Dog Food for Sensitive Stomachs: Gentle Nutrition

As a dog owner, ensuring your dog’s health and wellbeing is always a priority. Dogs, just like humans, can experience digestive issues and choosing correct dog food for sensitive stomachs could make all the difference to your cherished furry friend.

In this blog, we’ll explore some of the common ingredients to avoid in dog foods, and how to select the right food for your dog. We’ll then cover how to transition your dog to a new diet and how rotational feeding may also be beneficial.

Common Ingredients to Avoid in Dog Food

The most common ingredients to avoid in dog food are related to animal proteins such as chicken or beef. Some non-animal ingredients like grains or soy can be a common cause of diet sensitives for dogs too. Dogs simply digest animal proteins better than grains, as carbohydrates are non-essential nutrients for dogs.

It’s important to know that dogs can develop food sensitives or allergies at any age. Whether you suspect a food sensitivity or allergy, sourcing a recipe to avoid these ingredients can be tricky. This is where a limited ingredient diet without grain and a single, novel animal protein may work well as an elimination diet.

Recommending ACANA Singles

Our ACANA Singles range is crafted with three limited ingredient recipes, making them great alternatives for dogs that are picky eaters or have dietary sensitives. This range stands by the philosophy that limited ingredients shouldn’t mean less meat! These recipes are made without grain or potato ingredients and include:

• ACANA Yorkshire Pork is loaded with 50% pork ingredients. It’s an easily digestible source of animal protein and complemented with fresh butternut squash for digestive health.
• ACANA Grass-Fed Lamb is packed with protein-rich, raw lamb and fibre rich fruits and vegetables to support healthy digestion.
• ACANA Free-Run Duck is loaded with 50% quality duck ingredients in WholePrey ratios of meat, organs, and cartilage. It’s complemented with delicious Bartlett pears, and pumpkin for digestive health.

How to Transition Your Dog to a New Diet Safely

Dogs are often fed the same food for a long period of time, which means a sudden food change can make it difficult for their digestive systems to adapt.

When looking to switch to a dog food for a sensitive stomach, it’s important to introduce your new dog food gradually. Going slow will give your furry friend time to adjust to their new food and will help to reduce the chances of digestive upset.

Start by mixing 25% new food with old food. Slowly increase the new food proportionately over the next 10-14 days until you are feeding 100% new food.

For dogs that are more sensitive to change, you may want to start out with an even smaller amount of the new food. For example, 10% of the total daily food intake of new food and 90% old food.

Consider Feeding a Rotational Diet

Aside from keeping meal times interesting, providing a diet varied in animal proteins is considered a more natural way of feeding. This can be achieved by feeding a rotational diet.

The ACANA Singles line contains three Limited Ingredient recipes – Grass-Fed Lamb, Free-Run Duck, and Yorkshire Pork. This allows you to introduce one new animal protein to your dog’s diet at a time. Please remember, every dog is unique and how they take to a new diet will be unique to them.

If you do want to try rotational feeding, do not transition too abruptly. Start by replacing 50% of the old food with the new recipe and gradually increase the amount over time.

Need More Advice on Dog Food for Sensitive Stomachs?

If you are looking to transition to ACANA but want more advice to help find the perfect recipe for your dog, please reach out to them on either 01737 767679 or CustomerCare@BernPetFoods.co.uk.