# How to do part raw/part kibble?



## LilasMom (Mar 10, 2012)

My mom's two chihuahua's are currently on Orijen kibble, rotating between the two flavors. I think one of the chihuahuas has a pretty low thirst drive, so I was going to ask my mom if she could do one meal kibble, one meal canned. When going through my freezer I found two bags of some Primal lamb and primal chicken pre made raw, so I figured maybe they could do part kibble/ part raw. I only bought the primal about 3 months ago and I don't want it to go to waste.

How do you do this? Do you feed raw for the morning meal or evening meal? I was thinking that maybe they could have a chicken wing or another raw meaty bone a few times a week (they have really bad teeth, one needs a dental asap). What is the maximum number of times they could eat a wing per week? I know the unbalanced part of a diet should only make up like 15% or something like that. They could do part wing part primal maybe?

I would just really like opinions from anyone who does part kibble and part raw, full raw is not an option at this time.

Thanks


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

I'm looking after 2 pugs at the moment who are on half raw / half Orijen. I feed them the kibble in the morning and the raw at night. (well, I've cheated, they've been getting raw for both meals, but I digress).
They have been on this diet for about a year now, no problems. The older pug was on Science Diet and he switched to Orijen then to half raw, he didn't have any problems. The young pug has been on this diet for 15 months now, no problems either.
Both dogs get some type of bone every day. I've been giving the young pug bone in meals every meal, she has soft stools so I'm trying to work out what the problem is. I think it's the salmon oil.
I think you are on the right track. Try the Orijen one meal, raw the next. Give bone in meals every second day or so and watch their poop, if it's too hard then feed more bone free raw meals. If it's soft, then feed a little more bone in meal. After a month or so, you can try to include a little liver or kidney, just a tiny, tiny bit (size of your fingernail) till they get use to it.
You can also include canned fish in water and raw eggs in their diet for variety.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

Well, I think they could have chicken wings as often as you want to feed them and it sounds like they desperately need them for their teeth. But at least 3-4 times a week to get a good teeth cleaning.

You can feed raw in the morning and kibble at night, or vice versa. I think if you feed them together, they digest at different rates and could cause stomach upset.


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## chowder (Sep 7, 2008)

I've always been told that you can do up to %50 raw and %50 kibble and still be balanced. Most people do it about 12 hours apart so like a raw breakfast meal then a kibble dinner meal. It can be almost anything you want for the raw meal, as long as the dog tolerates it and doesn't get an upset stomach. As with all raw food, start slow and introduce new proteins slowly. 

I started Shade on half and half because he was still living with my son at his apartment at the time and he did fine. We added in liver and other things as he progressed.


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## LilasMom (Mar 10, 2012)

Okay perfect! This sounds like it can work then. I live really close by so I can even do the raw meaty bone part if my mom is grossed out or anything. 

Yeah they desperately need a solution for their teeth. I know they aren't going to brush so I figure bones are the easiest solution. Once the one chihuahua gets his dental, I think then we can do raw meaty bones. I don't think my mom even realized how bad his teeth were, he has plaque connecting two of his teeth and you can only see a tiny little white tip on the bottom of his teeth were the plaque hasn't covered yet. 

It is only these past two years that I started doing real research on pet care, and until then I thought yearly teeth cleanings for dogs were normal. Had no idea they could be prevented. I don't live with these dogs so I didn't realize they weren't being brushed or anything up until I looked at Boo Boos teeth yesterday. He seemed to have some sensitivity with a bully stick I brought him and when I looked into his mouth I realized why . I don't care about yellow teeth, I just know plaque is not healthy and a build up of plaque and general bad oral hygiene can cause infections and heart issues. Don't want that at all.

Since chicken wings are pretty bony I will probably do like MollyWolly said and do bone for one dinner, and the next dinner no bone. For the no bone days could it be Primal raw? I don't know if my mom can fully go 50% fresh raw.

Edit: forgot to mention this, but Boo Boo is missing a few teeth. I think mostly due to genes, I don't think he has ever had an extraction. My sister "rescued" him from a mexican pet store and ever since I can remember he has been missing the top two front teeth and lower two front teeth, and on his left side he is missing a molar I think, as well as one or two other teeth. Will this negatively impact his bone crunching abilities? I have a mallet thing I can use to pre-crunch the bone for him while he gets used to it, but will dogs missing about 1/4 of their teeth have a lot of trouble chewing whole bone? He eats kibble just fine, but I feel like it is too different from bone to make a chewing comparison. I guess it will just be trial and error.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

LilasMom said:


> Since chicken wings are pretty bony I will probably do like MollyWolly said and do bone for one dinner, and the next dinner no bone. For the no bone days could it be Primal raw? I don't know if my mom can fully go 50% fresh raw.


I would gauge this completely on how the dogs do initially. 

At first definitely feed ONLY bone in chicken meals for their raw portions, just as if you'd be switching them to full raw. Once they are doing fine on bone in chicken for their raw portions, slowly add more meat to their raw meals until they can handle meat ONLY meals. This may take a few weeks, but just be patient. 

I hope that these dogs do well with this! Let us know how it goes :wink:


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## LilasMom (Mar 10, 2012)

Your totally right DaneMama, I didn't even think about that! Rich orijen kibble + boneless meat too early in the "game" is something I certainly want to avoid. I do not want to clean up cannon butt lol.


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## Neeko (Aug 11, 2010)

I do half and half, with a little more raw than kibble. My dogs each get 9 raw and five kibble/canned meals a week. All breakfasts are raw, as are most Friday and Saturday dinners. For breakfast they get 1/2-1 lb of MPC grinds, chicken quarters or an occasional turkey neck. If it's a turkey neck, they get some chicken hearts thrown in. Their raw dinners can be beef ribs, pork shoulder, etc. They recently had pork heart for dinner(a first) and I threw in a couple chicken necks just to be safe. My dogs are 81 and 94 lbs. 

There kibble dinners are grain free (currently Earthborn Holistic) with 1/4 can, Seameal and fish oil. It works for us. I'd like to do full raw, need to find a freezer and the courage.


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## LilasMom (Mar 10, 2012)

Okay so they had some primal breakfast this morning, and at first they were like "wtf…." but then they ate it up. It was still a bit frozen in the very middle but I think they enjoyed it since it was really warm out today, plus if boo boos teeth are at all tender the coolness would have helped that a bit. 

Breakfast exited their bodies around 6:30 today, and boo boos poo was like frozen yoghurt but apples poo was perfect! He has had anal gland issues in the past so I bet the raw will be good for that. I recently found a website called saddogsushi.com who delivers and I think that could be a good option for my mom. Delivery is free over $50, and their meat prices are the cheapest I have found them. I want to order from them so bad, but I have 40 pounds of chicken backs coming in from texas tripe tomorrow and I don't even know where I am going to put it!


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## dustinshaw98 (Feb 22, 2012)

Neeko said:


> I do half and half, with a little more raw than kibble. My dogs each get 9 raw and five kibble/canned meals a week. All breakfasts are raw, as are most Friday and Saturday dinners. For breakfast they get 1/2-1 lb of MPC grinds, chicken quarters or an occasional turkey neck. If it's a turkey neck, they get some chicken hearts thrown in. Their raw dinners can be beef ribs, pork shoulder, etc. They recently had pork heart for dinner(a first) and I threw in a couple chicken necks just to be safe. My dogs are 81 and 94 lbs.
> 
> There kibble dinners are grain free (currently Earthborn Holistic) with 1/4 can, Seameal and fish oil. It works for us. I'd like to do full raw, need to find a freezer and the courage.


This is good proportioning. I started with raw for lunches when I was switching my dogs.


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## sandra0606 (Dec 22, 2011)

You can give wing or bone as many times as you want or even everyday as it's good for them. 

And I feed raw meal to my Chihuahua anytime of the day.


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## LilasMom (Mar 10, 2012)

I would feed a wing every day if I could, I just don't want to unbalance the food since wings are pretty bony and kibble is already balanced, so I feel it would make them constipated.


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