So Oscar is just about back to himself after his little bloat/GI scare over Memorial Day weekend. For the past 2 weeks he's been on a home-cooked diet: for the first week it was simple, bland, blended boiled chicken and rice (baby food consistency), along with all his GI soothing meds, and since this past weekend I've been adding other cooked muscle meats (ground beef and ground turkey), sautéd chicken liver, and hard boiled eggs, with a bit of yogurt and a tiny bit of produce (bits of melon and berries as treats). I'm going to start salmon oil and E tonight as well, I just wanted to take things slowly. Calcium is the only thing in real deficit here, so if he doesn't get back on raw soon, I'll start supplementing that, carefully.

The reason we're still on cooked food is that he's been on antacids - last dose will be tonight. Beginning tomorrow, his stomach acids should start to get back to normal, but I'm wondering when it would be safe to start the switch back to raw? (This is not a question I'll get an informed answer to from my raw-averse vet) Additionally, I know mixing kibble and raw is a no-no, but what about home cooked and raw? Same issues with the different digestive speeds, or is lightly cooked, unprocessed muscle meat still a lot faster to pass through the gut than super cooked kibble? Should I just switch cold turkey one morning, or introduce a bit of raw within his cooked meals for a bit?

Thanks for any suggestions.

~Natalya

I hope some raw experts will chime in here but I will give my opinion

I would wait about 7 days before switching him to raw to make sure that his poops are normal and there is no GI upset following him coming off the antacids and to allow his stomach acids to build and stabilize again.

I think you could switch him either way though. You could add some rice to his raw meat and start with maybe a bone in chicken breast with the extra meat taken off. Then wait a few days and observe the poops before adding more bone. I think what I would look for is that he is not having any issues digesting the bone before I would up the meat/bone ratio.

For the first couple days I would back off the supplements and see how his gut does with the raw transition. Then as long as everything is ok, start adding everything in one by one again.

Again, this is what I would do, but I hope Connie jumps on here with her opinion

Yes, this sounds good.


PS
Canned, cooked, and dehydrated don't have the kibble-and-raw slowing-down-the-raw-passage problem.

Thanks Connie

Great, thanks for the suggestions, Niomi and Connie. We'll go ahead and wait out another week. His digestive system seems to be doing just fine so far - stool is quite soft (with no bone to firm it up), and it's currently a bit on the orange side, but I have a hunch the discoloration is from the meds. Doesn't look like blood. Will take note of changes as we end the meds.

Do you think I should supplement a little calcium if we're going to go into a third week on boneless meals? Or is this not enough time to really cause issues...

~Natalya