Dog food Raw V Dry

DJ85

DJ85

DJ85

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Aberdeenshire
we've decided to change our 6 month french bulldog over from kibble food to raw food, there seems to be a lot more health benefits by doing this also there's the matter that he just plain leaves his dry food sitting all day....until there's a hint of human food in then hell eat it all but thats no use for him. Even tried the starve method but he doesn't really care.

So we went to pets at home and spoke to the lady, she showed us puppy raw food and told us to introduce it slowly by reducing the kibbles day by day and upping the raw. But keep something hard in his food so there's a crunch and his teeth don't go soft.
Now were nearly done with his dry food and pets at home weren't very informative so we went to the local pet store and they've said don't listen to pets at home just phase out the dry food and then plates of raw only and add in stuff as you go like pasta veg etc. Been looking this up online and YouTube and its total mixed so pretty lost now.

Anyone else feed there dog raw? That could help with a basic weeks menu to start with since he's nearly on full raw now i don't want to stall or go backwards.

This morning he got 3/4 chicken and salmon with brown rice raw and 1/4 science plan chicken dry. Which will be finishing today or tomorrow.
 
We have 2 Frenchies and moved to raw food a few months ago. I'd also disagree with the Pets at Home advice, if you want a crunch i think it should come elsewhere not from kibble as the whole point of Raw is to get away from that stuff.

I'll admit my wife has done the majority of the research into this, although she's on a Facebook group called "No bull just natural health for bullies" which seems to be full of good advice.

We settled on one called Benyfit, but they're having some supply issues so in the process of swapping to "Cotswold Raw". We went with the "Complete" version because we couldn't be bothered mixing it all ourselves, just wanted the easy option of "Open tub, feed dog"

One thing to mention is one of our Frenchies has issues with certain meats (beef and Venison), so i'd suggest just feeding one type of protein at a time and then moving around to ensure there's no adverse affects. Once you know they're ok with everything you can mix it up, but if you use a variety straight way you'll never know what causes upsets.
 
When moving from kibble to raw you should immediately cut the kibblle - The advice to phase it is terrible. Also "so his teeth wont go soft" ... just shows she had no idea what she was talking about. I actually LOL'd when I read that comment

If you are doing a pre-mixed raw, look for an 80/10/10 mix - I feed mine Henley Raw - It's excellent and whilst not the cheapest, it isn't the most expensive and offers a good value for quality vs price. Paleo ridge is also good but very expensive. Avoid DAF - Cheap, but there is a reason for that!

I would look to see if you have any raw food specialist shops near you, as they will be able to give you loads of good advice - P@H are not the place for good animal advice.

A lot of these foods can be delivered frozen in bulk - If you have the space I would suggest getting a cheap chest freezer. I get a nice little discount from my store I use buy buying 3 months worth at a time :)

Whilst an 80/10/10 already has bone in, it is always still a good idea to give them the occasional raw bone, or antler etc for teeth cleaning but also for helping them carry out what for them is a natural function.

Just a few basic starter points, but hopefully puts you in the right direction. The above mentioned companies websites have feeding guides which you might find useful too in terms of the amount to feed etc (3-4% of adult body weight is usually recommended)
 
Thanks for all getting back to me so quick, that be our job for today look up all the above and see what we can get together. i also thought it was strange to keep giving him dry in with his good as i would still have to buy it all the time.
How much kilograms roughly would you go through a month? The packet of natures menu that we have says we should be between 21-35 nuggets a day and there's 58 nuggets in 1kg, so is 1kg every 2.5 days roughly right? Roughly 10kgs per month for one dog of his size. 9.1kgs.
Also do you add in your veg etc on top or reduce the amount slightly and then add in?
Way to start looking up some of the above to see what the more complete ones look like.

https://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/natures-menu-frozen-puppy-bite-size-nuggets-1kg

This is what we have at the moment but don't want to give them my money now really.
 
I get through 45kg a month for three dogs, but I suspect my dogs will be heavier than yours.

Topping up with fruit / veg I don't really do very often. I do feed raw carrots a lot as treats though. And handfuls of blueberries every few days. I also use a BARF supplement called AntiForte BARF complete.

I am not familiar with natures menu so cant really comment on the whole "nugget" approach. What i get just comes in 1kg boxes and I dish it out
 
When I was young my parents knew a farmer who fed his dogs a diet entirely of potatoes and it didn't seem to harm them (although they were allowed to roam, so who knows what else they ate to supplement it).
 
RAW food does seem to be one of these recent fads that dog owners are quite fanatical over.

I have a Labrador retriever who eats anything, so she's been on kibble her whole life and at 7 1/2 years is still very healthy and active (though we do give her 'Yu Move' supplements to make sure her joints stay healthy)

Maybe it's changed recently but when we were getting puppies in the past, vets were generally recommending dry mix, and not to sell to me - just to enquire what we were feeding the dog.

Never once did they recommend a raw diet. I hadn't even heard of it until a few years ago.
 
Feeding dogs seem very complicated now, we just put down some dry mix and half a can of dog food and he'd eat it up no probs. Perhaps Labradors are less fussy.
 
Puzzled said:
Feeding dogs seem very complicated now, we just put down some dry mix and half a can of dog food and he'd eat it up no probs. Perhaps Labradors are less fussy.
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Labs are literally dustbins :D

Ours would eat absolutely anything that was vaguely food like.
 
Rimsy said:
What makes you say this?
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The digestion time of raw food and processed food (kibble) is totally different. The way the dog absorbs nurients from each type of food and the digestion journey is different and so they should not be mixed.
 
Puzzled said:
Feeding dogs seem very complicated now, we just put down some dry mix and half a can of dog food and he'd eat it up no probs. Perhaps Labradors are less fussy.
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Indeed... and everyone is an expert and theres only one right way to do it!!! Our German Shepherd has always had a mix of raw & kibble and she seems fine enough with it
 
BDEE said:
The digestion time of raw food and processed food (kibble) is totally different. The way the dog absorbs nurients from each type of food and the digestion journey is different and so they should not be mixed.
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Pretty sure that was debunked a few years ago - yes the timing is slightly different but causes no ill effect from what I recall. What harm do you think its doing?
 
BDEE said:
The digestion time of raw food and processed food (kibble) is totally different. The way the dog absorbs nurients from each type of food and the digestion journey is different and so they should not be mixed.
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Any science to back this up, seems like vaguely sensible sounding pseudo science but I can't see how it actually works when thinking about it.
 
Rimsy said:
Pretty sure that was debunked a few years ago - yes the timing is slightly different but causes no ill effect from what I recall. What harm do you think its doing?
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I didn't say it causes harm - I very much doubt it would do.

But also unlikely to see the full benefit of feeding raw over kibb. It's a bit like having carrot sticks with your Big Mac instead of fries.
 
VincentHanna said:
RAW food does seem to be one of these recent fads that dog owners are quite fanatical over.

I have a Labrador retriever who eats anything, so she's been on kibble her whole life and at 7 1/2 years is still very healthy and active (though we do give her 'Yu Move' supplements to make sure her joints stay healthy)

Maybe it's changed recently but when we were getting puppies in the past, vets were generally recommending dry mix, and not to sell to me - just to enquire what we were feeding the dog.

Never once did they recommend a raw diet. I hadn't even heard of it until a few years ago.
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Recent fad?

My mom has been doing it for 20 years, and I was doing for my cat in 2010.

I can't argue with the results, an indoor cat with poop that didn't smell at all? Totally worth the extra cost over kibble :p
 
One of mine gets kibble, it has to be the 'Taste of the Wild' brand and raw, otherwise he gets diarrhoea and messes himself :(

The other one gets any brand kibble and any brand wet dog food and he is perfectly happy.

So I definitely think it depends on the dog breed and you just have to find the right mix for your dog.
 
tom_e said:
Any science to back this up, seems like vaguely sensible sounding pseudo science but I can't see how it actually works when thinking about it.
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Plenty of stuff online - Some do suggest dangers of feeding both raw and kibb.

This one is an interesting read as a start.
 
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