First let me start off by saying, I highly recommend anyone who is thinking about switching their dog’s diet to raw to research it for themselves. Make a decision based on what you feel comfortable with and what you feel is best for your dog.
I switched Kona to raw when she was roughly 8 months old. She had been on three different brands of kibble prior to that. While I didn’t experience any issues on the kibble she was on, I became aware of what was actually in kibble and doing a lot of label reading and looking into the ingredients I was unsure of. The amount of recalls on kibble due to salmonella was alarming.
After discovering my own pros and cons to both raw and kibble, the answer was clear, I am switching to raw.
Cali has been on raw since the day she came home with me. Both have been healthy, at a perfect weight, good skin and coat.
Now on to proof why I am convinced going raw was absolutely the best decision for me.
My mom has a white haired Chihuahua cross named Kiwi. A couple years back Kiwi had severe allergies. Her skin went black and she chewed at her paws to the point there was hardly any fur left. Had ear infections ever two months and scratched like crazy. In 1 year my mom had taken Kiwi to the vet on average once a month. Tests were run, specialists were seen. Nothing that was tried seemed to help. The only medication that helped the slightest was Prednisone, which caused Kiwi to balloon up and have other health concerns including having to pee every 2 hours. Finally, it was decided this Chihuahua would start eating raw. After 3 months her skin started to turn pink again, she wasn’t as itchy and stopped having ear infections. She was taken off the medication and starting to lose the weight that had been gained.
Fast forward a year later and Kiwi is doing great, there have been no signs of allergies, her skin is back to normal, and she doesn’t itch, bite at her feet, and have those reoccurring ear infections.
When feeding, this goes for raw and kibble, please remember the feeding guide is just that, a guide. Many people follow the guide exactly and this is how dogs can become underweight or overweight. If your dog is looking thin, meaning you can see their ribs or hip bones showing then feed more, and you be the judge on how much more. This goes the same if your dog is thicker and you can no longer see a curve in the body and you can actually grab the fat. Feed less. I will feed my dogs more if in a week we did higher levels of activity to accommodate those calories burned. If they didn’t get their normal amount of activity in a week I feed slightly less.
Always remember to do what you are comfortable with and assess your dog frequently to make the right decisions.