See if a rotational diet for your dog is right. Rotational diets make mealtime exciting for picky eaters and can even decrease food sensitivity by changing up your dog’s meals. A rotational diet can even help your dog’s overall health by introducing diverse fresh foods and additional nutrients to your dog’s diet.
What Is a Rotational Diet?
A rotational diet for dogs refers to the practice of regularly changing your dog’s food. This kind of diet exposes your dog to a wide range of proteins and food options. Rotational diets can help keep dogs interested in their meals and encourage dogs to eat more. After the advent of dog food, a scoop of the same food every day and night is normal. However, this isn’t how dogs have always eaten and it isn’t necessarily the healthiest way to feed your dog. Instead, rotational diets can actually help your dog to look and feel their best.
Before You Change Your Dog’s Diet
Before implementing a rotational diet for your dog, speak with your dog’s veterinarian. A veterinarian will share the benefits and concerns of any diet change. Your dog’s vet will also let you know what to avoid, for example if your dog has an allergy to a specific protein. Additionally, your vet may encourage you to add probiotics or other digestive supports to your dog’s diet as you begin feeding rotationally.
The Benefits
Rotational diets mimic the natural way that ancient dogs ate. Early dogs didn’t eat the same food each day, instead, they were foraging, hunting, and eating varied foods. By rotating your dog’s diet, you can recreate the benefits of a diverse diet for your dog. Rotational diets can also support dogs who have allergies. As part of holistic treatment options for allergies, a rotational diet can help you find ingredients your dog isn’t allergic to, like novel protein sources. Varied, rotational diets may also help prevent dog allergies in the first place through gentle exposure to varied foods.
Rotational diets are especially helpful for dogs with poor appetites or picky eaters. As a pet parent, it’s stressful if your dog doesn’t eat enough or gets bored of food, so a rotational diet could be a game changer. Assuming your veterinarian gives you the green light, a rotational diet can encourage your picky eater dog to consistently eat more food.
How to start your dog on a rotational diet
Rotational dieting can include changing the protein, as well as shifting between different types of food like kibble, fresh food, and wet food. The goal is to regularly shift your dog’s food to expose them to more flavors, diverse proteins, and additional nutrients. To start, you can use small amounts of new food as a topper to your dog’s regular food. Some dogs adjust well to a fully rotational diet (where their food changes meal to meal). Other dogs who are more sensitive may prefer gradual shifts to a new food.
You can use your dog’s rotated diet in slow feeder bowls and food puzzles the same way you would other foods. If you have a picky eater at home, or think your dog could benefit from a rotational diet, use your Spot & Tango portal to select different UnKibble and Fresh recipes to rotate between. This is an easy way to introduce new flavors, proteins, and nutritious ingredients to your dog. By shifting between food flavors, you’ll be able to see which ones your dog likes. By keeping favorite flavors in ingredients in rotation you can even encourage your dog to eat more.
