Raw food and kibble diets?

edited August 2013 in General
I am curious to see what kind of kibble and/or raw food everyone feeds their Nihon Ken?

I currently use grain free Blue Buffalo salmon, but I would like to mix it with some raw food items. I have been seeing raw chicken legs being fed to some dogs, is this safe?

Comments

  • edited August 2013
    This has been discussed often in the "Food, Nutrition, & Health" section. Do a search for some of the previous threads to see what's been talked about.

    Anywho, I feed my dogs mainly whole foods comprised of mostly meat, bones, and organs. They get everything on the animal, but is most commonly chicken quarters with beef or porkmeat to round it out. They get beef liver and occasionally some other type of liver or organ if I can find some. (Not a good selection where I live.) They eat everything I don't from the animals that I hunt, mainly small game. They also get fresh organic veggies (I work on an organic farm) when they are in season and rice and oats when I don't have veggies. They get berries a lot since they are in season right now. I also give them salmon oil to boost the Omega 3 content.
    The dogs eat my leftovers too. They get anything that won't harm them.
    Every now and then I'll give them a commercial kibble, something like Taste of the Wild, Diamond Naturals, or some other high-end high-protein/fat brand. I don't do strictly grain-free.

    So, yeah, (raw) chicken legs are perfectly safe to feed. The only things I stay away from are hard bones like beef femurs, soup bones, beef ribs, and larger pork bones. And fresh salmon. I only feed deeply frozen or cooked salmon from my region due to a lethal parasite the fish can carry.
    You can mix the food if your dog digests the types together well, or separate the meal types if not. It's up to you and your dog.
  • You know, I had been using Blue Buffalo... until I read that the company had been sold and their nutrition and ingredient quality had gone downhill. So what my Kai is on right now is Nutro Natural Grain Free in whatever flavor she thinks smells best on that shopping trip. I'm easing her into raw with cooked chicken and raw turkey legs at the moment... which she gladly vomited all over my bedroom carpet last night lol. It's a work in progress. Probiotics will definitely help with the transition, which I haven't done with Ren yet.
  • I feed mine bil jac. I like their process and the fact that I can feed kibble or fresh soft food and it's all high in protein. I would do raw, but I can't stomach watching them eat it.
  • @laurenmarie - we do a mix of wellness core and usually raw poultry either directly from a farmer doing humane, pasture raising, or from our CSA. I butcher a whole chicken usually and they get organs, wings, neck, and parts of the back (whatever is meatier). We do prey model proportions on the raw. Our boy has a sensitive stomach so he needs meat that is very fresh. When we have done pre-prepared raw we went with Primal, usually a variety pack so we could play around with different proteins.

    They also get frozen peas and frozen edamame, lots of cheese, and yogurt and sweet potatoes. Whatever we fancy really.
  • edited August 2013
    Saya is fed raw she gets wide variety of things like chicken, turkey pork, lamb, ewe, fish like saury, smelt, whitefish, and sometimes rabbit. I plan to order bunch of whole quail and herring soon after done with basement work..

    I have no issues yet with bone in chicken or lamb ribs. I don't give beef marrow bones, knuckles or ox tails due to hardness.

    She's been raw fed since she was 8months old.

    Bella gets raw as dinner two to four times a week depends and she does good on it so far. She gets kibble in am..

    I rotate her kibble every big bag sometimes I keep her on one brand due to sale or whatever.

    I rotate between wellness core ocean, wellness core, Totw lamb, boar, and fromm kibble.

    I gotten honest kitchen when I had coupon for it use it has kibble topper mainly which Bella likes. It's pricey, but since it's used as kibble topper not full meal it lasts longer.

    If your thinking of offering raw stuff do it slowly don't offer ton of variety right away. If the dog is fine with chicken no allergies or sensitivity try bone in chicken and eventually add in some boneless and then organs like liver or kidney, heart etc.

    With organs go slow as it is rich.

    Bella was started with chicken quarters with skin off then I kept the skin on once she did fine with the quarters as once or twice week meal then I added bit of boneless meat then gizzard after that pork ribs and boneless meat and so on.

    Depends on the dog's chewing style and size you need to feed sizes accordingly. some dogs will try to gulp the thing whole if it's too small like a chicken wing or neck..

    Saya is 20lbs so she handles small items well. Bella is 55lbs and she does well too, but I know other boxer owners where they'll try to swallow the neck whole instead of crunching it like Bella.
  • About a month ago I switched to Nature's Variety Instinct for my Japanese Akita and Shiba Inu. I am feeding them the grain-free kibble with freeze dried raw pieces and they love it. I also give them canned. My JA is somewhat of a picky eater and his stools were mushy making the backyard impossible to clean up. Moving to grain free has helped tremendously and they love the freeze dried raw pieces. Nature's Variety also sells prepackaged, frozen raw food options if you want to go that route. Pricey but convenient and there is variety like chicken (careful with this option as there is debate as to allergies), turkey, duck, rabbit, beef, lamb, and venison. Theoretically you can rotate all of the varieties as well as formulas: kibble, canned, freeze dried raw, frozen raw. If you are willing to spend a little extra and you don't have the time to be messing around with cuts of meat and the butcher, or just can't stomach it, I think Nature's Variety is a quality alternative.
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