Same thing for THK and kibble? Do not mix?
thanks,
Lenka

THK and kibble should be fine, that would be similar to canned and kibble IMO.

THK shouldn't contain any more bacteria than kibble, as its a dried food.

Unless you're leaving your THK in the bowl for 12 hours at a time, or something.

Great thread. Thank you all very much.

 Quote: aaron myracle

The problem with mixing kibble and raw has to do with kibble needing to be re-hydrated in the gut, prior to digestion. Its hard and dense, and takes longer to clear the digestive tract, slowing the passage of raw food, which allows for the colonization of potentially harmful bacteria.

'Zackly.

Ross, none of the web sites that say "Oh, old wives' tale" have ANY authoritative backup for saying it's OK to mix kibble and raw. Many people do it, but it's not a good idea.

One of a dog's major systems designs against food-borne pathogens is his food's short, quick, journey from his front end to his back end. Kibble slows that journey by two or three times the normal rate, and raw that is combined with it is now unnaturally slowed down in transit, giving pathogens lots of time to colonize (which is what causes illness from them).

Two things you don't want to do with a raw-fed dog are to slow the transit time or to give antacids (because the dog's extremely caustic stomach acid is his other pathogen weapon).

Nature set it up to allow canids (scavengers) to eat dead, raw (even rotten) meat with a great design that we don't want to fool around with.




*eta
I should add about the antacid part: you would discontinue raw during a period of giving antacids rather than refuse antacids that were needed for some reason ... just to be clear.


Edited by Connie Sutherland (08/06/2010 11:15 AM)
Edit reason: eta

Connie, thanks. I will not mix kibble and raw. I should perhaps start my own food thread because scheduling plays a crucial part in my approach to feeding the little guy.

Thank you for the extremely concise post.

I am not reading any other sites aside from this one. I like the low tolerance for bullshit here.

I'm bumping this back up since I only got one person's thoughts on it before we started talking about mixing kibble and raw.

Does anyone else feed THK and RMBs? and if so, how do you split them up?

I feed the turkey based formula a couple times a week just for the variety. I give it with the little chicken carcasses I feed. Those usually weigh about 1/2 a pound and I add 1 cup of Honest Kitchen. Thats one of their two daily meals.

I contacted them about how much meat to add and how much to reduce the HK, To me it seemed like you were still feeding a lot of HK, so I never did it that way and just decided to use it as just another ingredient in the diet instead of the bulk of it.

I just realized (after receiving a justifiably puzzled PM) that I need to be very clear that I was not talking about Preference.

That's the THK that has no meat. It is not a balanced food in itself; it's a "base" for adding meat to. It's meant for people who are giving their dogs specific, probably novel, proteins, for allergy or sensitivity reasons. If you are using Preference, follow the directions.



The THKs that are complete with meat nevertheless recommend meat add-ins for any but couch potatoes, but they are complete, balanced foods that the dog could eat for the entire diet.

Since RMBs like chicken backs or quarters are balanced too in the most important ratio (calcium to phosphorus), THK with RMBs can be in a looser proportion than THK with an unbalanced item (unbalanced on its own, anyway) like boneless meat. If you are adding in boneless meat or similar (egg without shell, etc.), then it's best to follow the box's directions about how much you can add and remain within the acceptable calcium:phosphorus range.

That is, combining two foods that are both basically balanced (THK, except Preference, and RMBs) is obviously much "looser" in the proportion rules than combining one balanced and one un.

I hope that's clearer.

This may be a silly question but I am going to ask anyways... people keep talking about giving the dogs chicken backs etc. Is there a place to get these somewhere on the internet? Frozen? Where we are the only choices I have are either grocery stores and they don't carry them or one pet store where they carry food like Stella and Chewy's and that's so expensive!