8-Week Dog Gut Reset Program

For a gut reset, our Kangaroo Recipe is the best place to start. Our human-grade fresh dog food is built around a novel protein source, contains no grains, and has a simpler ingredient profile than our other recipes and almost all the other complete dog foods on the market.

This is not to say that other proteins or grains are “bad”. But in order to give a weak gutted dog's digestive system a chance to stabilise, feeding a highly digestible, minimally processed diet with a very short ingredient list and a novel protein source is the best option. Therefore, during this 8-week challenge, the Kangaroo recipe should be the main dog food for healthy gut support your dog eats. After the reset period, and only once your dog is doing well, the other recipes can be reintroduced slowly, one at a time, as explained below.

During this 8-week challenge, the Kangaroo recipe (or Turkey for the low-fat option) should be the main food your dog eats. After the reset period, and only once your dog is doing well, other recipes can be reintroduced slowly, one at a time.

We provide the program and the food, but In order for the program to be successful, there is one element that only you can be responsible for: consistency. Specifically, this means that for the next 8 weeks you must avoid rotating between recipes, feeding random treats, feeding table scraps, feeding flavoured chews, or adding extra proteins mixed in with the food. Use the Kangaroo Recipe as the main food to ensure proper gut balance for dogs. If you need rewards for training, use part of the daily food allocation instead of separate treats. If your dog is under veterinary care, on medication, underweight, elderly, a puppy, or has a history of severe gastrointestinal disease, check with your veterinarian before starting.

The aim of the first week of the program is to simplify the diet and start the transition to the Kangaroo recipe (or the Turkey one for the low-fat option). For dogs with gut sensitivities, a slower change is often easier to tolerate than a quick one, which is why the transition will be completed only at the end of week 2.

• Days 1–3: 10% Kangaroo Recipe (or Turkey), 90% previous food
• Days 4–7: 25% Kangaroo Recipe (or Turkey), 75% previous food
• Ideally, weigh the food and administer the meals at the same times every day. Two meals per day work well for most gut health dogs, but for particularly sensitive dogs, three smaller meals tend to be even better tolerated.
• Mild changes in stool can happen. Your dog may sniff the food more, eat more slowly, or seem cautious at first. If your dog is especially sensitive, each step can be extended by an extra 2 days. The other key change of this week is the simplification of the diet. We want your dog’s gut to deal with the lowest possible amount of compounds that might cause inflammation or trigger gastrointestinal symptoms. This means you must suspend – starting now and for all the length of the program – all unnecessary treats and snacks.

This week completes the move onto the new recipe.

We recommend the following schedule:

• Days 8–10: 50% Kangaroo Recipe (or Turkey), 50% previous food
• Days 11–13: 75% Kangaroo Recipe (or Turkey), 25% previous food
• Day 14 onward: 100% Kangaroo Recipe (or Turkey)

As much as possible, keep everything else the same: same portions, same meal times, same feeding environment, and same lack of extra snacks or treats. At this point you might already have started to see improvements, but if not, that is not a sign of the program failing. Do not assume the program is failing just because stools are not perfect yet! There is a reason why this is an 8 week program, not a 2 week one: the gut needs more time to heal than most people expect. Of course, any early improvement is very much welcome, but patience and consistency are key here. The goal at this stage is simply to get your dog fully and comfortably onto the new recipe.

Now that your dog is fully on the new recipe, this is the week to introduce gut health supplement support for your dog. A well balanced gut microbiota is essential for healthy gut function, and supplementing your dog’s diet with a dog gut probiotic will allow you to re-establish that positive intestinal environment. We know there are a lot of products on the market and you might already have some probiotics at home, maybe recommended by your veterinarian. Naturally, feel free to choose the product you prefer or to follow the indication of your vet.

Our recommendation is actually not a canine probiotic, but a product originally marketed for humans which however performs extremely well in dogs – according to many veterinarians, better than many probiotics marketed exclusively for dogs. This is because it contains a higher number – both in terms of overall quantity and number of bacteria species – of microbes than most canine probiotics, which allows for a better re-colonization of the intestine from the “good” bacteria species. This product is called Vivomixx probiotic 450 billion (non affiliated) and it’s available on amazon or other online stores. Make sure to keep it stored in the fridge. Administer half a sachet per day to dogs 15 kg or smaller, and one sachet per day to dogs over 15 kg. You can mix it with water or a small amount of yogurt (ideally lactose-free). Administer the product daily until the end of the program.

Administer the probiotic daily until the end of the program. Feel free to choose the product you prefer or follow your vet's recommendation.

Less than half of the dogs that suffer from gut sensitivities are actually ideal weight, so the focus of this week is to assess your dog’s weight and make sure that the diet is optimized for it, since weight and gut health for dogs are closely related.

Underweight dogs struggle to recover fully if the gut is not getting enough nutritional support. Ongoing digestive issues can reduce appetite, affect nutrient absorption, and make it harder to maintain healthy muscle and body condition. Overweight dogs will also have a harder time, because excess body fat is associated with low-grade chronic inflammation and often reflects overfeeding or too many calorie-dense extra treats. These can all complicate gut recovery.

This week, assess your dog’s body condition. To do that, you have to actually weigh your dog – and most dogs get weighed once per year or less. If you can’t weigh your dog at home, go to your local vet or pet store and they should have a scale available so you can have a precise number rather than just a guess. If your dog is not at ideal weight, adjust calories gradually:

• If underweight: increase daily food intake by 10%
• If overweight: reduce daily food intake by 10%
• Then reassess after 7–14 days rather than reacting to day-to-day fluctuations. Please do not skip this step. For long term dog gut health, feeding the right amount of food is just as important as feeding the right food.

By Week 5, your dog has had time to settle onto the new recipe and has already started the probiotic phase. That makes this the right point in the program to introduce a prebiotic or soluble fibre to help with gut balance for dogs. At the start of a gut reset, it is often better to keep variables to a minimum. But once the diet is established and the gut is calmer, adding the right fibre can provide another layer of support.

Prebiotics and soluble fibres help by nourishing beneficial gut bacteria and supporting the production of beneficial fermentation by-products in the colon. In practical terms, they can help support better stool consistency and more regular bowel movements. Our first recommendation is psyllium, because it is very effective, widely available, and almost always useful in dogs with variable stool quality. If psyllium is not suitable, you could use a veterinary prebiotic blend or a small amount of plain pumpkin as a food-based fibre option. Use plain psyllium husk, not flavoured human products, and follow the below dosages:

• Small dogs: start with 1/4 teaspoon per day, increase if needed to 1/2 teaspoon per day
• Medium dogs: start with 1/2 teaspoon per day, increase if needed to 1 teaspoon per day
• Large dogs: start with 1 teaspoon per day, increase if needed to 1 and a half teaspoons per day

Mix it well into the food and add a little water if needed. Start at the lower end and build up gradually to the higher dosage if your dog’s stools are still not well formed over the course of the week. Too much fibre too quickly can worsen bloating and gas instead of helping. You can follow similar dosages for pumpkin as well, while for specific veterinary prebiotic products follow the indications on the label.

This week, we assess fat tolerance. Every dog has a maximum threshold of fat they can tolerate in their diet before developing some side effects, but this threshold is different in different dogs. While not all dogs that suffer from gut sensitivities have a low threshold, some of of them do, so it’s important to understand whether or not your weak gutted dog can tolerate a higher fat intake in order to know once and for all which food he/she can consume and which ones should be avoided in the future.

The recipes used in this program are either moderate fat (Kangaroo) or low fat (Turkey). This week we’ll increase the fat content of the diet by adding an oil to the recipe. The preferred option is MCT oil, because it has multiple health benefits and it is generally easier to absorb than other oils. If MCT oil is not available, you can however use sunflower oil or corn oil as alternative. Use the following dosages based on the size of your dog:

• <5 kg dogs: 1 ml oil/day
• 5–10 kg dogs: 2 ml oil/day
• 11–20 kg dogs: 3 ml oil/day
• 21–30 kg dogs: 5 ml oil/day
• >30 kg dogs: 6 ml oil/day

A good way to introduce it is to give half the target amount for the first three days, then move to the full amount if everything remains stable.

Watch for signs such as softer stools, greasy stools, more gas, stomach noise, reduced appetite, vomiting, or nausea. If your dog handles this added fat well, it means it can consume recipes with higher fat content than the one he/she is currently eating:

• If you are feeding the Kangaroo Recipe, in the future you could try all Brunswick recipes, including the beef and lamb recipes.
• If you are feeding the Turkey Recipe, in the future you could try the chicken and kangaroo recipes.

If the extra oil clearly triggers symptoms, it is sensible to be more cautious with higher fat options later on:

• If you are feeding the Kangaroo Recipe, in the future you could try chicken and kangaroo.
• If you are feeding the Turkey Recipe, just stick to this recipe in the future as well, since it’s the lowest fat option.

If your dog is doing well, treats can come back in this week, but only in a very controlled way to maintain gut health dogs need. For now, treats should be kangaroo (or turkey) treats only. Do not introduce chews, biscuits, table scraps, dairy, or other random treats.

Treats should still remain a very small part of total daily intake. The goal here is to start give you and your dog a little bit of extra flexibility with the food options and verify whether your dog can handle a small increase in variety without compromising gut health.

This final week completes the reset, but it also helps prepare your dog for the next phase. If possible we want you to have the option to feed your dog different recipes over time, but it’s important to proceed carefully and only testing one food at a time. Start by choosing one protein only. This should be the protein you are most likely to use as your dog’s main option after the program – you could buy the protein directly yourself or use the Brunswick recipe made with that protein. At this stage, do not introduce more than one and do not start rotating 3 or more recipes yet. We recommend the following schedule:

• Days 1–3: 95% Kangaroo / Turkey, 5% new protein or recipe
• Days 4–7: 90% Kangaroo / Turkey, 10% new protein or recipe
• If symptoms return, stop the test and go back to 100% Kangaroo Recipe (or Turkey).

Once your dog has completed the reset and is doing well, you can begin expanding variety. The key rule is simple: one new recipe at a time. Any time you want to introduce a new recipe, follow the below schedule: