Kibble and raw together? Raw feeder advice.

[naturalfeddogs]

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.

[BlackPuppy]

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.

[naturalfeddogs]

Originally Posted by BlackPuppy

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.

[Toller_08]

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.

[Dizzy]

Thanks for all the input!

Food for thought. Ha!

[oc_spirit]

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!

[LabLover95]

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!