Raw and Food?

We are having trouble getting high quality food for 4 dogs. Okay maybe not "having trouble" but more like my parents keep saying "We go through dog food TOO fast and it's pricey!"

So I'm wondering, if I switched to something like a Costco's Kirkland or Sam's Exceed and rotated with doing raw, would this still be healthy like feeding a good quality food?

(BTW, i'm pretty sure my parents would never switch to a low quality food. I'm just tired if fighting with them )

How often would you be doing raw? Approximately of course.

Kirkland, though not top quality, is not a terrible food. I wouldn't see a problem feeding that with a few raw meals a week

*noms Nilly*

I feed Kirkland.. the way I think about it is, while it's not the best.. it's about the grade of food I feed myself - not the absolute best, but not bad either. Besides, he does so amazingly well on it - it's a food he can KEEP weight on (it's so hard, unless I feed 3-4cups+ a day), his coat is shiny as ever, he smells delicious.. I'm very happy with it. So is he, he hasn't gotten bored of the taste yet, either. It's like miracle food or something.

I mix it with a bit of orijen, so about 75% Kirkland.... he does extremely well on that.

I say, try it. Or try mixing it with other foods - even that will bring your food costs way down. But with four dogs.. not to be mean, but what on earth were your parents expecting when you and your brother got puppies? Magically refilling food bins? That's part of the reason I didn't keep Morrigan, and haven't adopted a Greyhound.

I don't see the problem with feeding Kirkland by itself, actually. I would do it if it were available in my area. It's a good-quality food. Not top of the line, but still quite healthy. Probably one of the the only good AND inexpensive foods out there.

Sam's Exceed is no where near the same quality as Kirkland. Exceed is the same as wal-mart's Maximum Nutrition.

Liz, I have seen/read where people do Raw and kibble. You just don't mix them together (of course I know that YOU know this) because of digestion rates and all that.

But one meal raw and another meal kibble is completely acceptable and fine as long as your dog does well on it. I don't think I would rotate on a daily (as in today is raw and tomorrow is kibble) or weekly basis as it might be difficult to get your dog accustomed......but I can't say that for sure as I have no experience to offer.

Tee hee, I'm getting my own noms now. Me likes

Thanks!

Nolu, thats a good idea! Mixing the foods.

It just seems like a 33lb bag only last 2 weeks!

I do alternate much like you describe, and haven't had any issues. Meg's got a pretty easy stomach, granted, but she has no problem having raw for breakfast and kibble for dinner, or eating a couple days of only raw in the middle of a week or two of kibble.

I've also seen a lot of sites "debunk" the kibble and raw mixed theory, but haven't tried it myself. I have no idea if it is true or not, just that a lot of people think it isn't a problem. Maybe one of the more experienced raw feeders knows?

^^^ Not claiming to be an *experienced* raw feeder here, but honestly, how does it make any sense that raw digests faster or slower than kibble? No one tells you not to eat sushi and cooked salmon at one time because it digests differently.

I heard that when I first started feeding raw. My dogs were getting sick on raw and I was told my problem was "I was feeding kibble as well." Well, my dogs were throwing up all the raw, I didn't want them going hungry, not with the amount of exercise they get. So I was feeding kibble for dinner if they werent able to hold the raw down. Lots of people mix ground beef with kibble to get finicky or underweight dogs to eat. Ever heard of satin balls? Most people mix it with the kibble, its mostly raw meat.

I just don;t buy in to the whole "They are digested at different rates so never feed raw and kibble together." Until someone shows me scientific proof of course

It is true that grains and protein are processed differently. Not necessarily faster, but differently. That's even the case with humans, eating certain things together are better for you than others (I can't remember what the diet is called).

I don't know if it's so much kibble and raw, as much as grain and meat

Kirkland is good food. Strider was raised on it. Honestly, he did much better on kirkland chicken and rice than he did on wellness core.

With mixing raw and kibble, we do it all the time. Satin balls...ground meat..sometimes we just toss a blob of meat into his dish with his kibble and he eats it all with no problems. Maybe other dogs have problems. I don't know. They are all different.

This is true. They are *processed* differently. They don't leave the stomach, or digest at a different speed though. Fat is processed fastest, followed by sugars or carbs, then proteins. Its all a matter of how/when they enter into glycolysis/Kreb's Cycle/electron transport. It's not unhealthy or bad to feed a dog grains and raw meat in the same meal. Needing to know how/when the nutrients will be processed is only important if you are doing serious work/strenuous activity with the dog.

LOL... you haven't met my anthropology professor. My lord. He rants constantly about digestion... how it's insane to eat meats/veggies/grains in one meal... how milk is evil, etc. There are people who obsess over it, out there. It makes sense to an extent.

In my experience, every time I've fed raw together with kibble in a single meal, it has caused upset tummies. Like, the big D. And they're fine rotating kibble and raw meals, just not both at once. They really have iron stomaches, so it does lead me to believe that the two don't tend to mesh well, somewhere in the digestive tract.

If I were feeding supplemental raw meals (I feed occasional kibble meals), I would just make sure the two meals are seperate, and feed probiotics or digestive aids along with the raw at first. Feeding as much whole, fresh food as possible, especially raw, is a great supplement to any diet. It sounds like a good idea, whether you decide to get a slightly lower quality kibble or not.