Hi and Happy New Year everyone.
I’m new to this site and I’m very impressed with it and very grateful to everyone who has contributed to it’s existence. The question I would like to ask is - am I right in thinking that it’s ok to mix kibble and raw if it’s a good quality kibble with much the same ingredients as the raw? I know it’s fine to mix the cold compressed with the raw.
Hello and welcome to the forum. There is a thread here on this very subject. Some raw feeders are vehemently opposed to it, citing the different transit times through the digestive tract. However, there is an article (from that thread) here which purports that kibble may digest faster than raw.
My experience is that it is OK to mix raw and kibble but on the few occasions I’ve done it I have given them at separate times e.g. kibble for breakfast, raw for for dinner. I think it may be useful to ask why you would want to mix the two? Is there a particular reason for it?
Hello and welcome to the forum. I do feed kibble on occasion, usually when the raw food hasn’t quite defrosted but like Dottie, I don’t tend to mix it in the same meal. I have no idea if it would be a problem. It may vary depending on the individual dog. Come to think of it, I have sometimes added a little kibble to the raw when the last portion is a little small.
Hi again.
Have been trying to get back to you with no luck. Hopefully better this time. Thank you both for getting back to me so quickly. I will certainly read the links. The reason for me wanting to mix is I’ve been feeding Natural Instinct for a few years now and am very, very pleased with how my dogs do on it. I breed the odd litter and show a small breed. Lately, however I’m finding a dog seems to get a bit fed up with it, even though I give different varieties and have found that if I add a little good quality kibble, both cold pressed and dry extruded, or a little complete wet, they’re happy again.
Hi there,
I don’t really have a strong opinion on this as haven’t fed raw since moving my puppy from raw when we got him.
I know that Gentle kibble advertises on their website that you can feed their cold pressed product with a BARF diet. The receptionist at my vet uses that along with Natures menu raw nuggets and found this to work well for her dog.
All the best
Have you thought about adding something to the raw that might make it more appealing? Thinking about carbohydrate e.g. cooked, mashed sweet potato or well cooked brown rice or oats. Natures Menu Mighty Mixer might be useful because it is very crunchy. The only reason I mention this is because there is ample protein and fat in the raw and giving them a good quality kibble would just add to this but would not be strictly needed. I am looking at it from another angle and thinking of what might be missing from the raw that they are getting in commercial food.
I know somebody who says that her dogs are fine on raw and cold pressed (Gentle) every day. She does this partly because she is finding it expensive to feed just raw.
Please let us know what you decide to do and how you get on with the change.