I’ve been doing some RAW with my puppy, but am not ready to go totally raw. Perhaps with time I’ll be more comfortable with perhaps going full BARF, but for the moment I have him on Canidae kibble, which I understand is very good as far as kibbles go, supplemented with raw. I’ve been mixing the raw in with his kibble but I’m not sure I’m doing mixed feeding right.

What I am currently doing is supplementing the kibble by mixing in a small amount of Raw, like a handful of ground beef, a raw egg, some chicken or some canned mackeral. It makes him eat the kibble up like a dog should – fast. We did have trouble the first few days we brought our pup home with him not eating until I started this way of feeding him. His movements are regular and look fine to me (not that I spend tons of time examining them), he’s growing well and is full of energy, and is currently almost 14 weeks old.

Is there anything I need to add? I’m thinking the Canidae has most of what he needs, but maybe I’m missing something. And about the chicken necks/backs… I’ve hovered over packages of chicken backs at the local supermarket, but somehow can’t seem to make myself buy them for the puppy. I noticed that the natural diet serves them – but am worried about the bones. Do you crush the backs and/or wings for the dog to eat, or are they served as is?

Hi folks,I have a similar question.First of all I am not a RAW feeder and know next to nothing about it.For the past 18months I've been feeding Canidae mixed with ground turkey or beef twice a day and my dogs are fine.The other day while getting ready to BBQ I got tired of my two GSD's eyeing me like they were starving so I tossed each one of them a raw chicken Leg Qtr.Surprisingly they both took there time and chewed it up properly,my dogs have not had bones before so that was my main concern.Anyway I've given them Leg Qtrs twice more since then each morning but Canidae still in the evenings.They prefer the Leg Qtrs 100 times over the kibble so my question is this,someone smarter than me tell me why it's a bad idea to continue this,other wise I'll continue it with Breakfast6:00am Leg Qtrs and dinner5:00pm Canidae/ground turkey,thanks.

for what it's worth, there's a company in Milwaukee that makes an excellent raw diet--Companion Natural Pet Food. I know they sell in Wisconsin and Illinois and assume they'll ship to other places. Website is http://www.companionnaturalpetfood.com

I'm not affiliated with these people in any way--just a customer and happy with their product. I don't quite have the nerve to do the chicken necks, etc. but this lets me feed an all natural, raw diet. At Mr. Frawley's suggestion, I add a little canned pumpkin.

From the first I've fed my 6 month old puppy a diet of mostly BARF (raw chicken with bones, liver and mashed/pulped veggies) - pretty much the same diet that Ed has on this site. In addition, I've mixed in a couple cups of kibble a day. My thinking is that it has made it a lot easier for my pup when I've had to kennel him for a day or two with the trainer and his diet is a lot less messed up - or when I have to travel with him in the future, it will be an easier adjustment for him.

So far it's been great - he's very healthy, good coat, lean and active. My only advice would be to make sure it's a good all-natural, human-grade ingredient kibble such as Canidae. Feeding something with preservatives, etc. would take away all those benefits of feeding raw in the first place.

If you are going to feed a mixture of kibble and raw then I would feed the two as seperate meals. Mixing raw, which is fast digesting, with kibble, which is slower digesting, could cause the raw to ferment in the gut because the kibble causes the raw to stay in the digestive tract too long, therefore possibly causing some intestinal issues. I would feed a morning meal of raw and an evening meal of kibble if you are going to continue mixing the two..jmo

In reply to the question about the chicken backs:
I have been feeding my dogs the backs for about 5 months now and haven't had any problems at all. They had some initial trouble figuring out that you had to chew them first, but after the first five minutes, they were off and running. The softer bones in the spine do wonders on their teeth. They look like they have been bleached white.