How to switch dog food: straight away or over 7–10 days

If you're only changing the flavour of a natural food with a similar composition, you can do it straight away, at the next meal. A gradual 7–10 day transition makes sense when you change the type of food (dry kibble to wet food, for example), when your dog has a sensitive stomach, when it's a puppy, or when a vet diet starts.

Below: how to switch dog food in each of these situations, a day-by-day plan, and what normal stool looks like.

Changing flavour: fine to do straight away

We eat bacon for breakfast and chicken for dinner, and nobody writes a week-long transition plan for it. Dogs are similar. If the food is natural, complete and similar in composition, rotating flavours is fine.

In practice, "similar composition" means meat comes first in both and the fat content isn't wildly different. A big jump in fat gives some dogs softer stool, so in that case ease in over 2–3 days.

At home it's simple. Zuzi eats roughly one 180 g jar of ZoozyJars a day plus a few treats: her first meal in the morning when I sit down at the table, the second around 17:00. She has never eaten dry or supermarket dog food, so we never had a dry-to-wet switch.

When a 7–10 day transition makes sense

A gradual change makes sense in four situations:

1. Changing the type of food. Dry kibble to wet food or the other way round. Different water content, different composition, different texture.
2. Sensitive stomach. A dog that had diarrhoea after earlier changes needs a slower pace.
3. Puppy. For the first 1–2 weeks at home, feed what the puppy ate at the breeder's. Bring in the new food after that, over 7–10 days. To work out the amount, see how much to feed a puppy.
4. Vet diet. Your vet sets the pace and method here. Don't mix it with other food without asking.

Switching from dry to wet dog food: a day-by-day plan

For a sensitive stomach, make each step 3 days long, so your dog gets the full portion of new food from day 10.

The most common mistake is working out percentages from grams in the bowl. Dry kibble has far more calories per gram than wet food, so take 25% of each food's daily portion. Example: a small dog that eats 60 g of dry food a day gets 45 g of dry (75%) on days 1–2, plus a quarter of the new food's daily portion from the label.

What normal stool looks like after a switch

In the first days, stool may change a little in colour, smell and volume. It may also be a bit softer for 1–2 days. That's usually nothing to worry about.

Normal stool:

• is formed and holds its shape,
• is easy to pick up from the grass,
• comes about as many times a day as before.

Watery stool, mucus, blood, black stool and frequent straining are warning signs. If the stool is just soft but your dog has appetite and energy, go back one step for 2–3 days.

After moving to wet food, your dog may drink less from the bowl. That's normal, because a lot of the water now comes with the meal.

What to avoid when changing food

• Several new things at once. New food, new treats and a new chew in the same week make it hard to tell what caused a problem.
• Switching during stress. A house move, a trip or a puppy that has just arrived is a bad time.
• Judging after one day. Watch stool and appetite across the whole step, not after a single meal.
• Swapping food when your dog walks away from the bowl. That teaches picky eating. If your dog refuses food after the switch, read what to do when your dog won't eat.

If you're thinking about moving to wet food, our guide to wet food for small dogs explains how to read the label and how much to feed per day.