Raw Feeding Week Day 2: Adding Fresh to Your Dog's Bowl

If you didn't read yesterday's blog about all the benefits of feeding raw food, you can read it here. 

If you did, you'll know why we recommend adding some raw food to your dog's bowl.

But just how do you start?

Firstly, let's set the record straight; you can feed raw food and kibble in the same bowl. Anyone who claims otherwise is just following an unsubstantiated myth that is continuously spread on the Internet. 

Your dog's digestive tract doesn't discern between different types of food. It just 'sees' the nutrients - the protein, the fat, the carbs, the micronutrients, the water - and deals with them accordingly. It doesn't care if those nutrients came from raw meat or processed kibble. It deals with them all the same

Any fresh is better than none

Any amount of fresh food is better than none. Research shows that swapping 20% of your dog's daily food allowance to fresh food has many positive benefits. So you don't need to go all or nothing. 

If you have decided to feed a full raw diet, you can just do a straight switch. If your dog has a sensitive tummy, then it will be better to introduce raw food slowly.

If you're keeping the amount of fresh food to less than 20% (of daily food allowance) than you don't need to worry too much about what food you're adding.  However, if you want to add more than 20%, you need to consider the balance of the food you add so you don't unbalance the whole bowl. You can read in more depth about transitioning to raw in our raw guides.

Just Go For It

For the remainder of this article, we're going to assume that you're just adding some raw or fresh food as a topper. If your want to feed more, then check out the raw feeding guides on our website where you'll find more in-depth information

There are very few fresh foods dog's can't eat. Avoid the following foods: onion family (onions, chives, leeks, shallots, and garlic extract. NB fresh garlic is safe), macadamia nuts, grapes (including their dried forms), and cocoa, blue cheese, nutmeg, stones from fruits and corn on the cob. And of course, avoid food that might be a no-no for your particular dog due to pre-existing conditions.

Other than that, just go for it. You could add some raw meat, offal, eggs, oily fish, veg, fruit, a raw bone, bone broth, kefir...pretty much anything that is fresh and unprocessed.

What's stopping you?

So now we know it doesn't have to be all or nothing, what's stopping you from boosting your dog's bowl with raw or fresh food?

Maybe it's the scare stories about salmonella that puts you off? Or maybe you're worried about how messy and hard work raw feeding can be?

On Day 3 of Raw Feeding Week, we'll be discussing concerns people have about feeding their dogs raw food and hopefully put some minds to rest.