so many oposing views
the kibble kills the good gut bugs, meat won't digest right
others say no problem

I'm feeding Pisa a kibble, and she gets a 4 inch chunk of frozen rib bone to gnaw on after, not much meat, but a bit

a secondary question is because she dosen't eat the bone after sucking the meat off, do I have to worry about unbalanced calcium levels??

I don't think kibble really *kills* anything. It is just a different beast when it comes to digestion.

Judging by the very small amount of meat I'm accustom to being on ribs, I'll say that it isn't going to present a problem with balance or lack there of.

But you never what to go overboard adding meat or other stuff into an already balanced kibble. Then you will run into problems.

The issue with kibble and raw mixed is the different rates of digestion. Kibble can take 12+ hours to digest. Raw meat and bones being closer to 5 hours +/-. I can't remember the exact numbers. Regardless, there is a drastic difference in transit time through the gut.

Kibble has been cooked and more than likely doesn't contain the bacteria that *can* be on raw meat.

This is where transit time comes into play. A dogs stomach is very acidic and handles food borne pathogens pretty damn good by itself, but the rapid digestion of raw meat and bones also helps by keeping and surviving pathogens in the dog for the least amount of time.

Kibble slows this whole process down. The longer the food sits in the stomach, the less acidic the stomach environment gets. So, that negates 1 of the dog's defenses against bacteria and what not. Then, it is in the digestive tract for over twice as long. There goes the 2nd defense.

Thats the short story. I'm sure there is more to it than that, but not important for us.

Know the risk, and proceed accordingly.:smile:

The frozen rib bone you're giving her is a recreational bone--a toy. It's not really food. I think you're fine.

Were you just trying to make a one line response after you saw my short story?

Concise is overrated.

a secondary question is because she dosen't eat the bone after sucking the meat off, do I have to worry about unbalanced calcium levels??

I agree with everything posted by two of the most knowledgeable members: Don't mix kibble and raw; the recreational bone isn't really food; a raw diet is based not on recreational bones but on RMBs.

This might help:

http://leerburg.com/feedingarawdiet.htm#RMB

"so many oposing views
the kibble kills the good gut bugs, meat won't digest right
others say no problem"



From an old thread (quoting myself):

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, yes, and have no problem, but IMO it's just not a good idea.

This is why:

One of a dog's major system designs against food-borne pathogens is his food's short, quick, journey from his front end to his back end. Raw food scoots on through very quickly and food-borne pathogens do not get the chance that they get in a human's loooooong convoluted GI system to settle down, raise a family, and cause illness (colonize).

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). (In practical terms, this means that if you have to give an antacid, you suspend raw feeding for that period.)

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.

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

This might help:

http://leerburg.com/feedingarawdiet.htm#RMB

it did, thanks

 Quote: connie sutherland

"so many oposing views
the kibble kills the good gut bugs, meat won't digest right
others say no problem"



From an old thread (quoting myself):

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, yes, and have no problem, but IMO it's just not a good idea.

This is why:

One of a dog's major system designs against food-borne pathogens is his food's short, quick, journey from his front end to his back end. Raw food scoots on through very quickly and food-borne pathogens do not get the chance that they get in a human's loooooong convoluted GI system to settle down, raise a family, and cause illness (colonize).

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). (In practical terms, this means that if you have to give an antacid, you suspend raw feeding for that period.)

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.

Interesting thing just to back that up. I feed Koenig raw off and on, when it's a good price. Always fast 24 hours before. Recently, Richard decided that we could let Sara (our Pointer) try raw for the 1st time! (I was THRILLED! He'd always thought it was gross/weird)

She got a rear chicken 1/4, skinned, after a 24 hour fast. Previously she's had a cast iron stomach- it's always Koenig I've had to worry about with dirrahea, so I just assumed that the following morning, Sara would have a nice, raw style poop.

Next day comes, Koenig poops 'raw style'. Sara has nothing. That night she pooped, but it looked like her 'normal' Orijen/TOTW poop. Finally, 3 days later She had a poop that looked like it was 'raw'.

Interesting, huh? She's never had raw before. Never had digestive issues. To me, this proves by feeding kibble for a prolonged time you're truly upsetting the dogs natural balance of stomach acids. She couldn't process bone correctly, even after a 24hr fast!