Switch over 7 days: days 1–2 about 25% new food, days 3–4 about 50%, days 5–6 about 75%, day 7 fully switched — slowing down if stools wobble. Match calories, not grams (fresh food weighs 2–3× more than kibble for the same energy). The transition planner calculates the exact daily amounts for your dog.
I'm Teddy. The week a dog switches to home-cooked food is a great week to be that dog — and occasionally a less great week to be that dog's gut. The fix is boring and reliable: go gradual, watch the output (yes, that output), and do the calorie maths once instead of guessing. Here's the whole playbook.
Why gradual matters
A dog's gut microbiome adapts to whatever it's fed. Years of kibble, then a sudden bowl of fresh chicken and vegetables, is a shock to that system — the usual result is loose stools or a vomit, which then gets blamed on the new food rather than the speed. Seven days lets the gut renegotiate quietly. Sensitive dogs, seniors and serial bin-raiders deserve 10–14 days instead.
The 7-day plan
| Days | Old food | New home-cooked | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | ~75% | ~25% | Excitement. Slightly soft stool is normal. |
| 3–4 | ~50% | ~50% | Stools firming back up. If not, hold here 2 more days. |
| 5–6 | ~25% | ~75% | Appetite and energy. Most dogs are sold by now. |
| 7+ | — | 100% | Normal stools, shiny enthusiasm at mealtimes. |
Percentages are of calories, mixed in the same bowl. The planner turns them into grams for your dog automatically.
The maths trap: grams are not calories
Kibble is dense — roughly 3.5–4 kcal per gram. Fresh cooked food is 1.3–1.9. So "replace 100 g of kibble with 100 g of fresh" quietly cuts the meal's calories by more than half, and "half a bowl of each" overfeeds. Work in calories: a 10 kg dog needs about 560 kcal a day (full chart here), so a 50/50 day is ~280 kcal of each — about 75 g of kibble plus roughly 200 g of our chicken recipe. Uneven-looking bowl, even energy. Dose the premix in proportion to the fresh food's calories as you go — the recipe scaler and calculator handle it.
Troubleshooting the week
Soft stools for a day or two: normal. Hold the current ratio an extra day or two and add a tablespoon of plain cooked pumpkin per meal. The picky inspector: warm the fresh portion slightly (add premix after warming, never to hot food), mix the two foods thoroughly rather than side-by-side, and hold your nerve — many dogs are suspicious of change on principle for 3–5 meals. The gobbler who begs for more: remember fresh food is bulkier — they're likely getting more volume than before, not less; trust the calories and the body-condition check, not the acting. Choose a gentle first recipe: chicken & butternut is the forgiving one; save richer recipes like beef & sardine for week two onward, and rotate proteins only after the switch is settled.
After the switch
Weigh your dog (or do the rib-and-waist check) fortnightly for the first two months and nudge portions ~10% either way as needed. Settle into the batch-cook rhythm — most people land on a Sunday session with the shopping list tool — and from there it's just dinner, done properly.
Quick answers
How long does switching to home-cooked food take?
Seven days for most healthy adult dogs; 10–14 for sensitive stomachs, seniors, or dogs with a history of food drama. Slower is never wrong.
Is diarrhoea normal when changing dog food?
Mildly soft stools for the first couple of days, yes. Persistent or severe diarrhoea, vomiting, blood or lethargy, no — pause the transition and see your vet.
Can I just switch overnight?
Some iron-gutted dogs cope, but it's the most common cause of "the new food made my dog sick." A week costs nothing and avoids the false alarm.
Do I feed the same grams of fresh food as kibble?
No — fresh food is 2–3× heavier for the same calories. Match calories, not grams: the planner and calculator do the conversion.
Get your dog's day-by-day amounts
The transition planner calculates exact gram amounts of old and new food for each of the 7 days, for your dog's size.
Open the transition planner