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Feeding Raw
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Ok, so that my shampoo thread does not go in a different direction, I’ll start a new one.
Cody has dandruff and is smelly. Not horrible but smelly enough to need a bath every 3 weeks. I was thinking of adding one raw meal a day for him. He turned one today, is getting fed three meals a day. Can I switch just his dinner to a raw dinner or will this mess with is digestion?
*Melissa- A Queen in a house full of boys.
I have heard that there is no problem with alternating raw and dry. The only thing you should not do is to mix them on the same meal as they digest differntly. Because he is 1 year old, you could probably do 2 meals (one dry and one raw. When we switch to raw, we did cold turkey and her stomach never got upset. I have heard of various people that do half raw and half dry, so you should be fine.
I have had bell on a dry kibble morning and raw at night and she is doing well with it. I did it mainly so when we got backpacking and I can’t bring raw she will be use to the dry. I have read don’t mix together but don’t know how true that is.
Because there is not needed transition between raw and dry, you could (if you want) do 100% raw and then still bring your dry food when backpacking. Ocha cannot have dry food no matter what (instant stomach upset) so when car camping we bring her raw food in a cooler, and when backpacking we bring “Honest Kitchen” (dehydrated) food in ziploc bags.
Because there is not needed transition between raw and dry, you could (if you want) do 100% raw and then still bring your dry food when backpacking. Ocha cannot have dry food no matter what (instant stomach upset) so when car camping we bring her raw food in a cooler, and when backpacking we bring “Honest Kitchen” (dehydrated) food in ziploc bags.
I recently switched my two to Honest Kitchen – it is fantastic! The change in Keiko is so huge that I will never go back to kibble 🙂
Raw should really help the smell and coat. Be sure to have a balanced raw diet. Mixing raw and dry in the same meal is not a good idea. You could always keep the dry for trips. I went raw a few years ago and have seen so much difference!
What’s your guys definition of raw? Bones, mince?
I have always fed my weims two meals a day, one of premium kibble and my raw meal is chicken mince/rice/vegetables – consisting of pea’s carrot, corn beans etc and the occasional bones from the butchers for a snack/treat.
I never feed them tinned processed meat, and try and ensure they have a well balanced healthy diet.
But I wouldn’t expect to extend their bathing intervals of 3 weeks after going to a raw diet 🙂
There are lots of different models to follow when feeding raw. When we say raw, its a blanket statement for non-kibble, non-canned meat but rather raw meat products only (human-grade). Some feed the prey model which is whole pieces of meat (bone in, muscle, organ), some feed BARF-grinding up the bones and making a well balanced mixture of muscle, organ, bone in meat, veggies, eggs, and sometimes other supplements. Some do a mixture of both. 🙂
Oh and there is also commercial pre-made raw food some people buy. I think its a bit spendy and would rather take the time to make it myself once a month for the whole month. That way I know EXACTLY what’s going into my pups gut.
-Steph & Jaeger
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