The Schnauzer Forum

I have decided to try my 18 month G S with a Raw diet. I wish to know do I introduce the raw food over a few days, or just go straight from feeding the dry food to the raw diet.

Many thanks for your comments and advice in advance.

I think that you may get a variety of different answers to your question and much may depend on your individual dog. It may also make some difference if you are moving from a kibble diet to a home prepared raw meat diet or to the raw meals prepared by one of the companies who make raw food for dogs. The latter tend to be minced and therefore might be easier initially to digest than going straight on to carcasses etc. but others may have advice from experience with the DIY approach as we have mostly fed prepared raw meals with the odd bones / trachea / ribs as a treat.

Even the companies producing raw food give out different advice regarding the switch over. Wolf Tucker (which we currently use) has this as their basis:

http://www.wolftucker.co.uk/transition-guide/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You may also find lots of useful information ( especially if you are aiming for DIY feeding for your dog) from Raw Feeding Rebels:

http://www.rawfeedingrebels.com/wp-cont ... rguide.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

However, just from personal experience, when we started over a decade ago due to a new puppy who would eat nothing but raw meat (!), we had three miniature schnauzers at that time aged 7, 11 and 12 years old who had always been kibble fed - we moved them all to raw with no transition period and none of them had any problems. If your GS is fit and well with no previous digestive issues or health concerns, I would expect the transition to be quite straightforward. Personally I would be reluctant to mix kibble and raw meals as I understand they are digested differently so it may be better to either (as in the Wolf Tucker article) allow a day with no food between kibble and raw or just move straight over. Having said that, we do use some small kibble as training treats for our dogs and they have not had digestive problems with those but obviously that is far smaller quantities than a whole kibble meal.

Good luck with the move to raw. I am sure you will notice the benefits in health and a reduction in your dog's poo!!



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I moved 18 week pup from kibble to Bella and Duke Puppy, delivered to the door so I don't run out. It is not as mushy as some of the others. She loves it and there were no digestive upsets or any other issues