Dolly is a 15 year old, 21 lb Cocker Spaniel. She is my family's first dog; we got her when I was in kindergarten. Long story short(ish): She has always been on Pedigree canned food, and to my amazement has never had any problems until the past two years. She began growing sebaceous cysts and was put on 10mg of Prednisone every other day. It's been this way for about two years now. That's way too long for anyone to be on Prednisone, but my mom and I had no other answers. Until now, when I discovered raw feeding. I have read Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats, and am ready to switch over my old gal. I am going to start with Stella and Chewy's pre-packaged food because my family is still not won over by the raw feeding idea, and I think feeding her out of a bag that's labeled as dog food will help them make the switch. Once they see the benefits, I'm sure they'll be gung ho on saving the money and feeding a homemade raw diet.

Anyway! Being 21 lbs, she needs about 5 oz a day right now. I was going to buy the 8 oz patties and cut them into four pieces and start mixing it in with the canned food. 1/4 the first day, if all goes well, 1/2 the second day, etc. Is this too much too fast? I'm not sure how to switch her over properly. How much should I mix in at a time, and how fast should she be fully switched over? Also, what kind of probiotics do you suggest using? I want to make the switch and detox period as easy as possible for her, especially since she's well into her senior years and has a lot of junk to get out of her system. I sort of want to know what to expect. The book has some detail about it, and makes detox sound really terrible (at least I thought), and I know once the detox happens I'm going to think I'm hurting her. But I'm doing my best to prepare myself.

Right now I think I just need reassurance that even though it took me so long to see the light, it's never too late and she can live out her later years in great health and comfort.

It's never too late to switch.

My gal, Dallas, went full raw at about 11. The benefits were quickly apparent.

She celebrated her 16th birthday last month. Back legs stopped working a few months ago. However, she is healthy and perky otherwise. It gives her great joy to bark at the young'n.

All the puppers get a bowl of homemade yogurt once a week -- that pretty much covers the probiotics. A scrambled egg each day. My ground veggie mix and the usual mix of meats.

My guy Chance turned ten a few days ago. His muzzle is still jet black. He maintains that bouncy athletic walk. Some spinal arthritis in his lower back but his hips would probably still OFA.

A fairly easy way to do 'raw' is the Honest Kitchen blends. You can get that from Leerburgs.

Thanks! It's great to hear about happy, healthy seniors. Besides being itchy, Dolly has some arthritis that rears it's head on the colder mornings, and she gets a little stiff. But she still makes it from the outside gate, around the entire backyard to the other side of the house, through the dog door and to the front door before I can get out of my car and walk up my driveway. I can't imagine what she'll be up to on a quality diet

I'll look into Honest Kitchen. So many easy ways to feed really healthy food and I never even knew about them!

Wait for Connie, Michael or one of the other experts to respond because I think they will recommend NOT mixing the canned with the new raw.

I switched my Lab over cold turkey from feeding commercial one day to raw the next and he did just fine.

Good luck. You've made a great decision!

Will do! I was hoping to make the switch sooner than later so maybe that's a better decision anyways! I'll wait to hear what they say. It's so good to know I'm doing the right thing. Everyone I've talked to in person thought it was too late (none of them feed raw, though). But I know she can have a better life.

First choice is cold turkey.

How is this dog's poop now? How has she done with diet change ups in the past? Anything to make you expect future problems?

If there is no reason to suspect digestive upset, I'd try cold turkey. Start out with small meals and then gradually work up to the desired amount.

Kibble and raw have very different digestion rates. Canned and raw have different digestion rates also, but are much closer together. Haven't actually heard of a problem with canned and raw.

Still an even better idea, if a slow switch is needed, is to go from canned to THK and then to raw.

THK and canned can be mixed together with no problems and THK and raw can for sure be mixed together with no problems. THK is nice to have around for extra variety and an easy way to add some produce to the diet.

We switched our late senior, Domino, when she was about 13. Unfortunately it was after she started showing signs of congestive heart failure. I feel great that she got to spend the last part of her life in love with meal time. She anticipated every morning and night. She loved her raw food.:smile:

Thanks Mike! I was considering THK now because it's a tad cheaper and easy to switch with. Mostly because I'm so new to raw feeding that I wouldn't know what to buy at the grocery store! Input would be great from anyone! I ordered Raw Dog Food and am waiting for it in the mail. I will buy THK tomorrow and switch her over cold turkey. The gal will eat anything, she even likes taking her Prednisone, so I don't think it should be hard!

If you want to be extra careful, since you are now planning on THK, you can do the gradual transition that you mentioned in your first post by mixing the canned and THK.

I just didn't give a yes or no answer to the canned mixed with raw question because I don't have any knowledge of mixing the two.

I can see where there *could* be a problem, but I can also see where they digest so closely together that it would be OK.

Well, what would you do? Should I try several small meals a day, or just go one cold turkey raw meal, or mix the two? I don't think she'll have any problems cold turkey, but I'm not 100% sure. I bought the Force THK tonight, and would like to start tomorrow but I won't be home all day so I wouldn't be able to do small meals. Should I wait until Saturday?

Not knowing the dog personally, the safe side in me says to gradually add the THK.

It's not going to hurt anything to go slow.

Giving advice on the internet I tend to err on the side of caution. If she were here I may very well jump right into it, though.

Mix the two, and as long as she shows no digestive upset start adding more THK and removing the old food.

Doing it this way I don't see as much of a need for the frequent small meals.