Should Dogs Eat The Same Food Every Day?

I was just feeding my Standard Poodle his daily rations and thinking about dog food. Every morning and evening, I give him half a can of some kind of premium dog food, some premium dog kibble, and some human food, like chicken, beef, or tuna. I mix up the cans of food, so that he never gets the same flavor repeated twice in one day. Sometimes it’s canned lamb, other times it’s canned chicken, and other times it’s beef from a can. I mix up the human food as well, giving him some chicken meat or beef or tuna on a random basis.

When I started feeding my first dog, many years ago, I was told by everyone that I should feed her the same thing, day in and day out. So I gave her the same dried kibble, twice a day, every day. The rationale was that if I gave her something else to eat, she would have an upset stomach because she was not used to processing different kinds of food.

She seemed grateful to get the food, and I didn’t think to question the conventional wisdom that I was told.

Much later, I started to wonder about the conventional wisdom. After all, feral dogs and their wild relatives eat a huge variety of food, basically whatever they can find or catch, all without having severe diarrhea every 20 minutes.

So is it really true that dogs need to stay on the same diet?

We know that mammals (yes, us too!) have a bacterial flora in their gut that assists in the digestion and processing of food. When that bacterial flora is disrupted, we can have diarrhea. This is often why people who go to other countries come down with a case of the “turista” when they eat food containing a different mix of bacterial flora.

Maybe that happens with dogs as well, when we change them over from feeding on only one food item to a large variety of foods. Then we might have a little bit of cleanup to do for a while.

Some people have told me that the proper way to introduce a dog to some other kind of food is to put in a little bit of the new food in along with lots of the old food, and then keep adding a little bit of the new food every day until the proportion of new food outweighs the proportion of old food. This can take months.

But with us, we know that we get over the “turista” in a week or two, and then are quite happy to eat a variety of strange foods as the bacterial flora adjusts in the gut. Should dogs be any different?

I know that my Poodle enjoys eating a variety of different foods. Occasionally I will forget which can I gave him and repeat the same canned food twice in a day. He usually eats some of it, but not with the relish that he saves for a dinner that is varied from the time before.

Put yourself in his place: How would you like to have oatmeal for breakfast, and oatmeal for dinner, only to look forward to the next day and …..more oatmeal?

To go back to my question: should dogs stay on the same diet day after day? In my opinion, the answer is No, not even close.

(PS, I love oatmeal, but I don’t think that I could eat it twice a day for the rest of my life).

--Con Slobodchikoff

Comments

[Donna Hill B.Sc. B.Ed.]

Also by alternating what you use as training treats, you keep a higher interest in the training. Higher value foods are more motivating for other difficult environments or as jackpots for more complex tasks.

[Donna Hill B.Sc. B.Ed.]

One of the benefits of feeding a variety is that your dog develops a 'stomach of steel'. Right from the time a dog joins our family (puppy, adolescent or adult) we feed a variety of foods, not just kibble either. As scavengers and hunters, they eat fruit, vegetables, beans, raw bones and yes and even the higher protein and easier to digest grains like oatmeal so that if and when we run out of food, or they find something they shouldn't out on runs, their intestinal system is more adaptable and they have no problem switching over to anything we might have at hand in an emergency (such as travelling etc-nothing worse than travelling with a dog with the runs). By the way, we now feed raw which means rotating between at least 4 meat types. You also find that you don't have picky eaters as they relish everything given to them.

[sandra]

We shouldn't be comparing our way of eating with that of an animal. It's ok if we give the same food to our pet everyday. I give my chihuahua the same food everyday since 5years and he is healthy and happy.

[Jude Morris]

I don't think we should confuse human palates with canines. Dogs eat to live, not live to eat like most humans. I showed dogs for 20 years and fed the same high quality dog food daily. The dogs ate it with relish evey day. No picky eaters and very rare stomach upsets. I had clients whose dogs refused to eat on a daily basis. They only needed to be reprogrammed by their meal "disappearing" a few times after they had refused to eat within 5 minutes of its being offered; after that they ate readily and without stress. We love to spoil our dogs, but I tend to think that a high quality food supplemented with a few raw veggie treats is just fine. Dogs will eat garbage with relish, but that doesn't mean we should give it to them.

[Marika S. Bell]

Use it or Loose it might also be relevant here. When people switch from a processed diet to a Raw diet you will sometimes get a bit of loose stool for the first week. The explanation for this is that the dog is not manufacturing the enzymes needed to break down Raw foods because with processed dry or canned foods they simply haven't needed those enzymes! In fact many people are schooled to switch a dog over immediatly rather than a long drawn out process when switching from processed to Raw because it is actually easier on the system to digest Raw (once the enzymes and bacteria are in place).

[rick smith]

if the diet is nutritious, i'm not sure it needs much variety.
i happen to be a raw feeder, so i vary between chicken, beef, turkey and pork, so my dogs do have some variety there. only occasional mulched veggies

if you look at the animal world you will find thousands of species that have evolved to eat one specific food source. since domestic dogs are basically scavengers that has opened the door a bit, but i still feel meat based is best for them

i often think dogs that are picky eaters are sometimes conditioned to be that way by their owners.

K9 digestive systems are much different from ours and if they eat something that doesn't agree with them a quick puke is all that is usually needed

they also can do pretty good on junk food - just look at the feral studies. so all in all i'm not too concerned with their menu rotation. some dogs do fine all their life eating very cheap commercial kibble so go figure :-) but that often shows up as bad teeth/gums in senior years tho, so u better brush their teeth/gums for them if they don't have a way to chew them clean :-(

actually i'm not what you would call a three squares a day feeder, and my dogs never know when their next meal is coming and still seem to have extremely high food drive no matter what is being served. their health is my overall concern, and its up to me to make sure they get the proper amount in the proper time, and it has sure helped in all aspects of training. fresh water is always available tho

[Jaume]

I think it depends upon the dog, and the basic feeding he is recieving. I have a Sire, who breaks the allowances among breakfast, lunch and dinner. The former and the latter are equal, and it seems that very tasteful (blend of two pet foods plus special bread). On the other hand, lunch is different every day: like ours, human food: fish, meat, vegetables, etc...