Bland Diets
Your doctor has recommended a bland diet for your pet. A bland diet is a diet that is highly digestible. The diet is generally composed of a single carbohydrate source and a lean protein source. The most common home-cooked bland diet is boiled white rice and boiled plain chicken breast without any oils or spices. Alternatively, your doctor may dispense a prescription diet such as Hill’s Science Diet I/D.
Ideal Bland Diet
One part boiled plain chicken breast and two parts white rice is the ideal bland diet.
Permitted Lean Protein Substitutions
- Pork loin
- Egg whites
- Low-fat cottage cheese
- 93% low-fat hamburger
Permitted Carbohydrate Substitutions
- Boiled potatoes
- Boiled pasta
Bland Diet Feeding Instructions
Vomiting
Withhold both food and water for 4-6 hours after your pet vomits.
Diarrhea
No need to withhold food or water.
Offer a small amount of a bland diet (a tablespoon per 15 lbs of weight) every 4-6 hours.
If your pet is tolerating these feedings, gradually increase the amount over the next two days until your pet is getting roughly the same amount of bland diet at about the same frequency (i.e. if you feed your pet 1 cup of food twice daily, the goal is to eventually feed 1 cup of bland diet twice daily). Feed the bland diet until you have 3 days of no vomiting or diarrhea. Realize that with some cases of diarrhea, your pet may actually have cleared out everything in the intestines and they may not defecate for up to 48 hours. Once you have 3 days of no vomiting or diarrhea, slowly change back to the regular diet over 3-5 days.