08/27/2025
I get this call/email a few times a year... My dog doesn't like his food anymore, so wondering if there is another food I can put him on?
So here is the thing, I have owned dogs my entire life and often more than one at a time. I have never had a dog that didn't like a food. Dogs actually do better on a consistent diet and they can get very upset stomachs when you keep switching their food.
Instead, often what I see happen is dogs going through a stage where they are not eating three (or two) meals per day. They will start eating later in the evening and not eating majority of the day. Most families consider this to mean they are not liking their food because we put our human emotions on our dogs. But, what many people don't realize is that dogs with Poodle (and many other breeds) in them often do this. They will start to only eat once per day and often in the evening. Our 14 and 10 year old Poodles do this all the time. Our 12 year old Goldendoodle will also wait until at least after lunch before eating. This is with us having food out, free choice, all day long for them to eat whenever they want. This is completely normal. I would never switch their food for this behaviour.
Did you know when we have an intact male dog in our house at the same time as a female in heat, that the male often will refuse to eat much at all for up to a week? They are so lazor focused on that female that food is not something they care about. The following week when she is gone, they will eat twice as much though and make up for it. Dogs food eating will fluctuate a lot and I never worry about how much food they are eating unless their body condition is changing. Watching body condition is always the most important thing.
The only reason to switch food is for allergies. Allergies is actually one of the reasons why we like TLC Pet Food, which is our food of choice that we switched (over 9 years ago) to when all the research came out about some of the high end boutique brands causing Dilated Cardiomyopathy. Those foods are grain free and high in peas and lentils and off on their taurine levels. We wanted a food that was a lot better balanced and wouldn't cause this cardiac condition. We also wanted to consider allergies. While we know allergies are getting worse and worse across all breeds in dogs (and for that matter in all humans too). This strongly indicates an environmental factor and not primarily genetic. We like that TLC has multiple proteins and other ingredients that are good for dogs, but also can be allergens, so we will know if our breeding dogs have allergies. We also love that TLC is very reasonably priced, so it is more likely that all our families stick to it and don't go to a garbage cheap food.
Long story short, find a healthy grain inclusive, low in pea and lentil food and stick to it even if your dog starts eating only once per day. It is more important to watch body condition to tell if the dog is doing well on that food. Switching foods often causes more harm than good in dogs.
Note: A good body condition is always when you can feel all their ribs easily but they aren't protruding a lot and they have an obvious dip between their hips and ribs when looking at them from above. To be honest, probably 80% of dogs I see are overweight.
If you ever have questions about food reach out. I intentionally don't post that much about food only because it can be so controversial and will start an argument almost every time due to so many different opinions, but I am always happy to give my honest opinion to anyone wanting to know.
