- Changing a dog’s diet isn’t the cause of sickness and diarrhoea
The picture below shows a clause on the back of a supermarket brand of dog food. It reads “Your dog may have a sensitive stomach. A rapid change in diet may cause them to become suddenly ill, which may result in vomiting and / or diarrhoea.”
This is true, but it’s very misleading.
Let’s discuss humans for a second. If you were to eat Wheat-bix morning, noon, and night, and nothing else, for months (or even years). What would happen to your guts if one day you ate some lentils?
Your guts would probably explode!
The room would be full of toxic gas!
Your toilet seat will become your closest companion, and you’ll feel a bit down in the dumps about the pains and groans in your belly.
Our pets, just like us, develop intolerance if (a) we eat the same thing for a long period of time, or (b) we cut something from our diet for a long period of time.
If grandma sucked on some eggs, if she hadn’t had eggs in years, she’d probably have a few bowel movements.
Something I hear all the time is “This new food’s making my dogs sick, I’m taking it back to the store to complain“.
Regardless of whether a new food is good or bad, the sickness and diarrhoea probably isn’t caused by the new food (although don’t rule it out). It could be the old food, or more likely it could be because the dog hasn’t eaten anything different for so long they’ve become intolerant of other foods.
That’s not a good thing, and the worst thing you can do is put him back on the old food and forget about it.
Why do we believe a dog should eat the same food all the time and develop intolerance, when we know it’s really not a good thing for us humans?
I’ll tell you why:
Pet food manufacturers have trained us to believe changing foods is bad. The reason is simple, and it’s nothing to do with nutrition. They want you to feed their product for the entire lifespan of your dog.
Next chapter – “I love this food, it’s so goooood!” ->