# mixing raw and kibble



## jcris (Feb 19, 2015)

Good day everyone,
I've recently stopped feeding a completely raw diet. Now I'm feeding a dry kibble and the occasional raw meaty bone. Once a day I feed canned food to keep their interest. My girls seem to have adjusted to this new diet without issue. I watch them carefully and to gauge their appetite. They are exercised 2 or 3 times a day where they have a chance to run and explore in a very large field. I wonder though about adding the occasional raw protein to their diet. Will that serve to just upset their stomachs? Should I maintain a strictly kibble oriented diet? I have to say that since reverting to the more conventional diet that feeding is so much easier on me. I guess I'm just lazy.
Jcris


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## homemadehitshow (Jul 8, 2015)

Our dogs used to be Kibble only for many years, then we introduced canned food and gradually they seemed to stop eating kibble all together. Then with the new puppy we went raw and now the other dogs are reluctant to eat the canned food even and will only eat raw chicken and beef (cut up with no bones for them). Once in a while they might eat some canned and the puppy eats some kibble/canned mix but it's almost impossible for me to get them to eat the kibble now.


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## Coldbrew (Jun 17, 2015)

I alternate days of raw and kibble (have been doing so for about a month now) and haven't had any trouble on it at all. Poos are consistent (though much more yellow on raw feeding days since their main protein is chicken), and their interest in kibble hasn't lessened any. 

I sometimes skip meat days if I don't have time to scrub their crates afterward, which I don't think makes us lazy, just conscious of our time commitments


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

I've been feeding a combo of raw & kibble & canned & dehydrated for 3 years! I put it in rotation, like raw & kibble, canned & kibble, dehydrated & kibble, . I feed  the raw, canned or dehydrated in the morning and then a measured amount of kibble is put in the bowl to graze on during the rest of the day. I can feed Molly this way because she is an 'only child' and she self regulates really well. Her raw is about 3.5ozs per meal, her canned is 1/3 of a 12oz can, and dehydrated is usually a rehydrated 1/3 cup then the kibble is 1/4 cup. I only get into to trouble maintaining her weight when I get too generous with sharing my dinner.....bad mommy! LOL!
Never had a problem with using different brands/proteins of kibble either! No iffy tummy with here! Oh yeah, she also has a trachea or a bully stick laying around somewhere............

I did read somewhere that even feeding raw only a couple of times a week is beneficial and that some is better than none!!!!


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## lisasgirl (May 27, 2010)

I gave my kibble-fed dogs raw chicken necks a few times last week and they did just fine. If your dogs don't normally have sensitive stomachs, I'd say give it a try.


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## FireStorm (Nov 9, 2013)

Hans eats a mix of kibble and raw when we are home and then either just kibble or kibble and canned when we travel. He has no tummy issues and is doing fine.

I've done a fair amount of research on feeding kibble and raw together and I've fount that a lot of folks will tell you you can't do it but I can't find any actual evidence to support that so I don't buy it. I came across an interesting discussion on a Dobe forum about this very topic and one of the posters in that thread said this about how the idea that you can't feed both originated:


> Ten or twelve years ago, I was on the raw list that invented this old wives tale when it was being invented (who remembers when rawfeeding was BARF on Smartgroups?). A bunch of people theorizing back and forth about this and that for three or four days, and all at once it somehow got transformed into gospel. There was never any science, there was never even any anecdotal evidence that anything negative would result from combining raw and kibble. It weren't true then, and it ain't true now.


Also, I found this article really interesting:
https://therawfeedingcommunity.com/...s-kibble-may-actually-digest-faster-than-raw/


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## Coldbrew (Jun 17, 2015)

FireStorm said:


> I've fount that a lot of folks will tell you you can't do it but I can't find any actual evidence to support that so I don't buy it.


I just wanted to second this statement. I was initially hesitant to feed raw and kibble together based on the oftmentioned "they digest at different speeds and that's bad" type of comment that is almost invariably mentioned by proponents of raw feeding. I looked for any evidence that there were differences in digestion speed as well as any proof that such differences were bad, but came up empty handed on both. And for reference, when I say 'looked for evidence' i mean i scoured all available scientific literature provided to vet students and vets at the University of Illinois - not just did a google search 

I found one anecdotal story of a man who tracked the digestion of a kibble meal and a raw meal in his dog with the aid of a friend with x-ray equipment, but had issues with both his methods and conclusions, so I wouldn't count that.


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## liljaker (Aug 6, 2011)

I agree that although the raw feeding purists say not to mix, I have had no issue with Sunny if I did mix, however I usually just alternate for variety. However, Sunny has a great appetite, so has never been our issue.


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