Getting started with RAW/Kibble??

[heatmed]

Hi Everyone,

I just adopted a 4.5 year old Boxer from the my local Rescue program. I have grown up my whole life with Boxers, but "Oscar" has to have the sweetest personality that I have ever seen. I had to start Oscar on a new kibble, because his previous food was not available in our area. I have chosen EVO by Innova, any comments on my selection? With my limited knowledge it seems to be a good food, comments? I have been doing a lot of reading on this site in regards to RAW. I am very interested in starting it, but not really sure about how to go about it. I gave Oscar a chicken breast and gibblets the other day, and he absolutely loved it! However, the next morning he vomited yellow bile. Not sure what to think about this either, any comments? I am kind of leaning towards giving him one kibble meal and one RAW meal daily. I would love to hear from you.

guy

 

[kathysboxer]

Yes, Innova is a very good food.
As for the raw, start him out on chicken leg quarters. This will be easiest on his tummy until he's used to it. Give just the quarters for a week or two. If no problems with that, slowly add a little offal to the mix. Not alot, though. Too much will give him the runs. Continue the offal/quarters for a week or so. I personally wouldn't give offal every feeding. Maybe 3 times a week or so.
If all goes well with that, start another protein, slowly. Beef, pork, venison, lamb whichever. Do with the new protein what you did with the chicken.
If I remember right, you give 2-3% of his weight.
Some of the "experts" will be chiming in. The raw forum is full of great information on raw. Your baby will thank you for switching to raw.

 

[Kaybie's Mom]

I was feeding my dogs a full raw diet, but like your dog, it didn't keep them full enough long enough and were doing the empty tummy bile vomits pretty regularly. So we just switched them to raw in the morning and kibble in the evening and everything is GREAT! My dogs get a variety of meats in the morning....but start slow with yours seeing he is new at this. They get bone-in meat every other morning and boneless meat on the other mornings. Evo is a great food....unfortunately more than we can afford right now.....mine are on Diamond Naturals Beef & Rice food and they all LOVE it and are doing very well on it. It's a midgrade decent food for a very reasonable price. A 40 pound bag around here is only aprx $23.

 

[beken]

EVO & Raw

Evo is definitely great, it's a six star premium dog food. I've done a lot of research on kibble since Zeta is my first boxer/dog I've owned. I alternate EVO, Orijen, Taste of the Wild or CORE Wellness with my girl & you can't go wrong with any one of them. My girl has always gotten raw patties & I'm just now starting to get her on to "real" raw food. It's an easier transition for her but I've heard vomiting is normal initially also, from everything I've read definitely start with chicken.

Good luck!

 

[heatmed]

RAW on hold for now.......

Well, RAW and EVO are on hold for right now. Oscar has profuse diarrhea, and had a stop at the Vet. today. So, now he is on a rice only diet, and she recommended blending in the EVO slowly. As well, he got an antibotic, and an anti-diarrheal syrup. Today was a slow day for him. Oscar really did not do much of anything but sleep. I am hoping he gets better soon, and I am looking at just continuing the EVO kibble.

 

[Kaybie's Mom]

Well, RAW and EVO are on hold for right now. Oscar has profuse diarrhea, and had a stop at the Vet. today. So, now he is on a rice only diet, and she recommended blending in the EVO slowly. As well, he got an antibotic, and an anti-diarrheal syrup. Today was a slow day for him. Oscar really did not do much of anything but sleep. I am hoping he gets better soon, and I am looking at just continuing the EVO kibble.

Which EVO are you feeding and how long have you been feeding it? Back when I just had Kaybie, I tried her on the EVO RM and though she LOVED the food, she got awful diarreah........and I did some research and just some google searches and it seems that diarreah is THE number one complaint about the EVO RM. So though it's a good food, doesn't mean it's good for all dogs.

 

[Amglory]

Don't forget about giving them pumpkin for the loose stool.

I'm telling every dog owner I know about this. I've had numerous dogs and fosters and never knew about it. I feel like I've discovered sliced bread.

 

[heatmed]

Yes,

I have used canned pumpkin in the past, and yes, it did work well. Oscar is still holding his own, and we are still waiting for him to poop, haha. It really is something, first we were waiting for his diarrhea to stop, and now we are waiting for him to poop. The vet advised us that it could take up to a couple days for his system to startup. Hmm, last night he had a lot hyperactive bowel sounds! Thanks for the info, and we will see how the rice diet works.

 

[heatmed]

Hi Kaybie's Mom,

I am at work right now so I cannot tell you with 100% accuracy the type of EVO. I know that it is not RM, I was considering in trying that in a few months. I feel fairly confident that it is the chicken mix. Yes, this could be the cuprit of his diarrhea maybe, or it could be the chicken neck with bones that I fed him one day, or it could be simply anxiety with all of the things going on his life over the past month. FYI, I just adopted Oscar this past Saturday, and within the last month he has lived in 4 homes.