When I bring in a new foster dog I routinely start them on a bland diet of boiled chicken and rice and introduce our kibble by mixing it in over the course of a few days.

Cooking for your dog is wonderful, but you need to either use a pre-mix as base, follow recipes laid out by experts, or do lots of research.

we have started to do a lot of research and will be talking to our vet about it.

I am hoping that we can find a good vitamin and mineral mix that we can place in the food. We are concerned that they get enough of the vitamins and special nutrients that they need.
thanks!

renee

Actually your dog could have been throwing up due to the immediate change in diet, diets should be changed gradually over at least a couple of weeks. If your dogs are that sensitive, you might take a look at purchasing Natural Balances raw food diet. Good luck

We were transitioning the diet slowly. We didn't immediately change it. He started vomiting only a day into the transition. (2 meals).

Due to all the problems people have been having with foods for their dogs we don't want to take any chances. He didn't want to eat the food and he vomited more than once, so it went straight into the garbage. We only bought a small bag to try out.

Thanks for the suggestion but we would prefer to make our own raw (or cooked) diets for them if possible.

-renee

I looked in to cooking my dogs food (I have three, big, bigger, biggest). I consulted my wonderful vet and did the research.

For me, it was just to much, plus I understand that you need to be really careful about the dogs complete nutrition which is not always easy.

I do think you need to decide what you want to feed and stick with it. Switching is a huge mistake that is going to exacerbate your dogs stomach problems.

I feed venison and potato, a hypo allergic that I've used for about 16 years. I do add cheese, tuna, cooked meat, cottage cheese etc. to it on a rotating basis but it's not that much, just enough to give it different flavor.

SG

I have been transitioning my dogs to a raw prey model diet for the last couple of weeks, but since I still had most of a large bag of dry kibble that I couldn't afford to toss out, I've been feeding both on alternate days - raw one day and kibble the next. To my surprise, there has been absolutely no digestive upset at all - no vomiting, no diarrhea, no inappetance. I have read, though, that digestive upset is more likely to occur if you mix raw and kibble together in the same meal.

The only negative affect of raw meat that I have noticed is that the dogs tend to follow me around on the kibble days demanding their MEAT! Oh, and they can get a bit constipated if there is too high a proportion of bone in their meals. One of my dogs is also a gulper, so I had to teach him to slow down and chew his bones by holding the meat and forcing him to pull small pieces out of my hands.

I don't intend to add any supplements to the raw diet. It should have everything the dogs need nutritionally as long as I vary the meats as recommended. With cooked meats, however, supplementation will be required since you are cooking out some of the nutrients and you are not able to feed cooked bones.

I was frankly surprised at how easily my dogs took to raw food. None of my dogs have a history of sensitive stomach, though. Still, you might want to give it a try and see if your dogs can tolerate raw meat without digestive upset.

Laurie

thanks for all the suggestions! we did add one tbl of the new bagged food to the chicken this evening. Both the dogs seem fine. We will try adding more food every other day or so.

We are going to make a yearly checkup apt w/ the vet so we will ask to speak to her about different diets also.

-renee