The Importance of rotational feeding

As a busy dog nutritionist, I spend a lot of time talking to people about the importance of rotational feeding for dogs. In a nutshell, rotational feeding is just another term for feeding variety. Rotational feeding essentially means, feeding your dog plenty of variety. Variety in terms of food. Variety in terms of supplements. In fact, variety in terms of just about everything that goes towards completing its diet!

Why? Take an apple for example. It’s full of goodness, right? It’s full of vitamins C and A, potassium and fibre. Apples help keep your skin clean, your bowels regular and the doctor away according to the old saying.

Apples are good for you, but you can’t exactly live on them. Well, maybe you could, but I’m not sure for how long or how healthy you would be. Apples might be good for you, but you need lots of other things in your diet as well. You need protein and carbs, fats and other vitamins and minerals in order to make your diet complete.

Then again, you can’t just feed the same protein, carbs, fats, vitamins and minerals. That’s a meal or a recipe. No, you need a wide variety of them to make a diet. And that is exactly the way it should be with your dog. Feeding exactly the same meal is a recipe. A recipe for disaster. Because that is likely to create an intolerance to those same proteins, the proteins in those ingredients. Rotational feeding is the only way to ensure variety in your dog’s diet!

What are the benefits of rotational feeding?

So exactly how does rotational feeding for dogs benefit your best friend?

It avoids the possibility of a food intolerance
A food intolerance, also known as a food sensitivity, comes about following repeated exposure to the same protein. By feeding the same protein over and over again. It can take weeks, months, sometimes even years, but eventually, the immune system starts to react negatively towards that protein. This can result in digestive upset and skin problems, potentially leading to far worse problems if your vet prescribes medication.

The best way to avoid a food intolerence is to feed plenty of variety. To practice food rotation!

It create a healthier digestive system
Different food sources provide different gut bacteria. Different gut bacteria help create a healthier gut biome. The wider the community of different bacteria, the more varied your dog’s gut biome, the healthier your dog should be.

It provides more nutrients
Different protein sources contain different nutrients because each has its own unique nutrient profile. The wider the variety of nutrients you feed your dog, the healther it should be.

Rotational feeding means rotating everything

Rotational feeding in dogs is not just about rotating the ingredients in your dog’s food. It’s about rotating everything in its diet, including its supplements. Different brands of supplements are likely to have different ingredients. Those differences might only be slight, but they can make a difference.

So pick two or three different, highly rated brands. Each time you reorder say, salmon oil, switch brands. Alternate between those two or three different brands each time you reorder, once again to give your dog the widest possible variety of nutrients. Do the same with probiotics and vitamin supplements. This stops your dog’s body getting used to one thing and either reacting negatively to it or perhaps being so used to it, it doesn’t benefit from it at all.

Variety is essential in your dog’s diet. Rotational feeding for dogs is everything!