Kibble and raw together? Raw feeder advice.

I was reading somewhere last night that you shouldn't feed biscuits and raw together in the same bowl as this makes digestion difficult?

Is this true or a myth?

We are introducing raw atm and currently its mixed with their biscuits, and we are slowly cutting them down.

Bodhi has a stomach of steel, but Fred has always been more delicate and he has had some liquid poo. Nothing chronic, just at normal pooping times.

I don't want to just go straight to 100% raw as I don't think his tummy will take it.

Also, they won't get raw if and when we travel, so we need to ensure they can still eat biscuits at those times, so my plan was to include a handful of biscuits with one meal daily.

FYI we are feeding pre made minced raw, that includes meat, bone and organ, and feeding raw meaty bone once or twice a week.

Is this a bad idea?

imo, yes. separate them by meals, kibble in pm raw in am, or something. the reason being raw meat digests quickly, as its designed to be (and not sit and allow bacteria to flourish in the gut) and kibble digests slowly, because of the plant and vegetable matter and dry nature. fed together, and the kibble slows down the raw, allowing harmful bacteria to grow and flourish while the kibble is causing a traffic jam, so to speak

In my opinion it's probably true for some dogs but largely a myth for Dogs with a capital "D". I commonly feed both at one time and it's never caused my dogs any problems. In fact, I just did it this morning. It's also very common for mushers to feed large numbers of dogs this way without reported problems.

Brie (the cat) gets a mix of raw and kibble at many meals. I do make sure to soak the kibble just because of the extreme difference in moisture content between the two...but that's more of a palatability sort of thing.

I usually don't mix the two for the dogs but it's more of a logistics thing. Kibble meals are rare and pretty much for travel or if I don't have anything thawed for some reason...both situations in which I have no raw to mix in.

I frequently mix cannd, kibble, and/or raw into one meal for dogs/cats. There doesn't seem to be any issue with it so far? I used to be really ridiculous about feeding at separate times but I've not seen an issue with the current way I'm feeding.

I was adding canned to the top of Buzz's dry kibble so I could throw all of his meds in there and they'd go down easier. I've changed that out for a pre-made raw and he's done fine. I frequently mix canned and raw for my cats... just because?

I mix with no issue, as I think would be the case for most dogs. I used to buy into the idea that they should be fed separately, but then it started sounding silly to me. I don't think the digestion of raw meat comes to a complete halt just because there is kibble in there as well.

I mix regularly.

Super. We will keep doing what were doing then.

Yes, it's true. Kibble is a man made, cooked processed food where raw is comepletly natural, and species appropriate for the body. Because of that, kibble digests slower since it's harder on the body to digest. Raw is used efficiantly and easily by the body and goes on through much faster.

With that said, a lot of dogs do okay with the two mixed, but on the the other hand a lot also don't. That's when there are digestive disturbances. It's not so bad if it's one or the other at different meal times, just not mixed.

If you are already feeding premade raw, why not just use that? It would be easy to travel with.

As far as his tummy not taking it, raw is species appropriate, just what his body was designed for. It's going to be easier on him than any any cooked, processed biscuits or kibble would be.

Travelling with a week's worth of raw meat to store and freeze isn't easy ha! Not sure where you go! We are regularly away for weekends, dogs come or stay with people who don't want to handle crushed organ and bone matter. I don't blame them, its minging. Fred in particular requires a lot, about 3 packs a day. He's a big puppy!

I'm not a raw Nazi, just like I don't feed myself purely organic unprocessed food... I don't mind a bit of junk, I just want to minimize it.

On the other hand I don't want to make them sick

I wish it was practical to take raw meat everywhere with us but its not. I'm often away just for the night with Fred and I can't lug a bloody organ mass with my to other people's homes lol its hardly polite. Especially when they arent really dog people!

Premade comes in 1lb chubs, or sometimes packaged in 1 or 2lb bags I believe. I think they com in 5lb chubs as well. I feed prey model, which could be a little difficult with travelling maybe, but I know some people who travel regular and use premade raw on the road. If I was to travel, thats what I would use, the premade patties or something.

I often throw raw meat into my dogs kibble, but I don't feed raw meaty bones with kibble. I worry about the bones not having enough access to the stomach acid to digest properly with the kibble competition.

The bones would have as much access to the stomach acid as the rest of the food, it's just that the two digest at different rates so it's harder on the system as a whole. It's best to feed one or the other.

I've mixed raw and kibble together before. Sometimes the dogs are fine, other times the Dobermans get a bit gassy (but are otherwise fine), so now I generally feed kibble and raw separately and that works better for us.

For my raw fed dogs though, I don't worry if I have to give them kibble for travelling or something. They don't get it every day to keep their systems used to it, but sometimes I give them kibble in the middle of the week just because. Or canned. Or freeze dried/dehydrated. Dance and Journey get a bit of everything and have no troubles switching from one type of food to another. They eat raw 99% of the time, but I like to make sure they're used to other types of food because inevitably I will go on a holiday someday or to a dog show/trial/tournament and it'll be easier to feed them something besides raw. And even my mostly kibble fed dogs get a raw meal a few times per week. I've found that by switching things up like this over the last little while has somehow strengthened their digestive systems and they easily switch from one type of food to another and so forth, whereas I used to have major issues switching foods on them. Maybe it's just coincidence though, who knows.

Thanks for all the input!

Food for thought. Ha!

If youre at all worried about feeding them together just soak the kibble for at least an hr. This is what most mushers do when feeding kibble and raw together. This also helps with digestion so they arent running with kibble still in the stomach. Ever seen a dog puke 5+ hrs after eating kibble? Often there is still quite a bit of whole kibble chunks. We want the food in the intestines getting absorbed for energy, not in the stomach still getting broke down!

I've heard that you shouldn't mix from our trainer and dog health nutritionist (we feed raw to our dog), but I'm not sure about it. She said to wait 24 hours for their stomachs to digest before offering a different type. But she did tend to go overboard on some things...I would do raw in the morning (or kibble) and kibble in the evening (or raw). Good luck!

I have heard this so often but am not convinced of its veracity.

Just because something is man made doesn't make it easier or harder to digest. Bones are not easy to digest, yet dogs do it with ease.

Understanding the basics of metabolism (degree in biochem) it makes no sense to me that kibble would take longer than bone.

I do like the idea of soaking kibble, but then I always like the idea of soaking kibble.

Well they've been raw nearly 3 months now, and they don't get kibble.

But they do get various treats and we still feed the left over biscuits as treats too (we had tons left). Fred's stomach doesn't like grains I don't think, he's poo gets soft (it was always soft since a pup on biscuits if you recall).