Are dogs generally slimmer on Raw food? Advice please :)

[StillMedusa]

I'm currently transitioning my 3 yr old dog to raw food.. She's been on kibble since she was tiny and fussy. I wanted to feed raw from the start but she was not having any of it.
Now however she's older and greedier! But even the highest quality kibble gives her large rather loose poos and at Xmas she had an anal gland abscess so I have decided to see if a raw diet will firm her up a bit.
She's also prone to allergies (grass pollens we think) but possibly also chicken so am hoping to avoid chicken.

She's also a kilo + over weight ( 25 when she should be 23-24) she's being tested for hypothyroidism as her breed are prone, but she's also very good at hovering around our toddler/stealing cat food etc

We are half way through.. she had kibble for breakfast and happily ate raw for dinner for the last few days and tomorrow we switch entirely to raw (completes and she'll have the odd bone snack for her teeth)

I'm thinking if I give her just a little less than the amount reccommended for her weight, she should be able to gradually shift the extra weight? I dont want her to be hungry and miserable but neither do I want a fat dog!

Does that sound about right? No point asking my vet, who is very nice but very pro Science Plan kibble!

I haven't fed a lot of kibble, but my impression is that it's very calorie dense, so I'd probably keep her on the recommended amount of the raw for the first month or so and see what happens. It's possible that just the switch might result in weight loss. If it doesn't, you can cut down then.

Our first dog used to put on weight in his later years and we used to add liquidised raw dog safe veggies to his food and cut back the meat slightly and that always had him back to perfect weight in a week or two without having him on starvation rations, from our perspective anyway. From his, he was always on starvation rations 😂

If you feed a dog too much of anything they'll get fat - mine won't touch raw and gets mid-range kibble and wet food and he's a perfectly healthy weight.

I know dogs on raw that are overweight and dogs who are on the cheapest wet food and are healthy as houses.

I also add veg to my dog's raw food to bulk it up a bit and slightly slow them down.
This is particularly useful for my older dog who would put on weight given the chance

All my working gundogs have been fed on mid-priced kibble and all have been slim. It's not the food, it's how much the owner feeds.

As above. My last dog was slim bordering on underweight on whatever we fed her! She ate raw for many years as she developed idiopathic incontinence and we found diet made a big difference.

Current dog is on good quality kibble with extras and is also slim.

Mine is on raw. Small and relatively solid stools, and much less flatulence. Weight is a function of volume consumed / exercise not the food type.

I think as others have said it depends on how much is being fed, unless the dog has health conditions.

Our collie struggles with her weight, even more so after being spayed sadly. We've also had her tested for Cushings disease as I'm sure she has something else going on. She eats very little, 250g per day which is less than half the recommended amount for her weight poor girl! Our other dog eats nearly 1kg a day and struggles to keep condition.

As we seem to be in a similar position I thought I would mention a couple of things...

• calculate her food allowance by the weight you want her to be not what she currently weighs. I.e. in the raw food calculator put her weight as 23kg
• as our chubby dog eats very little she does very small poos. Which sounds great in theory but she also has had reoccurring anal gland infections and I think it's down to the small poos not expressing the glands. So I add fibre in which seems to help (pro-fibre or weetabix!)

The problem with kibble is it swells up in the gut so gives a full feeling, raw is a totally different so in my experience all dogs when they transition will initially feel constant hunger.

This takes 2-3 weeks to settle so I wouldn't be looking at reducing volumes for the first month.

Also remember not to mix kibble and raw food because of the difference in gut transit and digestion.

Thank you for your replies :)

She's spayed as well as potentially hypothroid which makes keeping the weight down even trickier... she gets at least 2 hours a day exercise, mostly off lead so she's a quite active dog.

Currently she's getting kibble in the morning and raw in the afternoon.. I did yesterday all raw, but realistically on the days I work I can't risk my son who is immunocompromised, handling raw stuff (he's an adult but has autism and not likely to handle food safely) she will probably have to continue with some kibble.

Her bowels have firmed up a fair bit already which is great!

The advice about not mixing raw and kibble appears to be have been rescinded mostly tbh.. yes they have different ph levels but dogs digestive systems are pretty good at digesting a huge variety of food stuffs, and the digestive processes adjust to what is going through. At least there is no scientific evidence that it's problematic.
I'll be feeding them as spearate meals anyway :)

In smaller quantities poor girl, til she hit 23.5 kg....!

My little terrier is on raw and has been for years.
I noticed he was getting a tad chunky the other day.