How long before changing puppy's food?

LDMomm

I'm getting a new puppy (Westie). The breeder has her on Purina Puppy Chow. How long after I bring her home should I keep her on puppy chow? I want to change her to Fromm's Grain-free Surf and Turf but I don't want to make too many changes at once (house, people, new dogs, new food). I was thinking that I'd wait a week before starting to change her over.

fawkese1

a week sounds good to me, just remember to make the switch slowly, and i am sure she'll be fine...

MorningGlory

A week sounds about right and then another 10-days or so to make the switch. Camille and I swapped Willows diet instantly (he threw away the food from her previous owner by accident) and she got the runs pretty bad. A bit of pumpkin treat cleared them up pretty quickly though.

Afterward I found out what we had her on was good but not great, and so I did another food swap for even better puppy food.

Since you might wind up trying to figure out how to swap the food without causing yourself a lot of stress and her a lot of tummy problems, the easiest way I found to do it was to grab enough zip-locks for 10-days worth of meals. Start off with meal 1 with just an itty-bitty bit of the new food and mostly the old. Then put all the new food in the last meal for day 10 with just a itty-bitty bit of the old food. Fill in the middles so it's a gradual transition and wha'la, run-free puppy food swap.