Kibble and RAW - everythinggreyhound

lkblair

5th November 2007 - 04:19 PM

My 11yr old sheltie (with horrible teeth) has been on kibble all his life - currently Nutro Natural Choice lite or senior. Our first grey, almost 3yr old Snappy, will be joining us late this week and is eating Kirklands Lamb and Rice at her foster home. We don't belong to Costco, and it's clear across town, so Snappy will necessarily be changing foods when she comes here (fosters will provide us enough to ease the transition).

With that in mind, I thought it might be a good time to try to go partially RAW. Hubby is not for going all the way RAW, as I have enough time figuring out what to feed the kids.

But I thought perhaps we could start with a couple meals a week and slowly work towards getting more RAW in them and less kibble.

Is this ok and safe to do? Best RMBs to feed in this manner? Anything else I should know beyond doing lots of reading?

Thanks!

Lisa

Redstripe

5th November 2007 - 05:51 PM

i personally do not know much about raw because the more i read about it the more it grosses me out... also my upstairs neighbor use to feed raw and her dane constantly had the Big D and watching her dog eat grossed me out..although i know there are several premade raw diets out there.. i just have no clue about 'em

PhL0aTeR

7th November 2007 - 07:52 PM

Our boys are on a RAW/kibble (pedigree small chunks for adult dogs) diet..... although the beter half knows more about it than i do since she does the feeding, but from what i can tell she does about 2/3 kibble and 1/3 RAW and then she adds some herbs and other junk in there, and there ya have it.

lkblair

7th November 2007 - 11:20 PM

Thanks for the input; looks like your cutie is doing just fine on a mixed diet.

I gave my sheltie a bit of boneless chicken tonight just to see what he would think. Despite being entirely on kibble for his 11yrs, he ate with gusto! I was worried he'd turn his nose up at it, but he proved me wrong. I guess I'll be looking for some sales during my next shopping trips. Now to figure out where I can get some deals locally...

PhL0aTeR

8th November 2007 - 12:40 AM

QUOTE (lkblair @ Nov 7 2007, 10:20 PM)

Thanks for the input; looks like your cutie is doing just fine on a mixed diet.

I gave my sheltie a bit of boneless chicken tonight just to see what he would think. Despite being entirely on kibble for his 11yrs, he ate with gusto! I was worried he'd turn his nose up at it, but he proved me wrong. I guess I'll be looking for some sales during my next shopping trips. Now to figure out where I can get some deals locally...

Yeah, definately get in on the deals.... funny thing, first time she fed the guys the RAW it was LAMB!!! can you beleive that? This on a night where it was "fend for yourself dinner" and i was pounding down a bowl of ramen noodles, the dogs were eating lamb.... go figure.... LOL

unfortunately im usually a walmart shopper, but King soopers/ albertsons/ safeway is really good about marking down their meat when its within a few days of their "sell by" dates, so we usually snag those up.... any cheap cut of beef, usually stew cubes of beef, or the occasional lamb that gets marked down, which i think is a bit cheaper than beef anyways. Either way, sometimes they get some of the packaged stuff that walmart has especially for dogs, but thats only when we cant really find any deals on anything, but if you have the freezer space, id pick up the managers special's or clearance meats and freeze em... we just dont have the freezer space to stockpile for the dogs.

Speaking of "gusto" its funny... Bullet gets REALLY excited when she starts making his dinner, much more so than when he just had the kibble clinking in his steel bowl. when he hears his bowl being picked up, he knows its a good night.... lol

PhL0aTeR

8th November 2007 - 12:45 AM

and just another note, im sure its been said before, but dogs are hunters.... carnivores.... i know they are our pets, but this is the kind of thing they desire.... i mean if someone put the same thing in front of you day in and day out, youd eat it..... but wouldnt it be nice to have a change? lol

another note.... any drastic change in diet is bound to have some ill effects on the stomach..... best to gradually introduce a change to lessen the effects, monitor any stomach problems, vomiting, loose stools, etc, if anything like this occurs in the "minor sense" you may consider cutting back a tad on your ratios of old to new, and if it occurs to extreme, cut back quite considerably, and you may have introduced too much, or he/she may not agree with the new stuff you are feeding them.

either way, good luck, im sure your sheltie will appreciate the treat!

lkblair

8th November 2007 - 09:13 AM

Ah, Ramen. Gotta love it! Sounds like the way my household usually works - the kids and pets get the good stuff, and I get stuck with Ramen or cereal.

I'll be sure to take it slow, though Keyser has an iron stomach, so I don't expect too many problems from him. He ate an entire tube of neosporin once with no ill effects. But I don't want to startle Snappy's tummy too much when she gets here, as she'll be dealing with enough change.

I also don't have extra freezer space, but I'll be keeping an eye out at the local HEB (just bought out Albertsons down here) to see what they mark down. I'm usually a Walmart shopper, too, though I do much prefer real grocery stores when I can.

PhL0aTeR

8th November 2007 - 02:17 PM

QUOTE (lkblair @ Nov 8 2007, 08:13 AM)

Ah, Ramen. Gotta love it! Sounds like the way my household usually works - the kids and pets get the good stuff, and I get stuck with Ramen or cereal.

I'll be sure to take it slow, though Keyser has an iron stomach, so I don't expect too many problems from him. He ate an entire tube of neosporin once with no ill effects. But I don't want to startle Snappy's tummy too much when she gets here, as she'll be dealing with enough change.

I also don't have extra freezer space, but I'll be keeping an eye out at the local HEB (just bought out Albertsons down here) to see what they mark down. I'm usually a Walmart shopper, too, though I do much prefer real grocery stores when I can.

Bullet has a fetish with all things plastic. When we first moved into the RV, (he wasnt allowed in the kitchen at the house) he surfed and found a loaf of bread.... ate the whole damn loaf!!!!! now ever since then, he has to investigate things in plastic bags, i guess since the last thing he had in a plastic bag wielded the awesome bread treat!

ahhhh HEB.... i miss texas..... ill be back soon ehough... this month actually

dad2paisley

23rd November 2007 - 12:24 AM

We feed our kibble and they do get veggies added as well.