Hi. New to to sight and would like some advice please. We have a beautiful healthy 8 month old male Fox Red Lab, and from the day we bought him home he has been fed on Pro Plan kibble, starting off soaked in warm water until it could be mushed up, but more recently dry. Over the last week he has progressively gone off this food and eats a bit, leaves, comes back and eats a bit more, leaves again, etc. We decided to change the brand and bought 'James Wellbeloved' kibble, which he seems to be happy with. However, we also thought it might be an idea to start moving onto 'Raw' food so also bought a packet of the food in the attached photo. We feed him the Kibble in the morning, and the defrosted raw food around 5pm. My question is, is it OK to do this as long as we space the meal times at 9 hours? Also, how many grams of kibble should we be giving, and how much of the raw should we give? The instructions on the back of the raw food say 41 - 71 nuggets per serving. This seems an awful lot to me as the 'nuggets' are around an inch across, and half an inch wide. I doubt there are 71 nuggets in the pack!
Hi and welcome to the forum. sorry I can't help with your questions on raw feeding as my girl is fed solely on kibble. I'm sure other members will respond soon who have more knowledge of this type of feeding Not sure which food your photo was showing but the image can't be seen unless it's hosted via a site like Imgur, Photobucket, Flickr. More info here http://thelabradorforum.com/forums/technical-help.18/
OK, here is a link to their website http://www.naturesmenu.co.uk/product-puppy-complete-frozen-nuggets.aspx
The feeding guide for the puppy nuggets depends on weight. It says he should be on 4% of his body weight a day. So, if he weighs 20kg, he's be on 800g of the Nature's Menu a day, if he was only being fed that. But, assuming he's being fed 50% of his calories as kibble and 50% as NM, then you'd halve this to 400g a day.
The JWB food should also have a feeding guide on it, based on the weight of your puppy, or the expected adult weight. Keep in mind that most of these feeding guides do quite significantly over-estimate how much is necessary, especially for a Lab, who seem to have pretty efficient digestive systems that eke every single last calorie from their food! So, I'd reduce this by maybe a third and go with that. Then adjust based on how he looks. If he puts on a bit too much chunk, reduce it more. If he starts looking too skinny, increase it a bit.
Sorry, I keep thinking of extra things to add! The reason that you're looking at more volume and weight from the NM than the kibble is that is has a very high moisture content - 70% - which makes the food heavier without adding calories. There's no problem with feeding a mixture of raw and kibble. My two have three meals a day; two small kibble meals at either end of the day and a lunch which is raw. I don't use Nature's Menu or the like (although might if I had access to them), but feed meaty bones instead. Usually a big chicken leg or turkey drumstick, half a rabbit, pork ribs etc etc etc. It's the highlight of their day
Thanks. My main concern was about feeding him both but I have heard that as long as you leave 9 or 10 hours between kibble and raw they shouldn't be 'at odds' in his digestive system.
My two are often fed a mix of kibble and raw , the raw usually being fish or offal , no problems at all .
Yeah, I don't buy that. There's no scientific research behind those claims. I understand that dogs' digestive systems aren't the same as ours, but I don't see why a dog can't cope with a meal of carbohydrate and protein at the same time, like we can. And, even if that were the case, then kibble would be a problem, since it always has a carbohydrate source and a protein source.
Hi there and welcome to the forum. I have researched the claims that kibble and raw should not be mixed and I simply cannot find any evidence to support it. I have just released a new in-depth guide to raw feeding, you might find it helpful
I think that kibble/raw thing has been debunked. I quite happily give Lilly her bowl of kibble with "other stuff" chucked in - mainly carrot end or brocolli stalks or the odd sardine, meat trimmings etc. Not caused any issues.
