Hi all,

We are going to switch Cali to raw this weekend. No doubt about it. Keith (my hubby) and I wrote out what we need, and how we will proceed with the introduction. Shopping is on hand today, and I will post our "menu" plan for critique. I would, however, appreciate feedback on one other issue.

There is a very knowledgeable young woman at my local pet store who has been feeding raw for 6+ years. Her field spaniel Cleo had lots of tummy issues on kibble as Cali has had--although Cleo was worse. She recommended the following, which is how she made the switch years ago based on the recommendation of a local holistic vet she still uses. What do you think?

Before moving to RMBs, begin with a 50/50 mixture of bison and sweet potato for a week. She mentioned the gamier the meat, the less trouble dogs tend to have with it. Have no idea if that statement has any validity or not? She suggested cooking the bison a tiny bit for the first few days since Cali is used to kibble. Cook less and less until we get to raw. Keep her on the raw bison and sweet potato for ~a week until we're sure tummy issues are clear. Then begin adding the RMB's slowly to the bison, weeding out the sweet potatoes and gradually switching to RMB raw diet as you all do here. She suggested this because I had a suspicion that Cali had issues with chicken--but that was chicken in Wellness kibble.

Our inclination is to just move to chicken backs and try it out, but perhaps the approach above above has some merit? (For the record, the pet store woman linked me up with RMB wholesalers and was NOT trying to sell me on a pet store raw diet. In fact it was far from it--I thought the manager was going to fire her! The approach is what she did with her dog many years ago to start out.)

Thanks again. Any and all comments welcome. I just hope I can contribute here in some small way in the future to others.

I'd probably just go straight to defatted chicken backs.

All she did with her mixture was make a slow intro to raw with lean meals. Which you will already be doing with totally defatted chicken backs. Two roads to the same destination.

I suspect she had probably seen, or done herself, a few "all in" switches where no time was taken to introduce new food.

There is merit there, but taking time to add new foods when the dog's gut says it is OK should be just fine.

I second he motion to go straight to chicken backs.

And it probably goes with out saying, but I will anyway--you'd never cook or even partly cook any RMBs for any reason. Cooked bones are not edible and could even be dangerous.

Done. Thanks again!