Changing from Raw Diet...?

[Rolo12]

Hello, this is the first time ive been on here for about a year!

Rolo is going to be 2 next week and things have changed a lot since then. I was a self-employed dog walker and Rolo came everywhere with me but the money wasnt enough and now i am back working full time and relying on friends and family to look after him for me.

He has calmed down a lot recently though and is turning into a lazy cocker who loves his cuddles and of course - food!!

When he was a pup he was diagnosed with colitis so we moved him from dry food to raw. For the last 18 months we have been feeding him minced meat from natures menu mixed with veg, eggs, sardines/pilchards, chicken wings/carcusses and the odd heart/liver.

This has worked fine and he has had absolutely no problems with his colitis since. The problem is there is a lot of time going into the preparations and i don't feel confident that he is always getting the right balance. Also, its a right pain when people look after him if we are away as we cant really prepare the meals beforehand.

I was thinking of switching him back to dry food and wondered if anybody had tried this? Is it advisable?

He seems to be able to tolerate alot more these days, he has a variety of treats and gets on well with scraps of human food too. Im all for the raw diet and think its great for dogs but only if you have the time, money and resources to do it properly and if im honest, right now, we dont!

My other concern is he seems to be a bit overweight despite having 3 walks a day and doing agility and i think his portions would be alot easier to control on dry food.

Id really appreciate your opinions on this.

Thanks 

[MaggieR]

Don't think it would be any harder to go from raw to dry than it is to go from dry to raw.... I'd switch it slowly so that you do one meal raw, one dry for a while.   If the only concern you have is whether he's getting a balanced diet with the time you have available to you, maybe look at moving to one of the complete raw suppliers like nutriment or natural instinct?  And I guess if you do go down the dry route again make sure you get one that doesn't cause his colitis to flair up again.... Good luck whatever you decide.

[Mudmagnets]

Or you could do a halfway swap and give him a cooked wet food like Naturediet or similar if you find he cannot cope with completely dry food

[ejp]

I would definitely look at Naturediet first as an option.  Berriewood do a good deal on it, and it includes delivery.  I used them for a long time with no problems whatsoever. 
http://www.berriewoodwholesale.co.uk/det/2103/Naturediet-Special-4-cases-of-18x390g-box-deal-12-68-per-box-FREE-DELIVERY/

[Archie bean]

Or you could do a halfway swap and give him a cooked wet food like Naturediet or similar if you find he cannot cope with completely dry food

That is what I was going to suggest. Maybe you could do a mixture and try one meal of raw and one of wet so that if he is being looked after by someone else he just has the wet which is easy to prepare and store.

[Toni-UK]

Ruby is part raw fed.

She has kibble in the morning and raw for the evening.If Rolos tum can tolerate it theres nothing wrong with doing it this way. 

[Rolo12]

Thanks for your replies. I have looked into Nature diet and it seems he would need about 1.5 packs per day which would cost about £16 for 12 days.
We are soon to be moving to a new house with a bigger mortgage and all costs will be going up so if anything we need the cost of Rolo's food to decrease.
Are there any cheaper alternatives do you know?

Also, it seemed strange that on natures diet he needed about 600g a day but on raw they say 2-3% of body weight which is only 320g-480g?

We are going on honeymoon in September for 2 weeks and my mum is looking after him, its the first time we have had a holiday without him. I dont want mum to have to faff about with his food as i know she will get confused and stressed over it so need a complete that he can eat for 2 weeks straight without affecting his tum.

What other foods would people recommend?

[ejp]

I never gave mine anywhere near that amount of Nature Diet.  I would agree more with your figures. A work colleague has just changed his wee boy on to Nature Diet and it is working out cheaper than Chappie.  He buys from Berriewood.

[rednblack]

I agree that Nature Diet recommended amounts are very generous.  My 2 boys (weighing 14.4 and 15.3 kg) have half a pack each for their dinners on alternate days, and are not hungry.
 
My old Ebony , who was a big lad - not fat, but tall and muscular - (21.5 kg) used to do very well with two thirds of a pack for a meal.

[Archie bean]

Archie was weaned on ND and kibble mixed. He went off the kibble quickly and eventually the ND too. I also found the recommended amounts of ND seemed very high (especially the puppy variety that he was on at the time.) The lower amounts you mention seem about right to me. Archie is now on Wainwrights wet trays. I've recommended it many times on here. He loves it and is doing brilliantly on it, plus it's very reasonably priced. The feeding amounts on it are also confusing though. When I started him on it I worked out he needed 2/3rds of a tray a day. Very suddenly the recommended amounts on the packet were changed - nothing else different. He should have been on 1 and a 1/2 trays a day. It seemed waaaay too much so I stuck on 2/3rds with no problems. It's a bit of a question of weighing up your dog's activity levels, amount of treats etc and keeping an eye on their shape until you are happy with the amount. Mums Jade weighs far less than Archie (11kg to his nearly 17kg) but is far more energetic and so has a whole tray per day!

[JennyBee]

I never gave mine anywhere near that amount of Nature Diet.  I would agree more with your figures. A work colleague has just changed his wee boy on to Nature Diet and it is working out cheaper than Chappie.  He buys from Berriewood.

Yep, Brodie only gets three quarters of a tray a day! At 600g she would be decidedly round

[Mudmagnets]

I never gave mine anywhere near that amount of Nature Diet.  I would agree more with your figures. A work colleague has just changed his wee boy on to Nature Diet and it is working out cheaper than Chappie.  He buys from Berriewood.

Yep, Brodie only gets three quarters of a tray a day! At 600g she would be decidedly round

& if I had kept to N/D recommended puppy amounts, I think Minstrel would have grown a trunk

He is on 525  of adult atm, but could probably get away with 500, he is nine months tomorrow and weighed in at 12kg a couple of weeks ago.  I am reducing it gradually with each month dependent on his exercise and shape.

[twiceover2]

I have started feeding Pippa Nutriment raw food rather than preparing it myself as I used to.  I don't go off what the pack says, but feed her half a tub a day which works out at about 75p a day depending which flavour you buy, so £9 for 12 days.  She's doing well on it and absolutely loves it.

[Holly Berry]

When I feed ND I use 1 pack per day between my two. Just weighed them today and they are 12 and 13kgs.

I have found that Nutriment the complete raw food works out comparably in cost to ND. I buy the 1.4kg chubbs and feed 200g each per day, so for 2 dogs lasts 3and 1/2 days. It can be easily portioned when partly thawed and so you could re freeze the portioned up 1/2 of the chubb. The food stays fresh for the 3 1/2 days I have it in the fridge.

[Rolo12]

Thanks guys, I went out and got some ND and he seems to love it!! No tummy probs yet either!!
I am only giving him one tray per day and that seems plenty, he could do with losing a few pounds anyway!

I will check out the nutriment as well. Really appreciate all of your help!

Ps it's Rolos 2nd birthday today!!