Changing food

[NeedAHoliday2021]

We have a very healthy working cocker spaniel. He’s been raw fed since young and all good but we are a bit rubbish about defrosting in time etc so it’s a bit of a faff. If he loved it I wouldn’t give it a second thought but I’m not convinced he’s that fussed. He eats it but tonight we hadn’t defrosted any so have him some kibble instead and he scoffed it. kibble would be easier and save trips in the rain to the garage freezer.

my question really is, is raw that much better than a good kibble?

IME dogs can have very long and healthy lives on decent kibble. Dogs are scavengers and opportunistic hunters, evolved to handle everything from fresh warm rabbit through human leftovers to stinking carrion and gone-over vegetables.

If your dog likes kibble, there's nothing wrong with feeding that. Though the happy scoffing might just be due to the novelty value.

Set an alarm on your phone to get the food out.

we fed our dog raw and she liked it but it was sometimes a struggle to get her to eat it and she wasn’t great at set meal times but you can’t leave raw food down too long. We have switched to Wolfworthy kibble which gets really good rating on All About Dog Food and she has this with a can of Naturo every day. Not as perfect as raw but much easier, cheaper and it all gets eaten.

Our beagle wasn't fussed about raw food either.

He's currently on a mix of kibble and wet and he loves it. It's much easier in terms of storage and preparation and at his most recent vet check a month ago, they said he was extremely healthy and they were really happy with him.

I know raw feeders love to say how amazing it is but as a dog walker, I only know one family who feed raw. Everyone else uses kibble or wet (or both) and all their dogs are absolutely fine.