ElizabethBailey Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Hi, I would like to know peoples' opinion of feeding raw and kibble (dry food) at the same time. We currently feed our two girls (miniature dachshunds) Big Dog BARF mixed with a bit of Holistic Select grain-free dry. Usually the dry is just a sprinkle over the raw, much less than a quarter of a cup. They also get a small chicken neck most days, either in the morning or at night w/ the raw instead of the dry. We also give them biscuit balls with the dry in during the day or sprinkle dry around garden while we are out (not every day, and we will adjust evening meal if they've had dry during the day). I was reading yesterday however that some people believe this is a no-no due to digestive rates & bacteria build up when the raw has to digest more slowly due to the dry. What are peoples' thoughts/experiences? Both our girls are happy & healthy, although we have noticed the older one (nearly 5) has slowed down in terms of energy over the past year or so...but this may be because the younger more energetic dog (just over a year old) makes her seem a little slow, not sure. I'm also asking because we are getting a new boy (also mini dachshund) in a week or so. I would love to feed him the Big Dog puppy BARF & was planning to mix in a bit of softened dry (same as above but the puppy formula), but now I'm a bit unsure (of course, I will transition him slowly regardless). The breeder has him on My Dog puppy wet & Supercoat dry atm. He will (all things going to plan) be a show dog, so it is important that he grows & develops correctly. Thanks in advance & sorry for the long post! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CavsRcute Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 I fed my girl raw and a little kibble all her life and she was fine. If your other dogs are healthy and happy with good poos etc I can't see why you can't feed the puppy the same diet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRG Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 I have done this for a long time and have had no problems with health and happiness. I do notice that as the dogs get to 12+ years old, they tend to find the unsoaked kibble more difficult to eat but I think that is a problem of old age rather than the mixture of food. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airedaler Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 It has been said for some time now that kibble and raw should not be fed at the same time but I have done it for 40+ years with many dogs and not found a problem. I often think the feeding thinking is driven by commercial interests more than anything else. If we listen to what is said we would never know what to do as there are so many opinions from so many people. If what you are doing works for you and your dogs then continue it with your new pup. Just be aware that what works for one does not always work for another but usually it does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivory & Beau Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 I do it and it works just fine. IMO it is a statement made by raw food manufactures to "scare" people in to not feeding dry food. It would be too expensive for me to feed my four 100% raw; expensive as in I'd have to buy A LOT each time I went to the butcher or I would be going every couple of days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westiemum Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 (edited) Usually the dry is just a sprinkle over the raw, much less than a quarter of a cup. They also get a small chicken neck most days, either in the morning or at night w/ the raw instead of the dry. Uhm, then why are you feeding dry food in such small quantities at all? To provide texture and crunch? I'd just do what your dogs do best on. Edited March 8, 2015 by westiemum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethBailey Posted March 8, 2015 Author Share Posted March 8, 2015 Usually the dry is just a sprinkle over the raw, much less than a quarter of a cup. They also get a small chicken neck most days, either in the morning or at night w/ the raw instead of the dry. Uhm, then why are you feeding dry food in such small quantities at all? To provide texture and crunch? I'd just do what your dogs do best on. Well at this stage yes just texture and crunch I guess...and for things like Kongs or biscuit balls. We used to feed a bit more dry but then they started to get a little rotund (as dachshunds easily do!) so we reduced the amount of dry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westiemum Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 (edited) Yep before I switched to raw I found the same thing - it was too hard to control their weight on dry. You might find their weight easier to control and your food bills drop if you cut out the dry food. (BTW I do feed dry when I have to - just prefer to feed raw as much as possible). Edited March 8, 2015 by westiemum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sueang Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Hi, I would like to know peoples' opinion of feeding raw and kibble (dry food) at the same time. We currently feed our two girls (miniature dachshunds) Big Dog BARF mixed with a bit of Holistic Select grain-free dry. Usually the dry is just a sprinkle over the raw, much less than a quarter of a cup. They also get a small chicken neck most days, either in the morning or at night w/ the raw instead of the dry. We also give them biscuit balls with the dry in during the day or sprinkle dry around garden while we are out (not every day, and we will adjust evening meal if they've had dry during the day). I was reading yesterday however that some people believe this is a no-no due to digestive rates & bacteria build up when the raw has to digest more slowly due to the dry. What are peoples' thoughts/experiences? Both our girls are happy & healthy, although we have noticed the older one (nearly 5) has slowed down in terms of energy over the past year or so...but this may be because the younger more energetic dog (just over a year old) makes her seem a little slow, not sure. I'm also asking because we are getting a new boy (also mini dachshund) in a week or so. I would love to feed him the Big Dog puppy BARF & was planning to mix in a bit of softened dry (same as above but the puppy formula), but now I'm a bit unsure (of course, I will transition him slowly regardless). The breeder has him on My Dog puppy wet & Supercoat dry atm. He will (all things going to plan) be a show dog, so it is important that he grows & develops correctly. Thanks in advance & sorry for the long post! Here's a link this experiment was done 27th December 2014 & yes Raw does digest slower then kibble & here's the experiment done on a Borozi 16 month old intact male.. http://therawfeedingcommunity.com/2015/01/08/digest-this-kibble-may-actually-digest-faster-than-raw/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSoSwift Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 I have done it in the past, have done dry only and raw only. Have seen no issues with any of them provided all ingredients/products are of high quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yonjuro Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Hi, I would like to know peoples' opinion of feeding raw and kibble (dry food) at the same time. We currently feed our two girls (miniature dachshunds) Big Dog BARF mixed with a bit of Holistic Select grain-free dry. Usually the dry is just a sprinkle over the raw, much less than a quarter of a cup. They also get a small chicken neck most days, either in the morning or at night w/ the raw instead of the dry. We also give them biscuit balls with the dry in during the day or sprinkle dry around garden while we are out (not every day, and we will adjust evening meal if they've had dry during the day). I was reading yesterday however that some people believe this is a no-no due to digestive rates & bacteria build up when the raw has to digest more slowly due to the dry. What are peoples' thoughts/experiences? Both our girls are happy & healthy, although we have noticed the older one (nearly 5) has slowed down in terms of energy over the past year or so...but this may be because the younger more energetic dog (just over a year old) makes her seem a little slow, not sure. I'm also asking because we are getting a new boy (also mini dachshund) in a week or so. I would love to feed him the Big Dog puppy BARF & was planning to mix in a bit of softened dry (same as above but the puppy formula), but now I'm a bit unsure (of course, I will transition him slowly regardless). The breeder has him on My Dog puppy wet & Supercoat dry atm. He will (all things going to plan) be a show dog, so it is important that he grows & develops correctly. Thanks in advance & sorry for the long post! Here's a link this experiment was done 27th December 2014 & yes Raw does digest slower then kibble & here's the experiment done on a Borozi 16 month old intact male.. http://therawfeedingcommunity.com/2015/01/08/digest-this-kibble-may-actually-digest-faster-than-raw/ That is a great link Sueang :thumbsup: I really enjoyed reading it and thanks so much for sharing. FWIW, I fed mixed to my puppy from the word go as advised by our breeder, he has been of fully raw for the last 9 months. The only thing I would say to mixers is to be aware that kibble is balance, raw butchers mince for example is not balanced so together the entire meal is not balanced. The phosphorus from the meat can inhibit the calcium from the kibble. So make sure that you add some edible bone as part of your mixed diet, and preferably a small amount or liver and other organs :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sas Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 (edited) Link to study already posted. Edited March 17, 2015 by sas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brightstar123 Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 Here's the opinion of the raw nutrition vets at Raw Essentials in NZ: http://www.rawessentials.co.nz/media/documents/Gastric%20Acidity%20article.pdf Could be of interest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave-o Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 IMO it is a statement made by raw food manufactures to "scare" people in to not feeding dry food. I think that's the nail on the head. Can you imagine if we had to eat the same food day in day out for our whole lives? I think variety has to be the best way of reaching a "holistic" diet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suziwong66 Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 I feed our dogs high quality kibble with a raw diet until they're over a year old; our breeder asks buyers to feed a puppy appropriate kibble for the first year. I know that her dogs are on a raw diet and the pups get kibble and raw from her and i continue that way. Once they're a year old, i swap them over to an entirely raw diet. so, currently in our home, we have a 3.5yo male lab on entirely raw (meaty bone in the morning and wet mix at night) and a 7.5 month old female lab also on 2 meals a day (one is a turkey neck in the morning and in the evening she gets kibble with the same wet mix our boy has: that has bone meal, turkey meat, offal, a small amount of veg, small amount of oats and fish). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuralPug Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 I've never had any problems combining raw with kibble. Wild dogs don't sort their food into digestion rate groups before eating and they don't have problems either. Just be careful to feed the puppy a growth diet until at least 6 months (being a mini - larger dogs meed growth diet longer). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brightstar123 Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 IMO it is a statement made by raw food manufactures to "scare" people in to not feeding dry food. I think that's the nail on the head. Can you imagine if we had to eat the same food day in day out for our whole lives? I think variety has to be the best way of reaching a "holistic" diet. I actually disagree. There is a decent amount of research examining the effect of both protein and carbohydrate based meals on gastric acidity in dogs. Feeding carbohydrate inhibits the typical drop in stomach pH that occurs when dogs are fed a raw meal. This increased acidity of the stomach is very important for proper digestion of bone and also for killing potentially harmful bacteria. It explains why both obstruction and infectious gastroenteritis are more commonly seen in dogs that are typically fed dry then given a big raw meaty bone as an occasional treat. It seems like a good way to reduce the risks associated with raw feeding would be to not combine dry with raw, particularly bones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave-o Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Yep, I think that's a very valid point brightstar123. I suppose if you consider the reason of feeding raw to be in-keeping with a native diet, then a native diet wouldn't include munching through a crop of wheat, corn, potatoes, and so forth. But also when it comes to research there's a lot of interpretation. There are many strains of protein and many types of carbohydrate. I'm no expert on raw so really couldn't say, but I'm definitely an advocate for "variety" when it comes to people feeding a single brand of supermarket dry food for a dog's entire life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brightstar123 Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Yep, I think that's a very valid point brightstar123. I suppose if you consider the reason of feeding raw to be in-keeping with a native diet, then a native diet wouldn't include munching through a crop of wheat, corn, potatoes, and so forth. But also when it comes to research there's a lot of interpretation. There are many strains of protein and many types of carbohydrate. I'm no expert on raw so really couldn't say, but I'm definitely an advocate for "variety" when it comes to people feeding a single brand of supermarket dry food for a dog's entire life. Yes I absolutely agree about the importance of variety - all 100% raw diets for healthy dogs should probably have as much variety as possible, just like our own diets as you said! There's so much debate that can be entered into with regards to nutrition and so much more research that needs to be done, however I think the evidence is there to conclude that feeding a carbohydrate-based dry food diet together with substantial raw meaty bones increases risk of obstruction and infectious disease. As others have mentioned, there is probably less risk involved with simultaneously feeding dry food and fresh human-grade raw meat not containing bone. Of course, many people feed raw and dry together with no problems (I have done it myself), but some dogs don't seem to cope as well. Just recently I saw a poodle x that had been fed Advance for most of its life and had been given a turkey shank as a treat. Things didn't end well for that dog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spotted Devil Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 That's sad but I wonder if it was just the novelty of the food rather than the fact that it was raw? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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