A varied diet for a dog

A varied diet supports the dog’s gut health, which influences the dog’s overall well-being. Different wet dog foods and meats give variety to your dog’s diet and, also make the dog’s meals tastier.

From this article you can learn some hands-on tips how to add variety to your dog’s diet and combine different dog foods.

Read more about dogs' gut health and the benefits of a versatile diet.

6 ways to vary your dog's diet

1. Serve a variety of different sources of protein to your dog. If your dog can only eat certain meats because of allergies or food sensitivities, vary them regularly if possible. You can maintain the base of your dog’s diet, for example dry food, and serve different foods and ingredients on the side.
2. Wet dog food and sausages for dogs are easy ways to improve the variety of your dog's diet. You can mix wet dog food with dry dog food or, for example, only serve wet food in the morning and dry food in the evening. One decilitre of dry food equals about two decilitres of wet food.
3. Have you ever thought about giving your dog wet food or sausages as main meals, and use dry dog food as treats instead? All PrimaDog wet foods and sausages for dogs are complete dog food, hence they are adequate for replacing dry food. Especially grain-free, energy rich PrimaDog Active Duck & Herring dry food is so tasty that it can also be used as treats.
4. Meat is supplementary food, which does not provide all the nutrients your dog needs. However, you can replace 30% of the dog's food with raw food. A dog does not need vitamin or mineral supplements if 70% of its daily food intake is complete dog food.
5. Cooked rather than raw meat may be better for dogs with sensitive stomachs, since cooked meat is easier to digest. Also cooked cod or white fish in general is often a good addition for a dog with a sensitive stomach.
6. Either raw or cooked eggs are nutritious supplements for a dog. Cooking the egg can improve its digestibility and the absorption of the nutrients.

Be patient when making changes to your dog's diet

Changing a dog’s diet is always a process, because it takes a while for a dog's gut microbes to adjust especially to big changes. Sudden changes in the diet may throw the gut microbes off balance and cause stomach issues to the dog.

For example, if the dog has never eaten raw food before, at first only give small portions of raw meat and increase the amount of raw food little by little. On the other hand, changing dry food or wet food within the same dog food brand does not usually cause problems, since the quality of the dog food remains the same.

See our guidelines how to change your dog’s diet.