Raw Dog Food and Raw Cat Food A Professional Consultation

Initially, we suggest introducing some safe and easily digestible raw dog foods and a great one is chicken mince. This is because our chicken mince tastes great but also contains roughly ground chicken bones which is amazing for the health of your dog (or cat) containing calcium phosphate, and makes it easy for their digestive system to get used to digesting bones. It also allows you to introduce larger raw bone meals at a later stage knowing their body will be ready for it.

If your dog is moving to raw dog food from their usual kibble or tinned food, we recommend starting the raw dog food introduction in the morning feed and then feeding them their kibble in the afternoon feed. You then monitor your pet to ensure there are no adverse reactions. You continue this for the first couple of days then progress to feeding them raw dog food at both meals.

When you are feeding a raw dog food diet you will need to introduce some form of vegetables to complement the meal to ensure your four-legged family member has a good range of vitamins in their diet.

You will need to give your dog 6 parts meat to 1 part veg.

To make life easy we suggest a couple of vegetable options:

SmartBarf Veg, Seed & Fruit Mix - 500g – It gives a great range of the vegetables, seeds and fruit that dogs can digest and will benefit them. Surprisingly, many vegetables don’t provide our dogs any benefits. The SmartBarf product gives you approximately 35 servings so it’s easy to store and less to worry about it has a long shelf life so it’s low maintenance!

Natures Menu Fruit & Veg 1kg Bags – This is packed full of the tasty nutrients that will benefit your dog when feeding them a raw dog food diet. In 1kg bags it offers approximately 65 to 70 servings per bag. It’s great value for money and gives you one less thing to worry about.

It is possible to give your dog vegetables or herbs that you can grow, buy or forage in the wild and we will cover that in future articles over the coming weeks.

Now that you have got them off the old processed kibble, it’s time to introduce a wider variety of proteins to their raw dog food diet. We often suggest lamb or beef offal being a safe and popular option.

If it’s a puppy that you are introducing to raw feeding, avoid the beef until after 12 weeks of age as it may affect their vaccination success however, after that it will be fine. Another staple loved by many Nurturing by Nature customers is rabbit.

Just like we mentioned before when starting your raw food journey, we suggest giving any new meat option to your dog in the morning then go back to the meat that you know works for your dog in the afternoon feed. This allows you to monitor your pet to ensure they get on well with the new meat option, and if anything untoward happens, you simply revert back to the raw dog food diet that you know works before exploring the next option.

Remember to keep adding 1 part veg to the 6 parts meat.

Continue this for the rest of the week to see how your four legged companion gets on, although we are confident they will be fine.

Week 3 – Adding More Bone to your Raw Dog Food Diet

Now that you have successfully introduced new and exciting raw dog food options to your companion’s diet, we suggest that you look to introduce more bone infused meals into their diet. Their digestive system will already be used to digesting bone due to you introducing it in week 1 as part of the chicken mince.

Again, we suggest doing this as part of the morning meal and then standard mince in the afternoon/evening meal.

A great one for this is chicken carcasses. At approximately 200g they make an ideal sized meal for most dogs. If you have a smaller dog then you can either cut the carcass up to suit the ideal weight of food required in the dogs morning meal, or you can simply give them the whole carcass in the morning and then a smaller amount of mince to make up their required daily intake. i.e. if you dog requires

The chewing process involved when feeding chicken carcasses also stimulates your pet making the whole feeding process more than just swallowing kibble!

We ask you to check what’s coming out of your dog to ensure all the bone is being digested and it doesn’t have an upset tummy. If it does, then get them back on the chicken mince for a few more days and reintroduce the chicken carcasses a week later. This will have given your dog the chance for their stomachs to get used to the bones.

Continue this for the whole of the third week preparing you and your beloved pet for week four.

Now it’s time to start introducing an even wider variety of proteins. You can do this by introducing raw food options such as lamb ribs and veal ribs. In fact, you can now start to explore the entire Nurturing by Nature range and start to find out for yourself which raw dog food’s your dog loves best.

How Much Raw Food Does My Dog Need?

Puppies & kittens can have up to 10% of their bodyweight in meat per day. As the animal gets older they need less so a 6 month old pet will need more like 5-7% of their bodyweight in meat per day. Adults need 2-3% of their bodyweight in meat per day and large breeds and some older pets may only need as little as 1% of their bodyweight in meat per day.

We would also increase the amount of meat if you have a dog that is working or is highly active.

Working out the percentage is simple - here is an example:

    12kg 6 month old dog - suggested feeding raw of 5-7% in bodyweight in meat per day.

    12 x 5 = 60 add 0 = 5% = 600g

    12 x 7 = 84 add 0 = 7% = 840g

So, for a 12kg, 6 month old dog we would recommend you feed 600 to 840 grams of meat per day.

Example - For a 7 year old dog that weighs 13kg they will need 2% to 3% of their bodyweight in food per day.

That would mean giving them 2 x 13g (then add the 0) = 260g of raw dog food per day.

This is often split into a morning and an evening meal so you divide that 260g divided by 2, giving you approx’ 130g per meal. Again, if you have questions or concerns then please feel free to get in touch and we will be delighted to help.

Always remember to keep an eye on their toilet habits to ensure their stomachs are OK, and of course make sure they have fresh drinking water to hand throughout the meal and the rest of the day.

This insight provides only a small part of the knowledge on hand here at Nurturing by Nature. We can help your pets should they suffer from allergens through to general delicate stomachs.

Let us take any confusion out of the way and get you and your beloved companions on the right path to a happy and healthy future.