Switch to raw diet

Boss has I believe been having allergic reactions to his food(pedigree), has itchy skin, chews his paws, etc, and for a little while he was on half raw half dog food and wasnt scratching as much, so i was considering putting him on a full raw diet, does the transition over have to be slow like switching to a different dog food?

I don't have any experience myself. Here is a helpfull link though

http://staffy-bull-terrier.co.uk/barfandrawdiets.html

There is also a link at the bottom of the page that will lead you to a previous thread in this forum.

When we switched billy over to a raw diet, we just did it as he was not eating anything that we put down for him and he was fine. Just be prepared for the poo to be a little different and good luck, feeding raw is the best

Some dogs will make a straight switch to raw with no problems at all, others may have the runs for a couple of days.

The problem with introducing it gradually is the difference in digestion times. Raw is digested quite quickly - only about 5 hours - whereas commercial food (dry or wet) can take up to 15 hours!

If you want to switch gradually, then I'd feed twice a day, with the raw food in the morning & dry at night. That gives your dog's body time to digest the dry (overnight) before he has the raw next morning.

If you switch straight over, you may or may not get the runs for a day or two, but it usually doesn't last too long. Also, by feeding the softer bones (chicken wings & carcasses or lamb necks/ribs/spines) you will firm up the poo naturally.

Good luck!

Our dogs eat only raw. Billy has some allergies and can`t eat something else.
If you have some questions just ask.

I know several cat owners who changed over to raw chicken etc and swear by it. Haven't tried my lot because the thought of ten cats and three dogs chomping raw chicken put me off :-).

I did change the cats to food with no cereals in it and they have all blossomed, fatties lost weight, skinnies put it on, diabetic cat went into remission and one on prescription diet is now looking fantastic after stopping food containing cereals . All of the problems that used to have them at the vet often have stopped :-).

That's a big problem with some commercial food - cereals! Many dogs are intolerant of them to a greater or lesser extent.

If you're going to feed commercial, it pays to check the ingredients & buy the best you can afford.

Ok great, found a few local butchers that I'll see if they can sell me the scraps, and the asian market. Every so often boss gets tossed cascasses and other sorts of things, will look into changing over next week. With turkey season coming there will be alot of poultry at the butchers.

I can't feed poultry. Dempsey's poultry intolerant. Shame, it's SO cheap!

I feed Harvey raw and have for quite a while, I was always planning on feeding it him, and it's the best thing i've done! Oh i love my local chinese supermarket i get amazing bargains in there!

Boss started his raw diet at the start of the week, hasnt gotten sick from it, and actually his sratching and chewing his paws has completely stopped.

Good to hear that he is doing better

so glad that he is doing well on raw

Good. I know a lot of people don't approve of raw feeding (one of my vets doesn't & is always trying to get me to change my mind), and I know it doesn't suit everybody, but the dogs I've seen who've been fed raw seem to do really well on it.

Glad to hear he's doing well on it

yay good news, pleased he has improved so much. We want raw several months ago with our 8 1/2 months old boy and he's loving it and so are we lol! To us it's a much more natural diet which in our minds why dogs do so well on it