raw diet fed at same time as kibble - Page 1

Okay, I am struggling with what to feed my dogs. I have for years fed very high quality kibble with various supplements and pro biotics and always felt like something is missing. So, I have hit upon feeding half good kibble and half commercially prepared raw diet. Some of the raw food sites say not to feed a combination because they digest at different rates. This just doesn't make sense to me. What about when we eat bread (highly processed) and fresh fruit (which seems to go right through you) at the same time? They aren't recommending that we eat one thing at a time, so why a dog.

The digestive tract of dogs, is that of a carnivorous animal. This tract is very short and only takes about 1 to 1 1/2 hours for complete digestion. The digestive tract of a herbivorous animal is very long and takes about 8 hours for complete digestion to take place. Proponents of a raw diet claim a dog's digestive tract is not designed for dry kibble digestion. In the past 2 decades scientists have discovered what ingredients help a pet's skin and coat, so now those ingredients are being added to commercial pet foods. As for the digestive tracks of dogs, top commercial dog foods are designed specifically for consumption by dogs, even down to how the ingredients affect "stool quality. Whatever diet or combination of diets your dog enjoys and thrives on should be fine. If it aint broke, dont fix it.

Changer you have started a very important topic. I would like to put forward my observations about the ready food. I have using a high quality dog food for 2 years now. It was recommended by my doctor and I have very good results with it in terms of general health like coat condition, disease free dog, no skin infection,no loose motions, etc. but but but though my dogs condition looking good my females are unable to produce. One female is unable to concieve. I have taken all kind of precautions like I did harmonal test to decide the day of the mating. checked for any presence of infections in vaginal fluids.This female is coming regularly on heat so that is not a problem. the male dog is proven. Earlier this female was on natural diet that time she did conceive. But after that no success.Other female just delivered one pup. Though I was expecting atleast 4-5 pups. Her condition was absolutley show condition. So I dont know what went wrong there. I contrast to this I would like to share my experience of my earlier females. That time we did not have any dog food available so I use to feed the females with milk,bread,eggs,sometimes beef and rice,sometimes only rice and milk. But theses females produced regularly. I almost had 6 litters with one of them. Apart from food only difference was I had a male of my own and female was not a pure showline. Now I have 2 important doubts with this kind of experience 1) Either food is the culprit. Means ready food keeps dogs outer health perfectly alright but affects the fertility. I heard these ready food companies use harmones in the food to keep good coat condition of the dog.Afterall a general pet lover just sees that. 2) The second reason might be in modern show lines there is lot of inbreeding/linebreeding done. Inevitably in 6 or 7 generation there are many similar dogs. I have read that inbreeding brings with it many problems and fertlity might be one of it. DecoyD you mentioned it only takes about 1 to 1 1/2 hours to digest but as per my experience this dry ready food is in dogs stomach for quiet a long time. Because once I fed my at 7 in the morning and travelled with the dog at 2 in afternoon by car. The dog vommited because o motion sickness and I saw it contained all the pieces of dry food as it is. Anyway now I am thinking of using combination of dry and natural food. to see if fertlity improves.

Try Timberwolf organics...

Shade, Keep us posted on the half and half diet. Tina

http://tinyurl.com/25wq78 The link above is about Salmonella, but it discusses differences in digestion of raw and kibbled foods. Regards, Diane

The idea of feeding raw and kibble separate has to do with creating a potential over growth of bacteria. Because kibble moves through the digestive system slower, when we add the bacteria laden raw, we set the dog up for severe bacterial gastroinestinal upset. If you are feeding raw and kibble together and haven't had a problem, you are simply getting lucky. Set your dog up for maximum long term health, feed raw and kibble at different times. For my own dogs we feed kibble with one day of raw. On the raw day I fast the dogs from the kibble entirely. For instance, Monday through Saturday, 2 meals of kibble. Sunday morning no food. Sunday afternoon raw meal. Monday AM back to kibble. Hope this helps :-)

The kibbled food is cooked, and of course contains various grains that are used as a filler material. Dogs do not digest any grain very well, but it does provide some nutrition and roughage fibre. Most prepared kibble foods also contain digestive enzymes to some degree that assist with the digestion of the grains that are used. Hence, when all is considered, it would make sense that kibble takes more time to digest than would raw food. How much more-I certainly can't say. I am sure than someone has more scientific knowledge on this matter, but a large breed such as the GSD has a short digestive tract as was mentioned above, so the food must be very digestable for such a dog if the dog will be able to use it efficiently before passing it in the form of feces. To me is seems that a time of about eight (8) to ten (10) hours is the cycle time required from the time the food is eaten to the time the dog defecates. At least that is my observation. Please note that I only feed kibble, with a very small amount of table scraps. Personally, I see nothing wrong with feeding raw at the same time that one feeds kibble, and the proof of success should be seen in the stool. Aside from doing a scientic analysis of the protein, mineral, nutrient level, and dry weight of a passed stool compared to what was eaten, I know no other way to determine how well a food is digested. Good topic, Bob-O

What about feeding a premium kibble topped off with raw ground turkey or beef?

Here is a subject that I personally feel very strongly about!! Roughly 5 - 6 years ago our litter size (if any) was getting smaller and smaller - about 3 -4 pups if any. Around that time we were testing as new raw food diet on one of our young males. He was doing so well on it that I thought I would experiment on a female who was due in season about 2 months later and see what happened. Well she had 1 mating and produced 10 puppies. She had never produced more than 2 pups before on several occasions. We then decided to transfer all our dogs onto the raw food diet and have not looked back since. We do however feed it in conjunction with Arden Grange a top quality food but only as a booster - such as when the dogs are coating or in whelp or feeding a litter. We have found that it works extreemly well together and we have no problems with tummy upsets or loose motions. If the dog has loose motions then it is ill - no question about that. We currently have a female with a litter of 10 two week old babies - she is currently eating 200 grams Arden Grange Adult with 400 grams of raw food diet (Natures Menu Original) three time per day. She is very well, fit and well covered with flesh and her motions are really firm. Her puppies are plump, glossy and very contented. I think that says it all. On another track if we are travelling young pups that are a little travel sick then they have only a small amount of the raw food diet 2 or 3 hours before travelling and this helps to settle the tummy and they are less likely to be sick. Dry kibble does tend to come back the same as it went in even up to 7/8 hours later!! Just my thoughts on the issue anyway! Nikki Nikonis GSD