I am bringing home a second puppy at the end of July. My yellow lab, Finley, is on Orijen. And I know that's what I would like to put the new puppy on as well, so long as the food agrees with her. The breeder uses Pro Plan Focus, which is what we started Finley on. We made the switch after she would not eat. We tried making a half switch to the Savor, which worked for a meal. But she just didn't seem to like Focus. I did a lot of figuring out, and I realized that Orijen wasn't completely out of the budget. I like a lot about it, and Finley absolutely loves her food again. But she was on Pro Plan for at least six months. I went very slowly with Finley. It took about two months for me to completely switch, mostly because we had a huge bag of Pro Plan to get through. But it worked really well for her. I don't know if I should keep the new puppy on Pro Plan for a 18/33 lb bag or if I should slowly incorporate the Orijen in with the new bag.
Is the Orijen a puppy food? They should stay on a puppy formula until they are grown, pretty much. Some manufacturers say the time to change is nine months, other say a year, others even later. Either way, you need to decide when is the right time to change from puppy food to adult food. If it's simply puppy food to puppy food, you can do it within a week or two, depending on how sensitive your pup's tummy is. I am now switching to adult food, and am doing it over the space of about a month, just to keep things as easy as possible. I don't think it needs to be that long - I think a week or two is generally fine - but I have had lots of time to plan, so thought I would incorporate the new food as slowly as possible. To be perfectly honest, when I brought Willow home, I forgot to bring the food she had been on (pretty rubbish) from the breeder, so she had an immediate switch. She was fine, although a couple of weeks later had intermittent tummy issues, but I couldn't put those down to the food as such - I think they might have just been general delicate puppy tummy troubles. I think it depends on the pup as to how they take to a new food, and whether it causes upsets.
I wrote a reply yesterday which seems to have gone...hey Ho. I don't think orijen has a puppy version buy they suggest it can be used from weaning buy can't quite recall. I was mainly saying that pups are often loose when they come home anyway so wondered whether just going for the change at the beginning would make anything much different. Worth considering that anyway.
I changed mine onto adult at 6 months. Never went to Junior or anything like that as just not necessary. I know owners who just finish the bag that comes with the puppy and then go straight onto adult food! Many years ago 'puppy' food didn't exist but dogs still developed up just fine! Anyway, you don't need to wait until they are fully 'grown up'. I have always changed food over about a 2 week period.
My vet recommends a change of food over a week on a mix 75% old food, 25% new food for 2 days, 50%/50% for 2 days and then 25%old food to 75% new food for 2 days and 100% new food on day 7. Has worked with no problems with Juno when changing her food which I've had to do twice on vet recommendation (post spay and post ED operation). The most fun is trying to calculate how much they should be getting of each food for their weight
Orijen has the Large Breed Puppy, which is what I started Finley on. She's on Adult now, but the puppy will start on LB Puppy. The breeder has the puppies on Pro Plan, though. I want to switch her from the Pro Plan food she will come home on to the LB Puppy from Orijen.
I did it waaaay slower with Orijen. Mostly because I didn't want to give Finley a chance to have ultra loose stool. And there was a lot of Pro Plan to get through!
I assure you I didn't waste any food. I just calculated how much of the old food I would need for the changeover and used it up to that point and then did the introduction of the new food. Juno has never had a problem with a changeover managed over a week. Also for me the uncertainty that she was receiving the right balance of nutrition with the mix of food was reduced.
I would've done that, as well. However, I couldn't get Finley to eat her Pro Plan. She would eat most of one bowl late in the day, nearly dinner time. Then she wasn't ready for any more food at dinner time. The switching of dog food was necessary because she wouldn't eat the food she had. For far too long. So I had nearly an entire bag to go through, because I had all of that. So I did it very slowly. And after the first percentage, she ate all of her food down.
