# Trying to better understand food transition



## josh83 (Oct 24, 2010)

I am not so good math. I was just wanted to get clear on how exactly to transition dogs to different food. I feed my dog half a cup in the morning and half a cup at night. Now that say i think its 75% old food the first night and 10% new. I just don't understand how many cups that is for the old and the new food.


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## whiteleo (Sep 7, 2008)

So you feed your dog 1 cup of food a day, put 3/4 cup old food to 1/4 cup new food and mix together and then split it into two meals that will give you the 75% old food to 25% new ratio. Good Luck and I would feed this for a good 3-4 days with no tummy issues then slowly increase the new food and decrease old food to 50% old to 50% new and so on and so on.


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## wags (Jan 31, 2009)

Transitioning to a new food always go slow. It can take up to two weeks. with a cup of food I agree with whiteleo. To start put like 25% new then 75%old ~that's 1/4 cup new food 3/4 cup old food mixed. That I would do 3 to 5 days. ~~then I would do 50% to 50% 1/2 cup new food and 1/2 cup old food mixed on days 5 to 8 ~~then I would do 75% to 25% 3/4 cup new food1/4 cup old food on days 8 to 12 then transition all the way on days 12 to 14 100 % of the new food.


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## josh83 (Oct 24, 2010)

Thanks everyone. The main reason i actaully asked this was because I am thinking of rotating between Orijen and Acana. I ended up email them and they said no transition is necessary. Thanks this is a good reference for future.

Sorry I don't mean to change the subject here.


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## Jack Monzon (Jul 25, 2010)

They told you no transition is necessary because they want you to use as much of their food as possible, as quickly as possible. They'll also probably tell you to feed your dog 3-6 cups of their food per day rather than 1 cup.


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## Jacksons Mom (Jun 13, 2010)

Jack Monzon said:


> They told you no transition is necessary because they want you to use as much of their food as possible, as quickly as possible. They'll also probably tell you to feed your dog 3-6 cups of their food per day rather than 1 cup.


No, the bag on Orijen recommends 3/4 cup-1 cup for dogs 3lbs-20lbs. But I do still think that's entirely too much but all dog foods seem to over-estimate. Jackson weights 15lbs and is really active and gets 1/2 cup per day of Orijen or Acana kibble mixed with a little wet food.

And no, there shouldn't be a transition necessary between Orijen and Acana because their ingredient lists are so similar, just different protein sources. I never do a transition, to be honest. But my dog doesn't get upset stomaches easily. So it all depends on the dog. I don't think it's necessary to do the whole food transition thing especially between 2 great foods made by the same company. It'd be different if you were changing from Ol' Roy to Orijen.


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## whiteleo (Sep 7, 2008)

I agree that if you are feeding the Champion line you probably shouldn't need a transition period. The ones who really need it the most are dogs who have been on a low protein grain heavy kibble and then you want to transition them to a high protein grainfree kibble, those are the ones that really need to take it slow.


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