Transitioning to no-grain - a diary.

Tine2105 · 07-19-2010, 05:15 PM

I decided to start a new thread on this in order to talk to people about my experience transitioning my puppy to a no-grain diet. The original thread is here. It started because I was asking for advice on which food to choose, but now that the choice has been made, I will continue updating Boris's progress here.

For those who weren't following the previous thread: Boris is a 6 month old neutered shih-tzu pup. He's a very active and happy dog but, three weeks ago, started getting tear stains for the first time. Given that his entire face is white - he doesn't have the usual coloured mask most Tzu's have - it doesn't look very pretty! I wanted to try the no-grain diet because I was told it reduces tear stains and helps with the coat and general health of the dog. I've also bought a brita so I have filtered water I give him as well. He was eating Medical Development and I have opted to try him out on Evo red meat small bites.

I started the switch one week ago, but the fist week was difficult. Boris got sick (diarrhea, listlessness...) which I am not certain is due to the food change - after all, he was still only getting a few stray kibbles of evo mixed with his regular food at that point! After 3 days on a ground beef and rice/rice water diet, his stool has gotten more normal and he is his happy self again, so I started mixing solid with the ground beef, and today he is back on solids only (and expelling solids too, let's put it like that....) If all goes well, I'll start increasing the quantity of evo he gets over the next few days.

No noticeable changes otherwise, but I suppose that will only become clear once he's been eating evo exclusively for a few weeks. I'll keep everyone updated to his progress, as I fell this may help people who are thinking of switching to no-grain...

Have a good day!!

Tine2105 · 07-22-2010, 12:33 PM

Well, Boris, who, at this very moment, is lying on his back, four paws in the air and looking mighty happy and comfy, is doing well now. I figured that, since he'd had an upset stomach and diarrhea already, accelerating the transition wouldn't change anything, and it hasn't. He's on about half-medi-cal and half-evo at the moment. To be honest, there was only about 1/5 of medi-cal left in the bag and I threw it in the evo bag and mixed a bit. More medi-cal up top, more evo down the bottom.

No more diarrhea, he eats readily, runs around, plays and remains his adorable self

So far so good!

Tine2105 · 08-02-2010, 03:41 PM

Well, a few weeks on and Boris is doing wonderfully. He's active as always, he poops a lot, but it's all normal shape colour and consistency, so I'm happy with that.

I noticed his coat is less dry and, the best of all, he seems to have less tear stains! While he had brown streaks running under his eyes before, now he has none. The area around his eyes his sort of stained pink, but I have a feeling this will go away with time. I can't certify what made it so much better. Could be the food, could be the filtered water he now gets, could be the fact that his adult teeth have now fully come in. One thing for sure, he doesn't look like a raccoon anymore, and that makes me happy!

I'm off getting some no-grain feed for the cat now.

Tine2105 · 08-12-2010, 08:04 PM

We have a set-back, ladies and gentlemen!

Over the last two weeks, I started noticing that Boris, while he did eat, ate very little. New food in the bowl was ignored until very late in the day when hunger became powerful. He did, however, jump in other dogs' food bowls when visiting over with friends. On dog ate Royal Canin, another one is on Orijen, and the third one on Medi-Cal, and he clearly preferred their food to his. I started doing tests, putting his food beside the other dogs', and he always snubbed his and wolfed down the others. Could it be that he doesn't really like EVO after all? That's my thought anyway. Since we're at 1/5 of the bag of EVO, I went and bought some Taste of the Wild, to see if he would like it better...

I'll start mixing it in and see what happens...

MorningGlory · 08-12-2010, 11:51 PM

He could just be a finicky eater with the kibble. I swapped Willow from Wellness to Orijen a few weeks back because she wasn't eating the Wellness. I had swapped to Wellness because she wasn't eating something else. I started off with a trial bag of Orijen and she loved-loved-LOOVVEEDD it as a treat...after it became dinner though I couldn't get her to touch the stuff

, she was just waiting out her day to see if she could get enough training treats to sustain herself and picking at the Orijen when she was desperate. I tried clicking and praising for eating and it worked for one meal...after that, not interested.

I did find something that works though. I was at the food store a few days ago and noticed they had these tiny cans of gamey food by a company Evangers. They're meant to be supplements to a regular diet. But their ingredients struck me as good enough. They're meat. water. and that's it and they say no preservatives, artifical flavor or salt. I have no idea how good it is but it sounded smelly.

I bought three cans of the rabbit though they had phesant, duck, vennison and a few others. Then mixed about a table spoon with the kibble (put the rest of the can in a zip-lock) and then used a spoon to throughly coat the Orijen. Now she's eating the kibble fast enough that I had considered going back to using an anti-bloat bowl for her -- but decided not to since she's a puppy. It's an idea you might try if you're already buying your kibble from a store that carries high-quality foods. The cans weren't by any means expensive either, under $2 per can.

Tine2105 · 08-12-2010, 11:57 PM

Thanks for answering!

Yeah, I think he's just finicky too. I'm also looking to buy bigger bowls - I gave him the cat's former stainless-steel bowls and they might be too small as I have to refill the water 4 times a day.

I thought about canned food, but I'm always concerned about tooth problems so I hesistated. If he keeps being finicky with the TOTW, I'll try adding a bit of canned food to his bowl

MorningGlory · 08-13-2010, 12:43 AM

Yeah I just mixed it up really good to make the kibble super smelly and to have a taste to it. Have you ever tried a piece of kibble? It kind of taste like cardboard, even the good stuff. I was happy when I saw the gamey meats since (enjoying some of them myself) I knew for sure they'd have a pungent flavor and smell.

Tine2105 · 08-13-2010, 01:08 PM

I'll try that

MorningGlory · 08-13-2010, 01:21 PM

Let me know how it goes. As I'm experiencing too having a finicky eater is a total pain. I was happy though that once again she gobbled up her entire breakfast. I'm just waiting for her to do the "I don't like that anymore" thing she seems to do (I bet yours does the same).

I was thinking it over last night though after typing the responses here, and one other cool thing about using a tablespoon of wet-meat is that if she does turn her nose up to it, then I can just change the wet-meat coating for a new smell and flavor but her "staple" diet stays the same.

Tine2105 · 08-14-2010, 01:10 AM

True! Sometimes it's hard to tell if he's eaten or not during the day, as I suspect the cat of eating his food... But if it has wet food in it, he'll prolly wolf it down. He had diarrhea recently and I fed him ground beef. He cleaned the bowls in 2 seconds lol