Cold-pressed dog food is a new type of dog food and while most pups thrive on Nextrition right away some dogs need a little more assistance to transition. Every dog is different and some experience different challenges when starting to feed this food. This guide provides some insider tips and tricks on how to overcome the more common challenges.
The first thing we recommend is to add some warm water to the food and let it sit for a bit. This will start to break down the food and will soften the pieces, more importantly it will help release extra flavor and the food will be coated in its own gravy. Dogs that are ho-hum about Nextrition will usually go bonkers when a little warm water is added.
Don’t forget about the powder that will be in the bottom of most bags. This stuff is golden! You can mix it with some warm water and you have created a super tasty meal topper!
Here are some common tips from pet experts to help reinforce positive eating habits and become a little less picky. Many of these tricks will need to be reinforced over multiple days for it to start working effectively. We know you can do it!
Time-limit meals. Leave food down for 30 minutes only—this teaches your dog that mealtime isn’t available all day and should eat during designated meal times.
Reduce treats & scraps. Too many high-value extras train dogs to wait for those extra tasty treats and handouts instead of eating their regular food. Some dogs will have greater will power than others to hold out eating their normal food hoping they will get more scraps.
Warm-water trick. As noted above, adding warm water to cold-pressed food helps release more flavor and aroma—and coat the kibble in its own tasty gravy. The amount of water you add will create more/less gravy on the food. If you add enough water the full pieces of food will completely break down, creating a mash that you can place in a lick mat with any other healthy foods they love to encourage them to eat.
Nutrition improvements take time—just like going to the gym, you won’t see dramatic results overnight. Once fully transitioned to Nextrition, you can expect to notice benefits within a few weeks such as skin & coat, digestion and energy levels.
Because cold-pressed food is easier to digest than traditional kibble, your dog’s system needs time to adapt. When the digestive system overworks with food that is easier to digest it can sometimes cause loose stool. This is a similar issue when switching from kibble to a raw or fresh diet as those foods are typically easier to digest than kibble. To help with the transition process and to build a healthy and diverse gut microbiome, all of our recipes contain pre-, pro- and post-biotics. If you are already giving these types of supplements and then you introduce Nextrition it could cause a “too much of a good thing” issue, resulting in some loose stools. To help prevent this, either introduce Nextrition even more slowly or dial back on the extras until your pup is fully transitioned.
If you see loose stools while transitioning, we suggest feeding a portion of their current food and Nextrition a couple of hours apart from each other. If Nextrition is fed with a food that is harder to digest, the gut will overwork to move Nextrition through the digestive system, causing loose stools. By feeding at separate times, this should allow your pup’s stomach to slow down and work only as hard as needed.
If you see loose stools when fully transitioned to Nextrition, the issue could be portion control. If you feed too much at a time, the gut is going to work a little faster on moving the food through the digestive tract and not giving it enough time to absorb all the nutrients. We would suggest getting a free personalized feeding plan that you can take by clicking here to ensure proper portion control, or feed them 3 smaller meals a day vs. 2 larger ones.
Yes! Every formula is designed for all life stages, puppies, adults and seniors. Having worked for other pet food companies, we know the main reason why some brands will strip out puppy-level nutrients to create adult-only recipes - unfortunately, is to save money. They charge the same and put in fewer nutrients, making adult recipes usually more profitable. We believe that dogs deserve optimal nutrition and puppy-level nutrients are wonderful to feed at any age!
Hopefully you found some information here to help you feel better about feeding Nextrition or trying a little longer with your pup. If you have any questions that weren't answered here, please visit our contact us page here or reach out to us at hello@nextritionpet.com and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
