Starting my dog on raw

[Smokey Dog]

I have a pit mix who I recently adopted and have a couple questions about going raw. Lately I have been feeding him one part BLUE salmon kibble, to one part raw chicken. I also have been including 2 eggs, yogurt, and spinach to some of his kibble. I cannot afford anything more expensive than chicken for another month or two, so will my dog be able to thrive on a half raw diet that is mostly chicken? Also, he has had some problems with his stool, and I was reading that some dogs do not react well to too much yogurt and raw spinach. Is that true/common?

[Jonathan S]

I’ve been feeding my dogs raw for a few months now and the hardest part is finding the right protein. My dogs react badly to Bison, Venison, and Beef, do moderately well with chicken, but thrive on Lamb and Rabbit. It took a lot of experimenting to get it right, but I think I have the right mix now.

If you’re having trouble with stool, it could be the protein source, or it could be too much fat. I the stool is slimy and greasy, that’s a good indication of too much fat, or it could be IBS. Try backing off the yogurt a bit, maybe try substituting the chicken for turkey.

I feed my dogs half raw and half kibble. I read some advice somewhere that if you don’t know dog nutrition really well, but you want to do raw, keeping them on some high quality kibble is a good safety net in case you miss something.

Also, there’s a lot of advice that you should feed your raw and your kibble separately due to the rate they metabolize. I tried that and my dogs started vomiting their meals… I think the richness was too much for them. I went back to mixing the raw with the kibble and they’re right as rain.

Just don’t panic, and don’t give up. Keep researching, and keep trying. I find this process very rewarding and I feel it brings me closer to my dogs.

[Author]

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