So, you’ve taken a step down the road less traveled and decided to introduce a natural, raw diet to your pet. Well, you’re now on the journey toward a long, healthy life for your pet. As this new way of feeding can be a bit daunting, here are best practices for making this experience a positive one.
Your Transition:
As a dog owner, this transition to a raw diet will go as well as you ensure it will. Making sure things go as smoothly as possible starts with first ensuring that you do your homework.
Ensuring that you not only research the raw diet but also the best raw suppliers from which to buy your food goes a long way toward making certain that you’re feeding quality food to your pet and avoiding the frustrations of being uninformed. There is a wealth of knowledge to be gained in this era of information, so make sure to not only speak with your vet but also learn from the experiences of fellow dog lovers in on top of some digging of your own for the newest information and breakthroughs in the raw feeding community.
Another duty as a dog owner making the switch to raw is to exercise patience with your dog as introducing this new diet can elicit different responses from every dog. Though many pets make this switch rather seamlessly, keep in mind that there is no definitive method to raw feeding that is deemed perfect.
With all this patience will also come the need to keep a keen eye on the ways in which your pooch responds to the dietary change. Monitoring key indicators like a dog’s stool and or behavior will give you clues if there are any irregularities or causes for concern. Know that slight changes might occur in both regards but it only when both change dramatically that one should begin to worry.
Your Dog’s Transition:
Switching your dog to raw will follow a similar process as changing to a new kibble. As many dogs’ tummies are sensitive to abrupt dietary changes, it might take some time for your pup to adjust to new foods. So, while you may be able to get away with an immediate change, remember it is best to take things slowly and gradually replace fractions of your dog’s meal with the newer food to ensure that his/her digestive system isn’t thrown off balance and there are no gastrointestinal issues. Taking into account your dog’s age and health status will also affect the ease with which you will want to make this transition. Nonetheless, every day you’ll be serving less kibble and more raw food with each meal. A basic feeding schedule could go as follows:
- Day 1: feed 1/8th of raw food, 7/8th of kibble
- Day 2: feed 1/4th of raw food, 3/4th of kibble
- Day 3: feed 1/2 of raw food, 1/2 of kibble
- Day 4: feed 3/4th of raw food, 1/4th of kibble
- Day 5: feed 7/8th of raw food, 1/8th of kibble
- Day 6: Unless you deem it appropriate to extend this process, move forward with feeding raw food completely.
To aid this process further, it is recommended to limit the variety of meats that you feed early on. An important not here is that as opposed to kibble which must pack tons of ingredients into one bag to ensure nutritional balance, with raw you don’t have to make every meal completely balanced. In the case of raw, because your able to introduce a variety of foods and nutrients onyour own, there comes the opportunity to create balance over a period of time. Once your pet adapts to eating the raw meat and bones you are feeding, try adding a little organ meat such as liver, or a new protein source. Again, give your pet time to adjust to the new food before adding more. Once you have made the switch complete, you will then want to make your dog's diet diverse.
Explore our site for more info or head over to our friends at Darwin's Natural Selections for for more basic principles.
