat just about anything with no stomach upset. I like this because if something happens to me or the food that we have and they have to get something new, for whatever reason, they should be able to handle that well.

Sometimes my dogs get some wet food (or pumpkin, or yogurt) added into their food but I don't really do it to supplement anything as much as to add a change to their food. I feed a good food and my dogs don't have any medical issues going on so I don't feel like my dogs need supplements.

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