My husband and I were eating dinner one night when our
daughter came home from work. “Are you
hungry?” I asked her. She noticed that
we were eating the same meal I had prepared the night before, a spicy Thai
noodle dish that was one of her favorites, and said, “Thanks, but I’m in the mood for something
different.” She heated up a veggie burger,
piled on some avocados and tomatoes, and ate it with satisfaction.
That encounter made me think about the variety of chow we
feed our pets. I can have the same meal
for a few days in a row and be happy.
But what if I had to eat the same food over and over again, every day of
my life? In veterinary school, we were told
that if dogs and cats like their food, they’re content to eat it in perpetuity.
I never really bought into that theory. In fact, I’ve often wondered: Could
foraging in the garbage and eating rabbit poop in the back yard just be a quest
for culinary diversity?
My own dogs and cats have always been given a variety of
food. And it turns out that what I’ve been doing all these years has become a
hot idea with a trendy name. It’s called rotation feeding, and it’s thought to
have several benefits.
Because no dog or cat food is perfect, periodically changing
foods might provide a wider array of nutrients than sticking to a single diet. Another consideration is contamination. We’ve all read about foods being recalled for
dangerous molds, bacteria or mysteryingredients that cause harm or even kill.
By changing brands, it’s possible that we can minimize exposure to those
toxins. Rotating foods might also help
prevent food allergies from developing.
How you rotate a pet’s food depends on both the animal’s
tolerance and your own creativity.
Some owners regularly rotate among the various types of food:
dry, canned, moist, dehydrated, fresh and frozen*. The protein source can also be varied (lamb,
beef, chicken, fish, etc.). Some owners switch
foods daily, some rotate weekly, and still others prefer to finish one bag of
dry food before changing to another. One
challenge I’ve run into is maintaining product freshness, so I buy the smallest
bags of dry food possible and don’t have more than a couple of months’ worth on
hand at any time.
It’s usually
much easier to begin feeding this way when your pet is young, although it can
be done at any age with patience. Cats,
in particular, often don’t adapt to wet foods if they haven’t been introduced
to them very early in life. Another
interesting observation I’ve made is that once a dog or cat has been eating the
same food for years, their digestive tract might be intolerant to change. Avoiding GI upset is usually possible by
introducing novel foods slowly. Mix a
small amount of the new food into the old food and increase the proportion of
new food over a week (or whatever you find is best for your pet). Don’t be discouraged if you try this and
don’t succeed; some dogs and cats simply don’t tolerate menu changes at all.
I’ve
heard criticism that a rotating bill of fare creates picky eaters. In my experience, the opposite is true. If a pet rejects a new food, it doesn’t mean the
pet is picky; it simply means he or she isn’t crazy about the new offering. Rotate among the foods you find your pet
likes best to create an eager eater who looks forward to mealtime with
excitement. After all, isn’t gustatory
pleasure a big part of the enjoyment of life? I admit I might be attributing human
characteristics to my pets, but this brand of anthropomorphism makes me feel
like I’m doing something nice for them — whether it’s necessary or not!
*Feeding raw food is discouraged based on documented cases
of exposure of pets and humans to bacterial and viral contamination.
