how young is too young ?

[elle57]

how young is too young to change benji's diet from wellness canned and dry food to raw and the honest kitchen?
he is 7 months old
can i just do this gradually?

[LDMomma]

Not to young. My westie has been eating that diet since she came home from the breeders at 8 weeks.

Yes, you can do it gradually. I did it cold turkey but if I were going to do it gradually, I'd start by replacing one meal per day with the Honest Kitchen. After a week or so, I'd totally ditch the kibble. The second week, I'd start adding raw.

Do you have other pups that are on raw? Are you making the change to home raw or prepared raw (NV medallions or such)?

When I was reading about making the change, I know it was highly recommended to start raw by only introducing chicken and then only adding new meats like every three weeks or so. Organs were added after the first month.

[elle57]

Originally Posted by LDMomma

Not to young. My westie has been eating that diet since she came home from the breeders at 8 weeks.

so you do think that i can gradually change his diet, he is also 6 1/2 pounds.

[LDMomma]

Originally Posted by elle57

so you do think that i can gradually change his diet, he is also 6 1/2 pounds.

I edited my post when you were responding to me.

[elle57]

Originally Posted by LDMomma

Not to young. My westie has been eating that diet since she came home from the breeders at 8 weeks.

Yes, you can do it gradually. I did it cold turkey but if I were going to do it gradually, I'd start by replacing one meal per day with the Honest Kitchen. After a week or so, I'd totally ditch the kibble. The second week, I'd start adding raw.

Do you have other pups that are on raw? Are you making the change to home raw or prepared raw (NV medallions or such)?

When I was reading about making the change, I know it was highly recommended to start raw by only introducing chicken and then only adding new meats like every three weeks or so. Organs were added after the first month.

yes, sammy who is 5 1/2 years old has been on it for a few years now. oliver who is 1 1/2 years old has a couple of struvite crystals and is now on royal canin so canned food. i have to see which food i can now feed him after i have his urine checked within a 1 week from now. he was on raw and honest kitchen, and i dont know what happened.
so the new puppy benji, who i just got from a fellow yt has him on wellness canned and dry kibble, and i would like to change it.
can you keep them on the raw for a long time or should you change it around to dog food? just wondering

[LDMomma]

Originally Posted by elle57

yes, sammy who is 5 1/2 years old has been on it for a few years now. oliver who is 1 1/2 years old has a couple of struvite crystals and is now on royal canin so canned food. i have to see which food i can now feed him after i have his urine checked within a 1 week from now. he was on raw and honest kitchen, and i dont know what happened.
so the new puppy benji, who i just got from a fellow yt has him on wellness canned and dry kibble, and i would like to change it.
can you keep them on the raw for a long time or should you change it around to dog food? just wondering

Raw is their natural diet so they can be on it pretty much forever. We've only been doing it about 8 months or so. We have no plans of going back to kibble. I can't stand the way dogs smell when they are kibble fed. It makes me sick. We do home prepared though. The prepared ones are just too expensive with four dogs plus I like to know where the meat comes from. We just make our own prepared meatballs and feed raw meaty bones on Sunday. It works for us/

Like I said, we changed Roxy over at 8 weeks. She's now 7 months and is picture perfect healthy (so far). What caused us to change was Lily's problems with ear and skin infection (if you'd like to read about it, see this months Honest Kitchen newsletter).

I have changed to dehydrated raw for trips and stuff without a problem. Also, my girls have eaten kibble at my Mom's house (visiting) and there weren't any issues so you should be able to change back at any time.

[elle57]

Originally Posted by LDMomma

Raw is their natural diet so they can be on it pretty much forever. We've only been doing it about 8 months or so. We have no plans of going back to kibble. I can't stand the way dogs smell when they are kibble fed. It makes me sick. We do home prepared though. The prepared ones are just too expensive with four dogs plus I like to know where the meat comes from. We just make our own prepared meatballs and feed raw meaty bones on Sunday. It works for us/

Like I said, we changed Roxy over at 8 weeks. She's now 7 months and is picture perfect healthy (so far). What caused us to change was Lily's problems with ear and skin infection (if you'd like to read about it, see this months Honest Kitchen newsletter).

I have changed to dehydrated raw for trips and stuff without a problem. Also, my girls have eaten kibble at my Mom's house (visiting) and there weren't any issues so you should be able to change back at any time.

i go to a dog butcher who sells the food to the pet stores and they put their own labels on. it is much cheaper for me to 5 lb rolls of raw meat , all the bones and organs are ground in it.
5 lb roll of meat costs approx 6.00
how do you make your own prepared meatballs for your 4 dogs?

[LDMomma]

Originally Posted by elle57

oliver who is 1 1/2 years old has a couple of struvite crystals and is now on royal canin so canned food. i have to see which food i can now feed him after i have his urine checked within a 1 week from now. he was on raw and honest kitchen, and i dont know what happened.

I'm not real familiar with crystals as I haven't had to deal with them (yet). I just did a quick google search and there are several different possibles causes for these crystals including tap water (suggests that you filter it), too much stress, not enough exercise, lots of artificial colors and such in the diet, holding the urine too long, and too much protein.

It also appears that Yorkies as a breed are pre-disposed to this condition so he may just "get them" regardless.

[elle57]

Originally Posted by LDMomma

Raw is their natural diet so they can be on it pretty much forever. We've only been doing it about 8 months or so. We have no plans of going back to kibble. I can't stand the way dogs smell when they are kibble fed. It makes me sick. We do home prepared though. The prepared ones are just too expensive with four dogs plus I like to know where the meat comes from. We just make our own prepared meatballs and feed raw meaty bones on Sunday. It works for us/

Like I said, we changed Roxy over at 8 weeks. She's now 7 months and is picture perfect healthy (so far). What caused us to change was Lily's problems with ear and skin infection (if you'd like to read about it, see this months Honest Kitchen newsletter).

I have changed to dehydrated raw for trips and stuff without a problem. Also, my girls have eaten kibble at my Mom's house (visiting) and there weren't any issues so you should be able to change back at any time.

i had also told my vet that raw is their natural diet and he told me my dogs would never survive in the wild , so thats why they should be eating dog food, such a science diet.
it is literally killing me by feeding oliver royal canin so canned food for a month now and i have no idea if he is going to be able to eat raw any more.

[elle57]

Originally Posted by LDMomma

I'm not real familiar with crystals as I haven't had to deal with them (yet). I just did a quick google search and there are several different possibles causes for these crystals including tap water (suggests that you filter it), too much stress, not enough exercise, lots of artificial colors and such in the diet, holding the urine too long, and too much protein.

It also appears that Yorkies as a breed are pre-disposed to this condition so he may just "get them" regardless.

well i always give filtered water, so it is not that. he is a low keyed dog, and a little shy, i thought maybe the raw meat had too much protein in it and thats what happened. but the vet said there were a couple, nothing major

[Ellie May]

A seven month old should be on a food approved for puppies. If HK is, then it is considered acceptable.

[LDMomma]

Originally Posted by Ellie May

A seven month old should be on a food approved for puppies. If HK is, then it is considered acceptable.

HK Embark and Thrive are for puppies. We feed Roxy those two formulas on a rotation.

[LDMomma]

Originally Posted by elle57

well i always give filtered water, so it is not that. he is a low keyed dog, and a little shy, i thought maybe the raw meat had too much protein in it and thats what happened. but the vet said there were a couple, nothing major

Yeah, sometimes you can't really pinpoint a cause of some of the things. Lily, my shorkie, had surgery back in October. Her lab work showed initially that the tumor was one thing but once it was actually out and examined it was something else entirely. We have no idea what caused it because the listed causes are really applicable to Lily and her life style. My vet thought it was bad breeding.

[elle57]

Originally Posted by LDMomma

HK Embark and Thrive are for puppies. We feed Roxy those two formulas on a rotation.

can you feed raw with embark and thrive? i thought it was only preference

[LDMomma]

Originally Posted by elle57

can you feed raw with embark and thrive? i thought it was only preference

You have to with Preference because it is an unbalanced food and does not contain meat.

It is optional with all other formulas as they are balanced.

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