This last week, I have been feeding Duke a portion of raw chicken backs/necks and organs as his evening meal, along with kibble for breakfast and lunch. (We had purchased a number of whole chickens.) He has been markedly calmer, better behaved, less mouthy, more responsive to voice command - he's not quite 6 months yet and has almost done teething, which my husband thinks is the reason for the change in behavior - could it be the food? He has been on Blue Wilderness that uses the white potato binder, which I understand can have him running on a sugar high. I did notice something of a change in that he seemed to actually want to drink more water after his raw suppers than he normally cares to with his kibble.

(Planning on visiting some local butchers this weekend and getting prices on raw chicken.)

I would think its because you've been consistant with his training and teaching him what you want more then his diet.

Most often people that switch dogs from kibble to raw see an INCREASE in energy in their dogs then the other way around. So as Steve said...it is most likely the trining & probably the fact that the mouthy teething & younger puppy behaviors have slowed down or stopped.

I would also make sure there is 12 hours between when you feed a kibble & raw meal. Kibble takes about closer to 14 hours to go thur as opposed to raw taking about 5-6 hours to pass thru the digestive system. The reason you can feed raw relatavely safey is because it doesn't sit in the dog's gut for the pathegeons to ferment & multiply which is what would cause illness. If you feed the 2 too close together you run the risk of slowing down the raw food to a point that it becomes risky.

I know that there are many people out there that feed both together & other that feed them close together & many of these folks have luckily escaped their dog haveing problems....but then there are many other with horror stories about loosing or almost loosing dog due to it. So seriously consider what you do in feeding these both to your dog. I would suggest a morning & evening only fedding times. I would not include a lunch feeding when mixing these 2 food together in a diet. JMHO

Thanks for the input guys! I'll keep the GI transit time in minds when feeding (so obviously raw in the morning > raw at night for our schedules) and should be ordering a Cindi-recommended book on raw this week to ensure he gets the right balance of nutrients for his age.

I was commenting to a friend that it probably seems silly to be excited like a little kid over GOOD BEHAVIOR! But it means so much to be able to have him out around the house with us

I agree with Steve and Anne.

And yes, there is also a glycemic response factor with the foods that use white potato and other extremely high GI foods in quantity. "No grains" isn't necessarily a great improvement .... IMO, using white potato (higher than white sugar and almost as high as pure glucose on the Index) is not a nutritional plus.


I do think that consistency in training trumps the starch in the diet. But if I saw less frenetic behavior when I withdrew high GI foods, I'd stop feeding them. JMO!

Just so there is no confusion is what I said about am & pm feeding.....

You can feed raw at one meal & kibble at the other if all raw is not what you care to do...but just make sure that the raw & kibble meals are 12 hours apart. Again, I would not feed a lunch when feeding both kibble & raw.

Understood, Anne - I'd like to move to fully raw if we can, and he's almost old enough for us to skip the middle meal anyhow (though I'm sure he would disagree, he's nuts for anything he thinks might be edible)

Lots of help here for raw feeding & diets & food sources. Just ask the folks here if any questions. Many of us have been doing our own home made raw diets for many years (me-almost 9 years). So we are always ready to help.

 Quote: Anne Jones

Lots of help here for raw feeding & diets & food sources. Just ask the folks here if any questions. Many of us have been doing our own home made raw diets for many years (me-almost 9 years). So we are always ready to help.

ETA....Doing some mid day training will give him a few treats that will more easily help phase out the missed mid day meal.

And if it's cooked bits of chicken, say, then it's a food that's fine to give near a raw meal.

Also, a small meal of canned or home-cooked for the lunch meal does not present the problem that kibble does when given near a raw food meal.

My dog is a much nicer dog when he is fed raw. After his supper he lays around digesting his food, calm in front of the TV.