I currently have a 6 month old Eurasier boy. He’s growing well and seems healthy. He was fed raw food by the breeder and weened onto Platinum high meat content dry food for when we took him.
After frequenting a local pet store the owner recommended a change to a mixture of raw food and a supplemental dry food. It was explained that the raw meet would give the obvious extra benefits but still lacks some vitamins that the biscuits would provide. I didn’t think you could mix raw and dry food but he said it’s ok as long as it’s not at the same time as the intestine can’t process both types at the same time unless specifically trained to do so.
My question is… is this all right and good advice or a load of tosh. He was very nice and I hope he’s right as I want to use him and is brand regularly of so. They do have some great reviews but I personally don’t have a clue.
Their informercial video is here:
ht ← close this gap → tps://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=6Tpbz17lF2o
I would appreciate any advice nutritionally on what’s best for my dog. There’s not many about so its hard to find information other than it needs to be high content meat.
Hello and welcome to the forum. The video link is here. The reason that he advises adding the dry food supplement is because he is selling the BARF diet i.e. just raw meat which is not a complete meal nutritionally. Commercial raw meals, for example Nutriment, Natural Instinct are complete and there should be no need to add anything. The people in the video are enthusiastic about this method of feeding but AFAIK there is no scientific evidence that a raw food diet is any better for a dog than good quality commercial food. In some cases it can be unsuitable. It is a matter of choice. My advice would be to do some research and choose a product that is suitable for you and for the dog’s lifestyle. All dogs are different and what suits one may not suit another.
Well that’s the thing, most of the DIY raw food videos I have seen on YouTube and the like, all show people mixing up various raw ingredients, and then at the end they start adding drops of liquids and tablets of the vitamins and minerals that need to be added that don’t come from the raw meat itself.
The way he was selling it to me was that the meat didn’t have any of these minerals added to it, and so it was better for the animal, however he said it did still need these additives and so the biscuits would provide that.
He did advise me to give raw in the morning and then biscuit in the evening, as it would be easier for the intestine to dguest, like what you mention.
I am a bit puzzled - is the dry food kibble? I assumed it was an adjunct to make the raw meat into a complete diet? If it is straightforward kibble then we do have a couple of threads on this and I can give you the links. When feeding raw it is easier and safer to give raw complete because all the work is done for you and you know the dog is getting the nutrition that he needs.
Kibble is usually a complete food product. Because the video is about the BARF diet I had assumed the dry food that you spoke of is complementary i.e. something to be added to make a meal complete nutritionally or simply to add taste. Platinum is nutritionally complete and you need feed nothing else.
I only saw the video once but I noticed him feeding kibble towards the end of it. Might be wrong but the young man seemed to be promoting the inclusion of raw food rather than feeding it totally. Without information regarding ingredients and analysis of his products we cannot know.
It is up to you whether you want to mix food in this way. If you are not sure and wish to stick with one item, we can help you to use the Dog Food Directory to choose something suitable. Have a think about it and let us know please. Link Link
I have recently started my dog copper on raw, and I asked 2 raw food companies if I could raw feed in the morning and give dry in the evening. They both said that it was better to give only one as the dog copes better that way. He is now on raw for both meals and he is doing very well. Luna and me are good with advice.
I hope that you can get your dog sorted on one or the other.
It is possible to combine raw and dry food however it certainly shouldn’t be done in the same meal or even the same day. Feeding dry for 4 days then raw for a day (or vice versa) shouldn’t cause any digestion issues. To be even safer though it would be advisable to used pressed dry food as opposed to extruded dry food as pressed kibble digests in a very similar way to raw food.
A pressed kibble will relatively quickly break down and sit in the bottom of your dogs stomach, similarly to raw food, where as extruded kibble will swell and float for several hours before it breaks down and can be digested.
It’s not something we would recommend, no. That’s not to say that it definitely would cause your dog problems if you did but it has the potential to do so albeit not as great as with extruded food.
As I said, if you want to combine raw and dry food then it’s best to do it on separate days and for the dry food to be pressed rather than extruded.
Again this wouldn’t be something that we’d advise. Ultimately advice such as this is to minimise the potential of issues rather than saying if you go against it you will definitely have these problems. A lot of dogs won’t suffer from any digestion problems if fed a mixture of raw, wet or dry food but it’s not something that we (we sell pressed food) would ever recommend because it’s certainly not ideal and increases the possibility of your dog suffering digestion issues.
I’m not sure which food you use but if you’re using a complete food then there should be no need to add the wet food to the pressed food. If you really wanted to give your dog both raw or wet food and dry food then we would only ever recommend doing so on separate days. Your dog might be absolutely fine digesting a mixture of both foods on the same day (or at least not show signs of any issues) but another dog may not have as strong a stomach.
Oh that’s interesting, I feed Gentle and it’s marketed as suitable to feed alongside raw so i asked them about mixing with complete wet and they said it would be fine as they are digested in a similar way…
I know a little bit about Gentle but wouldn’t want to speak for them. We partnered with Prins Petfoods who have been producing pressed food for over 50 years and have a dedicated team of vets and nutritionists and they would never recommend combining the two on the same day let alone the same meal.
If you would like to discuss this further please do get in touch and I’m more than happy to pass on any questions to Prins CareTeam.
