Rice to new food

[Sazi91]

Hi all, my first post but I've been looking through threads over the past few weeks and was looking for some advice on my pups situation please, you all seem so wise.
So I've got a labrador puppy, 11 weeks and when we chose him at 4 weeks we requested and provided a food for him to be weaned on, this food was applaws large breed. He's had varying from loose stools to cow pat style. We took him to the vet on Monday as they became mucusy and they gave me some paste and to give him rice until solid, this happened after the first meal so added his food back over 3 feeds and he was loose again. I took him again Wednesday and they advised to give him rice and egg for a few days. He was bringing up the egg so he's on rice and chicken. The vet said she think the applaws is too rich for him. So my question is can I change his food while he is on the chicken and rice or do I need to put him back on the applaws and change food gradually from that? Thanks

The general advice is to gradually change slowly over several days to avoid stomach issues.

However, we have had many issues with BiteyDogs stomach and had to swop foods. I find that it only ever is a problem when you swop to another food that is equally an issue. For example we have found that it wasn't the food that was the problem but the format it was in. So my dog can't tolerate kibble as his main food but as soon as we swopped to wet food (same ingredients and same brand) his stomach issues lessened. I swop flavours now every day (4 different ones across two different brands) and we don't have any issues.

So if it was me I would just go onto the new food but I know what my dog tolerates.

If the original food is so bad for him I would keep him on chicken and rice and slowly add the new food and phase out chicken and rice, taking a couple of weeks to get fully onto the new food.

Thank you for the replies. I was thinking of doing it gradually but then i was concerned about him losing weight on just the chicken rice or him not getting enough nutrients from it if he was to be on it over several weeks

Biteyshark interesting about the format. Will have to be something to keep an eye on.

I used to worry about the nutrients thing as well as my vet used to advise rice and chicken for upset stomachs.

My dog has recently been diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease and now after each flare up I ignore that advice and get him back on to normal food and he recovers much quicker. Obviously I have the benefit of experience so I know what is best for BiteyDog. Another thing is to split the food into more meals as a little bit more often is so much easier on the stomach so maybe think about adding a bit of the new food each meal time but make meal times say 5-6 times a day and monitor his poos.

Aww bless biteydog thank you for your suggestions. I'm willing to try anything to get him back on track, not that he notices that he isn't haha.

The thing is if he has the runs he's not getting the proper nutrients anyway. Chicken and rice won't hurt for 1-2weeks, whilst he is swapped.

Have you decided what to swop onto? I have a cavalier with a sensitive stomach and a need for huge quantities of food for his size (he is very active and burns a lot of calories and looses weight very easily). I tried quite a few high quality feeds before I scrapped the idea of grain free and just went wheat free. Mine are on barking heads tlc now, which has rice and oats in but no other grains. Far better at keeping tummy settled whilst being able to feed enough to keep his weight up. I don't think the tlc is for under 12months but the principal may help in picking a food.

Btw the wheat free is because I know my cavalier cannot tolerate wheat even in tiny amounts.

Spanielsarenuts I'm thinking wainwrights by pets at home. It's frequently recommended on the labrador pages in on and my pups litter mates were weaned onto it (yes I was annoying and awkward for the breeder ) and I think most of them still are (breeder set up a fb group for litter). I believe it's quite similar to the barking heads, it is also wheat free as it's a hypo-allergenic recipe.