Question on feeding a combined raw diet

Hi i'm new to the B.A.R.F raw diet and havn't started it with mine yet.
I have a male lab who is 6yrs old and a weimaraner bitch who is 8months and just has a scare with bloat!! so i am considering the raw diet for her benefit.
Currently they are both on a royal canine diet lab-maxi adult dry food and pup-maxi junior dry food which they both enjoy.
To help with digestion i have started soaking the pups biscuits to make life easier on her recently damaged stomach.
Does a raw diet have to be given as 100% of the diet or could i feed them one meal a day biscuits and the other meal raw? Any help would be appreciated. I am scared that the pup will get bloat again! Thanks

Hi Cara I think you will find there is no one answer , many of us here feed a diet which is a combination of different kinds of foods.

I can only say what I would do and in your situation taking into consideration your puppy has already had an episode of GT, I would feed at least two small meals a day of moist food only giving the occasional dry biscuit.

Personally i would be wary for a while, let her recover for couple of months.

Having said that our boy (bloater) gets a mix of the two. He would get raw several times a week but its always mixed in his own soaked feed. Likes of chicken wings hold onto as some wolf whole & throw it back up 5-30 mins later whole. He has never learned to eat them nicely

Tripe is very gentle on the tum & they love it.

Have you considered a cooked pototo and fish diet? It seems to be the easiest digested and gentle on the tums.

I've heard a few friends whose dogs suffer from bloat mention good improvement once all grains are eliminated from the diet.

i feed fully raw food, but there are plenty of peopl who feed some raw some dry etc so its really up to you. i love feeding raw and wont change my dogs back now, as i think its best for them.

you could maybe start mixing in a bit of something with the biscuits e.g. a bit of tripe....

I am not sure what you mean by "biscuit" do you feed meat and a biscuit mixer or a complete kibble.

Many kibbles do not need to be soaked as they do not swell, ie the grain free ones such as Orijen.

You can of COURSE feed both raw and commercial food at either separate meals or combined.

You will hear a lot of old wives tales saying "you cannot feed raw and commercial at the same time as they get digested at different rates" etc.

This is no different than all the other "theories" eg you canot eat carbs with meat etc etc or whatever other thing happens to be fashionable.

For good information on this see the attached, by someone with a PhD in nutrition (as oppposed to a degree in theory and supposition).

I moved to raw after losing two dogs to torsion, but there is no PROOF that any type of diet is more or less likely to trigger GD or GDV.

http://www.b-naturals.com/newsletter...d-with-kibble/
HTH