Every trainer has his own special mixture designed to get the most out of the athletes in his care. Most trainers start with a base of Hi-Pro dog food and add raw beef, vegetables, and other foods per their favorite formula. When these athletes retire, they no longer need the intense, high protein diets they were fed while working for a living but most do well with a higher protein diet.

Hi-Pro is a bulk brand most related to the commercial formula of Pro Plan made by Purina. We find that most retired racers do well on Pro Plan or Purina One variants when they come into adoptive homes.

Some brands list foods based on dry weight, others on wet weight, and not many tell you which one. It’s best to go on the percentage of protein when choosing a food that to find a higher protein content. We recommend that you choose a food with 26-27% protein. In general, the price of the food is truly an indication of it’s quality. Foods like Purina One, Pro Plan, Nutro, Canidae, Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover’s Soul, etc., have excellent ingredients and will do well for your dog. Foods like Old Roy, Kibbles and Bits, and other store brands have ingredients that actually change depending on the meat market so they tend to cause intestinal issues for greyhounds.

If your dog is not doing well on a Chicken and Rice formula after a few weeks and after everything has settled, you may want to switch them to a Beef and Rice formula to see if they have a sensitivity to Chicken. Try not to change foods every few weeks, however, because this can cause problems all by itself. Try a food for a month or more before switching if you suspect a sensitivity.

It is not uncommon for the stress of a move to a new home to instantly cause your greyhound to have loose stool or sometimes diarrhea. We recommend that you not worry about this for the first week until your dog settles in unless the stool is watery. If it becomes watery, your greyhound could get dehydrated so we recommend you have them checked by a veterinarian to make sure there aren’t any underlying medical issues causing the problem.

Loose stools are also common if you change your dog’s diet. If you are going to change their food, you should change it slowly to prevent stomach upset. Start with a mixture of 1 part new food to 3 parts old food for a few days to a week, then go to 1 part new food to 1 part old food for a few days to a week, and then finish with 3 parts new food to 1 part old food for a few more days to a week. Because of a greyhound’s sensitivity to changes in diet, we also recommend that you refrain from feeding your greyhound “people food” or table scraps.