Created with Petco // We all know how obsessed I am with my dog (and my kitties). I have always lived in a home filled with furry (and feathered) creatures. The more animals the better. While we are at our max capacity in our home with 3 cats and 1 dog, I wish I could have more. Our animals fill our lives with such love. We do everything we can to take the best care of them and you know I am guilty of spoiling them way too much. In the spirit of celebrating our furry friends, I am excited to partner today with Petco to share both some tips on how to change food brands without upsetting your pet’s digestive system as well as a special event you can all participate in.
On Saturday, August 19th, Petco is the national sponsor of Clear the Shelters that helps find loving homes for animals in need. Over 50,000 pets found their forever homes in 2016. Nearly 700 shelters across the country are teaming up for this special day. I will be visiting one of my local shelters to help support this great cause. If you want to see if you can find a participating shelter near you, check out the website here: http://www.cleartheshelters.com/
As part of my collaboration with Petco, I was excited to bring a little bit of pet education to you. I actually have a Petco location walking distance from my house and Lola, Blake and I often take a walk over. Like I said, I spoil my dog way too much. But I think that is a good thing! Lola is almost 3 (Her Birthday is this Thursday August 17th!) and we have switched her food a few times for various reasons. We are lucky that she has a super strong stomach but it’s very important to transition food for your pets in the right way so you don’t upset their digestive system. The first time we switched Lola’s food was when we noticed she might need some weight management. When we lived in LA, we didn’t have an outdoor space for her to run around. Instead, we took Lola on frequent walks a day to get her lots of exercise and would take her to the dog park or the beach to run off leash. Australian Shepherds have a lot of energy so it’s important to exercise them well. While we were doing everything right, we still noticed that she could benefit from a weight management food with less fat. That was the first time we switched her food. From experience, here are my tips on how to best transition your dog’s food.
We didn’t want to make any drastic changes and we have always fed Lola fish based food. So when switching foods, we kept with the same main protein that she was used to ease the transition. Once you find a food you like, you want to make the transition over about a week. You want to slowly incorporate the new food in with the old food. On day 1, you want to do 75% old food mixed with 25% new food. Do this combination for a few days. Once you notice your dog or cat is handling the change fine, you can then go 50% old food and 50% new food. You want to continue this pattern slowly mixing in more new food. Next it will be 25% old food to 75% new food. Then a few days later you can start feeding 100% new food. Doing this slow changeover will get your furry friends stomach adjusted to the change. This process has worked for us with Lola in the past. We do travel with her frequently and sometimes we need to transition her to new foods if we for some reason run out of her food or if we extend our trips. This process can help us with that as well. We recently headed to our local Petco to see their latest and greatest. Also, casually taking photos in their store. HOW CUTE IS LOLA. She obviously runs around the store licking everything she can get her paws on. For this food switch we tried out WholeHearted All Life Stages Dog Food in Grain Free Salmon & Pea. I always try to find grain free foods that are rich in protein and Lola of course loved this one. I do have to be honest and say Lola loves food so much and we don’t usually have many issues having her try new things. But for those of you that have pets with more sensitive stomachs, give this process a try. As always, I am no expert but wanted to share my experience with you. If you have any questions about switching over your dog’s food, Petco has some great tips here and as always you should talk to your Veterinarian on how you can transition food safely for your furry family. I always get so many questions about Lola and how we care for her so if you have any questions feel free to leave them for me below in the comments.
I will be visiting the shelter below on Clear the Shelters day.
Hope to see you there and please do come say hi!
City of Irvine Animal Care Center
6443 Oak Canyon Rd
Irvine, CA 90703
Disclaimer:
This post was made in partnership with Petco to support their
mission that every animal deserves to live its best life.
Big thank you for supporting all eat/sleep/wear collabs!
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog - Look at Lola’s eyes! She looks so intelligent! So cute!
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Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
eat.sleep.wear. - Her eyes get me every time! xo
Kristina - Lola is soo cute 🙂 I have also a dog which I adopted from a Humaine Society shelter and she is my baby!
♡Kristina
TheKontemporary
eat.sleep.wear. - Awe thank you! Our fur babies are so special. xoxo Kim
Paulina Piotrowska - This is so cute post! I’m in love. Beautiful dog
http://moje-kreacje.blogspot.com
eat.sleep.wear. - Thanks so much Paulina! xo
Natali - Awww, your Lola is too cute and you’re one amazing puppy mama! Only the best for your doggie!
http://lartoffashion.com
eat.sleep.wear. - Thank you Natali! xo
Sharon - Thank you for sharing this. I had not heard of Clear the Shelters before and I love to go to these types of events locally. I adopted my dog Bella 12 years ago and she is just perfect. Pet adoption is one of the best things a person can do. Lola is so cute, sh’s like a little model in these photos.
Sharon
http://www.forthewonderer.com
eat.sleep.wear. - Awe so happy I was able to bring this to your attention!! It was such a fun event to see all the dogs, cats and other animals finding their forever homes. <3
Kim - I’ve been looking for an aussie for a while and would really like to adopt. I’m having a really hard time finding one. Do you have any suggestions? Where did you find Lola?
eat.sleep.wear. - Feel free to email me! eatsleepwear@gmail.com