Hello! Thanks for the response. I can't afford to use a raw diet everyday at the moment. I was thinking mid week and a few times on the weekend just to get that proper (real) bone, protein etc like chicken wings, a fish etc. I don't have my puppy yet so I am researching and getting info. I have had a Lab about 20 years ago so i'm not new to Lab ownership. I fed my other dog kibble and wasn't aware of feeding a raw diet till recent.
I know there are a few people on here who feed mainly kibble, but swop one meal to raw. As long as the were getting a balanced diet, I don't see why you can't do a bit of both
As Naya says, it is perfectly possible to mix feeding, and add some raw to the diet to replace a kibble meal
Hi and welcome stevesnj , I can't wait to see pictures of your pup. From Spring till winter my dogs are fed semi raw thanks to my cats who are killing machines. Everyday the deliver fresh rabbit to the door. I gave up years ago trying to interfere with this fresh delivery service. Yesterday my Mally had a whole fresh baby bunny for tea...so I didn't give him any kibble. I just juggle the kibble depending how much rabbit they eat. They are both fit healthy dogs...and fed part raw for free !!!!
I try to stay away from opinions and definitely from death threat when it comes to health issues. I thought I had posted here earlier in the week, but I must have forgotten to press reply! These are my thoughts in response to some of the concerns expressed in the media by vets opposing raw Are vets driving raw feeders away In my view there are definitely both pros and cons to raw feeding, I have tried to cover them both here Raw Feeding: A natural diet for Labradors
Thanks Pippa. I have read all your articles on raw and I must say I see the logic and agree with it wholeheartedly. Thanks for everything you do in running such a resource and information rich website and forum. The Labrador site and the happy puppy site and most recently the gun dog site has been amazing for Arnie and myself.
So I found the answer to my question. It seems it is Okay to use Raw food as a treat. Found it on this site actually..lol Natural Dog Treats There are two ways to feed your dog natural dog treats. One is to feed them on raw meat or vegetables as a treat. You can find out more about this in our extensive raw feeding article. Raw food is the most ‘natural’ way to feed a dog, however, for a variety of reasons it is not always one that a Labrador owner will want to choose.
I do pretty much this. They have three meals a day, two of which are kibble and the third is something raw, be that a turkey leg, a portion of chicken, a couple of frozen sardines, a chunk of rabbit, pig trotters etc etc. The biggest point for concern is that it's not interfering with them having a balanced diet - good-quality kibbles are balanced and a well-planned raw food diet will also be. Mixing and matching opens up pitfalls with the overall balance of nutrients. I try to compensate for this by making their raw meal as varied as possible, including a small amount of offal on occasion and whole eggs a couple of times a week. They get a lot of pleasure from eating their raw meals and I love to see them enjoying their food so much.
LOL, raw meat for training treats could be pretty messy though. I bought roasts of beef or pork on sale, cooked, cooled, cut into 1/4 inch cubes, froze and used as needed. All meat, no additives or preservatives and cheaper than any treat I could buy making the same claims. I guess you could cut and freeze raw meat as well but my bits did thaw out quickly.
LOL, when I was a kid the dog and cats got trimmings from whatever meat was being cooked for supper. It got so, if they didn't come when you called them the first time, all you had to do was sharpen the butcher knife and, like magic, there they'd all be.
