Hey everyone. I have a one year old husky that I am considering switching to a raw diet mainly because of the incredible benefits it offers and from being suggested by a few trainers I know. When it comes to kibble, I've been feeding her Diamonds Chicken and Rice formula since I got her (breeder fed her this as well) but for a while now it just feels like a miracle if she even chooses to eat her food. It was very often that she would either not eat it at all or would only eat once a day and sometimes it wasn't the entire bowl. After feeling frustrated about this for months as well as wanting her to be excited for her food, I've been thinking more about what I can do to make meals more enticing for her. I ventured into trying it a bit two weeks back with Stella and Chewy patties but the next three days were a nightmare where overnight she threw up 5-6 times in a row before settling down, as well as having multiple poop accidents in her crate. Then one time during the day I took her out where she peed and pooped, and then when I got back 2 hours later from the gym she had a massive poop accident in her crate. When I spoke to my trainer about this, she said that this was definitely not normal and a bit of an extreme reaction. I switched her back to kibble immediately but now when I think about trying raw again I get really anxious/nervous about having to experience this again. Her reaction definitely felt excessive, however I am concerned about her potentially going through this again. Was she just unable to control herself due to the discomfort and just had an accident despite knowing not to while in the crate? I believe there was even one time where she peed in her crate during this period and she hadn't peed in her crate for months since by now she's certainly potty trained.

Any comments/suggestions would be welcome, I love the idea of getting her on it I'm just hoping to get past this hurdle of what I should expect during the detox period entirely. I'm also in NJ so if anyone is local and can recommend where they get their raw food and what they feed that'd be great!

Thanks for reading.

Sent you a PM, good luck!

This is a great resource for raw feeding: https://therawfeedingcommunity.com/2014/12/31/a-simple-guide-to-switching-to-homemade-raw/

There.

Sorry Ashleigh I will have to disagree with that method for raw. The mixing of kibble and raw I 100% agree I do it myself. However, the giving one protein for a few days and then another is not recommended. Now maybe with your boy and the fact you feed kibble too there was no issues, my two girls were the same, I could automatically switch proteins without issue. With a dog that sensitive and in the raw feeding community you start with chicken thighs or drumsticks with excess fat removed, feed this for a minimum of 2 weeks, and then add in a small portion of liver from chicken and maintain this for 2 weeks, if no issues then you can switch to another protein, stick to that for a couple of weeks, etc. Michelle, what I would personally do, and what many raw feeders do to start out is using a product like The honest kitchen, Grandma Lucy's or Sojo's, some you can add meat to it and some is already formulated, but it is raw , but very much like kibble, it is an easy way to slowly transition, and you can still feed one meal a day kibble. If you go and do it yourself, then you can start with feeding 1 meal a day kibble, and chicken is the easiest to transition to raw and just start with a thigh or drumstick and give half portion of kibble. Things that people do that are mistakes is switching proteins too quickly, not having proper ratios of meat/bone/organs, adding organs too quickly, or not feeding the right amounts for the size of the dog. The link Ashleigh provided is probably the best source out there for raw feeding. Good Luck! And ask any other questions you may have.

Ashleigh, sorry if I appeared negative, and it is nice to see you on the forum more. Please don't take my response poorly, I agree also that liver in the patties probably was the culprit. I just don't know why you deleted your whole complete reply? I apologize if I offended you with my reply.

Hey guys I really appreciate the advice so far! The problem I suppose with transitioning her into it is that I just have low confidence that she'll even eat her kibble whenever I give it to her. I feel like if I were to transition her, it'd practically end up being cold turkey where I'm sure she'd pick out the raw and leave the kibble therefore defeating the purpose. Apparently one of the raw dog food providers Raaw Energy is located in NJ so I was thinking of giving them a try after I got a bit more information on it. Am I essentially just buying raw meat similar to like we do at supermarkets and feeding it straight to her (removing the stuff you mentioned of course)? So if I were to feed her a drumstick, would it just be whole or would I remove the meat off it first and then feed her that and the bone? I apologize if these seem like stupid questions, I just want to clarify since that's pretty much what I think of when I hear raw.

Michelle, feed her the whole drumstick meat and bone at the same time, remove the skin first, that is all. To be straight up honest, I would slowly switch her kibble first, it is grain based and many huskies do not do well on grains. Try Diamond Naturals grain free, that way the transition shouldn't be as prolonged as it would be to switch to a completely new brand. 1 drumstick can start to be added after the kibble transition. And like I mentioned earlier with 1 drumstick, just decrease kibble by half a cup. Transitioning can be tough. I also believe raw is the best way to feed. But I also like the kibble as a back up. So imho, transition to Diamond Naturals first, then slowly add in the raw. By that time you will have more confidence and knowledge on how to feed raw. Also, this forum has a nice section on raw feeding that will be useful, so you can read thru threads there as well.

Oh, and Michelle, since I have limited raw resources, yes I buy from the grocery store, many times stores will have chicken leg quarters on sale for 39 cents a pound, great way to save money, at the beginning you would just separate a drumstick from the thigh and 1 meal thigh and 1 meal drumstick. Eventually it will be fed together, but for the start you don't want to overload on something new.

Alessandra, most raw food mixes specifically made for Dogs contain other nutrients like ground up bones and organs which can be great for your pup. Buying from the grocery store is fine too. I don't have much experience doing that as everything I buy is from Raaw Energy or if I am in a pinch the pet stores.