Half raw & half kibble

[jonnytrabant]

Hi folks

It’s a long, long time since I’ve posted so forgive me if it’s been asked before.
I’ve a 9yo (soon to be 10 in June) working cocker. For the first three years of his life I fed him a variety of kibbles, resisting the urge to change to raw. No matter what kibble we fed him he never put on weight, was always very skinny (I now know that’s no a bad thing) and his poo’s were huge. After 3 years we decided to change his diet to raw (Nutriment) and boy, what a transformation. His weight gained but he was still in great shape, poo’s were the classic ‘small pebble size’ and firm, his coat improved, teeth were better. All the trade marks of a better diet. Yes it was more faffy & we had to buy him his own freezer, but the benefits far outweighed the downsides.
Unfortunately my partner and I split up in April last year and we’ve been sharing responsibilities. After we first split because we were both living with relatives we had to send our boy off with my mate who’s got two wcs but are fed on kibble (Canagan) he’s been fine in general but when we got him back he’s lost 2kg. I’ve kept him on the Canagan (90gr per meal) and I’ve been gradually gaining his weight back and he’s about 800gr less than what he was prior to leaving us.
My question is after that long winded approach is, I am keen to get him back on raw but because he is now spilt between myself and ex and the dog sitter, is it possible to fed him raw when I can and kibble when it’s not possible? He regularly has a chicken wing and I know it’s not wise to mix kibble and raw due to different digestion times. But can he have say, his 200gr raw in the morning and his 90gr kibble in the evening, obviously allowing a minimum 10 hours apart.
Any thoughts and suggestions would be most welcome.
Thanks for reading.

[Mudmagnets]

Hello Jonny and welcome back

Cannot help with the food question as both of mine are fed wet food, I do know there is 'cold pressed' food around now that does not take so long to digest - so maybe that would be an alternative to the kibble and work in easier with your timing?

[bizzylizzy]

Hi!
My view would be, as long as he can tolerate the mix and he‘s still fit then its unlikely to do any harm and he is at least getting some of the benefits of raw. I think the main issue is trying to mix both in one meal but feeding with a 10 hour interval as you’ve suggested should be ok I’d think. A lot does depend on the individual dog, some dogs need time to adapt to food changes, whereas others have no problems at all and the only way is to try it and see, your dog will soon let you know if its unsuitable. Mudmagnets suggestion sounds like a good idea, unfortunately I‘m not familiar with the various types of food available in UK anymore, so can‘t comment on brands.
I‘ve never mixed both on a regular basis but I have very occasionally given my dog a  kibble meal without any obvious adverse effects, tinned food on the other hand always seems to produce very soggy poohs....  Its trial and error really I‘m afraid.....

[vixen]

 With my previous two cockers, I wanted to feed them raw but I was nervous and worried they wouldn’t get the correct nutrients (there wasn’t as much choice of raw as there is nowadays) so I fed them half and half as I felt that by giving them kibble at one meal as least they would get the vitamins/minerals they needed. Breakfast of kibble and dinner of raw.  They did very well on this combination.
With my new girl, I feed her a complete raw food and occasionally a meal of cold pressed food (Ella & Co) if I forget to take the raw out of the freezer last thing at night.

[jonnytrabant]

Thanks for the replies folks.
I think I’ll go with kibble for breakie keeping him at 90gr & Nutriment for tea at 200gr. See how it goes.