Take it slow or dive right in?

I'mmoving my dogs on to a Raw meat diet next week (When food arrives) I'm wondering is it best to gradually take the dogs of the kibble and slowly introduce to Raw, Or to just dive in & put them straight on Raw?

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Perhaps others will correct me if I'm wrong. But I've always percieved the "cold turkey" method of changing to raw as coming from those that are very strongly against feeding any form of commercial feeds.

Personally I'd introduce a raw snack once a day to begin with. Then change one feed over to raw and eventually other feeds.

Mine are raw fed (prey model) and that's how I changed them over. Both (and other dogs I've cared for here) have had no problems with this method.

HTH

mine had chicken once a week then when the meat came that was it went straight in

Tonight I gave mine about 2 table spoons of Beef mince each which was mixed in with their kibble. I'm hoping to change them straight to a raw meat diet, but with precautions of taking it slow. Even though they all have quite hardy stomachs.

It is all personal preference really, but please bear in mind that kibble and raw digest at VERY different rates, which is what causes the upset tummies sometimes - some dogs can eat both at the same time and have no detrimental effects (they digest at about 4 hours and about 14 hours but can't remember which was round) but I unfortunately don't have those kind of dogs.

It might be worth maybe feeding one raw meal, and another kibble meal.

I personally switched Jess straight from kibble to raw, but that was because she wasn't eating, so I didn't really have a choice, but I only had about 2 days of upset tummy from it, and to say she had always had an upset tum on kibble, I didn't notice the difference in all fairness.

I would say though it is personal difference to different people for different reasons, so only you can decide which is best (that makes much more sense in my head lol)

I also wanted to mention: though you probably know already:

Introduce one type of meat at a time. Since you have started on beef, give it on it's own for a week or two before introducing the next type of meat. This way if any one causes upset you will be able to pinpoint what it was that caused it.

I'm delighted to hear of another dog going on to the raw diet. It's the best!

Thanks for the advice everyone.I'm going to do it meat by meat i think, starting with the beef.

Oh & Evie, I have 5, so thats another 5 to the Raw Feed list - More the merrier, or may i say Healtheir!

Brilliant!!!

Sorry another question.Saves making an extra thread.

I was speaking to a guy at training club that does the raw chicken diet.

He feds defrosted chicken wings & a mixture of tinned vegtable with cod liver oil & sakmon oil.

Is just chicken ok?

From what I have learned looking into raw feeding from starting out till now I feel a dog does best on 10% bone, 10% organ and 80% meat. Those amounts may vary slightly from dog to dog.

Variety is of benefit. In the wild red meat tends to take up most of the diet. Our intensively farmed meats tend to lack enough omega 3s so fish or fish oils are of benefit to gain back some of these. (Free range chicken, for example has 10 times the amount of omega 3s as intensively farmed chicken).

When money is tighter my dog get alot of chicken in their diet, but it's never the be all and end all. Cheap steak/mince stuffed into kongs for example can add a bit of variety. And the reduced counter is your friend.