Has anyone ever tried this?

Conan is fed 1/4 cup of Orijen all fish kibble, and another 1/4 cup throughout the day with training, unless that 1/4 is substituted by some other treats. He is on the fish blend because he is chicken sensitive. I haven't done too much research on raw feeding so I haven't really read up on the packaged kind.

I went to the pet store today to pick up a few things and Stella and Chewy's had one of their sales reps there. She gave us some all beef raw food samples, that come in little patties, and we are going to see how Conan does on it this week. He has intermittent diarrhea (that has done much better with no chicken in his diet), and we are also going to add a teaspoon of organic pumpkin to his Orijen. We are going to feed him the 1/4 cup of Orijen in the morning and feed the raw patty at night. We're still planning on using Orijen kibble or Zuke's or whatever other treats for training.

Anyway, I know all sales reps can make their product sound great. So I was wondering if there is anything I should watch out for? It's frozen raw meet patties, about the size of my palm and are all natural and organic. They do contain some fruits and veggies. So it seems like a good idea, but you all know more than I do. I was wondering how we can also start mixing in some RMBs too. Thanks in advance!!

Well, I know many will advise that you don't feed kibble and raw together. There are some people who do it with success but there are also members here who have done it and had it result in a very sick dog.

I personally started out wanting to do something similar to what you're describing, and wound up going all-the-way raw!

I'll leave more detailed advice to the more experience raw feeders.

Thanks! I wonder if we should stop the Orijen altogether? We do eventually want to switch to all raw. But I'm doing my research on how and where to get a supply and how to get enough variety since he can't have any chicken.

 Quote: Katie Finlay

... We are going to feed him the 1/4 cup of Orijen in the morning and feed the raw patty at night.

The S&C food has good ingredients. But I agree with Jasmine about not feeding a raw-and-kibble diet.

I do kibble in the mornings and raw at night. No problems for the last year and a half or so that we've done it this way.
It's not that I wouldn't do 100% raw. It's more that my brain doesn't function in the morning for more than scoop and dump feeding.

I do agree with others raw and kibble within the same 8 hr window is a bad idea.

Many do this with no ill effects. No argument about that. If it works for your dog and for you, that's great.

However I would urge anyone who is considering it to read post # 248711 first:

http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=33&Number=248763&Searchpage=2&Main=23947&Words=Alyssa+Myracle&topic=0&Search=true#Post248711



e.t.a.
The variables that could cause this disastrous effect include raw food with a heavy pathogen load, slowed down in passage by kibble, or any condition that changes the very caustic nature of a dog's gastric acid.

P.S. Kibble takes longer than 8 hours to digest.




Edited by Connie Sutherland (10/24/2009 05:48 PM)
Edit reason: eta

Do you think the patties themselves are good enough to switch to completely? I still would like to add RMBs, which our pet supply sells. This leads me to another question... Would he tolerate chicken bones differently than chicken meat? That's probably a really dumb question but I'm so uneducated about raw!

 Quote: katie finlay

.... I still would like to add RMBs, which our pet supply sells. This leads me to another question... Would he tolerate chicken bones differently than chicken meat? That's probably a really dumb question but I'm so uneducated about raw!

RMBs are not "clean" bones. They are parts of the food (dead animal) that include digestible bones. http://leerburg.com/feedingarawdiet.htm#RMB

I imagine that what your pet supply place sells would be recreational bones. The two are not interchangeable.

By the way, what is the dog's chicken sensitivity like? Just diarrhea, or anything else? I'm wondering if the dog is/was sensitive to some kind of "flavor enhancement" injected into many chickens. http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache:ZHYJI3Bk__IJ:www.truthfullabeling.org/Docs/06-12-07%2520Baltimore%2520Sun.pdf+perdue+chicken,+injected&hl=en&gl=us&sig=AFQjCNHKY3gjX4_QU5-RGDEU0s357AvQsw

Oh thanks! I read that page but apparently misunderstood it. I was confused as to why the pet supply would have "raw meat bones" (which I just assumed she meant RMBs, my mistake there too) but not actual meat. I knew I hadn't started raw yet, I have a lot of learning to do!