Hello Everyone.I have a 13 week old female Staffy.Her name is Cassie.She is currently being fed on Naturediet puppy and  small handfull of Pedigree complete( she likes the crunch).Would it be o.k for me to feed her raw foods, tripe,chicken wings,ect on a few occasions during the week as a bit of variety.Thanks very much.
                                     Spike.

Sounds like a great idea,every little bit helps :) The more fresh foods we can give our dogs,the better!!

we have a 9month old staff and always fed her plain food like chicken when she was little,the breeder used to as well.Just plain food for now though because she's still littlle,build it up slowly,adding fish and other meat as well. We use Skinners Muesli and add meat and fish to it.

Raw meats are not like a complete...they do not need a gentle introduction.All but one of my dogs have been weaned on raw from the age of about 4 weeks so theres no reason why you shouldn't feed some raw as well as her usual diet.
I would however say to be aware that if you start feeding her occasional raw foods she may start to refuse her processed foods......
Archer

Thanks !

I seem to recall being told that raw and processed diet shouldn't be mixed as it takes longer for the dog's digestive system to digest one or the other....??? And when fed together - as opposed to complete raw diet or completely complete diet(this could be confusing!) the dog's digestive system can struggle.....?

I had considered using a raw/natural diet but was a little put off by this advice when a local butcher told me there wasn't a regular supply of "lights" ie: offal ?

Maybe I got all this wrong?  I'm sure someone probably knows a lot more than me...?!!

They say you shouldnt mix kibble and raw into the same meal as raw digests quicker than kibble and the raw has to sit in the stomach for longer which can cause problems HOWEVER there are loads of folks who feed this way and never had a problem,my dogs get raw meaty bones for desert after they have finished their dry food,no probs here either :) The general concensus is that you should feed kibble and raw in seperate meals, such as kibble for breakie and raw for dinner or vice versa.I would let your the condition of the dog be the judge,if he gets runny poops or some other problem every time you mix raw with dry then try feeding them seperately.Most dogs can handle it,some dogs cant.

.I was`nt going to mix the complete and raw foods together as one meal.iI was thinking something like maybe giving raw as a full afternoon meal on Tuesday,Thursday and Saturday or something along those lines.Thanks again.

I think my main concern with feeding this way (a mixture of both) is that commercial diets have all sorts of vits, mins, supplements etc etc already added - So my concern would be causing an imbalance?  If your pup does well on Naturediet then great, its not a bad food.  Also naturesmenu does a raw/commercial mince, which you can defrost and feed, they also do a biscuit if you want to add crunch?  Maybe you could research a totally raw diet if it interests you.  My dog is raw fed and I always have a bag of the natures menu mince in the freezer just in case I forget to take proper meals out of the freezer (I even have a pack of naturediet in the cupboard :))  I think raw is a fantastic way to go but you really do have to do your own research and make up your own mind.
Sarah

They do say that you shouldn't feed them in the same meal.  I'm not sure I buy into this as we humans eat things that digest at different rates, however I feed my complete meals in the morning and my raw meals in the evening, just to be safe.  I also know several people who put mince in wtih the complete or tripe and it doesn't seem to affect their dogs, so I'm not sure where the original advice has come from and where the evidence to back it up is or if it's just anecdotal.

Wendy

I must admit that I feed mine mince with their dried in the evenings.  They alternate with chicken or dried earlier in the day, doesn't seem to bother them though.

In my opinion it does not matter if you do mix raw and dried foods in the same meal.   The raw won't have to hang around for the other food to be digested.  It will get digested first.

As to the original question I think that giving some chicken wings and raw food is a good idea if feeding a complete diet, although the veterinary [orthodox] profession will tell you that if you add to a complete diet you will unbalance it.   Dogs however should have far more protein from meat sources than is in your usual bag of complete.

Wendy

Hi just bought some minced tripe for my GSD puppy to put in her Kong.I noticed it say`s "for working dogs only.Not for pet`s" does this mean i shouldn`t give this to her?

Food for working dogs is VAT exempt, so many of the companies making raw pet food are marking it as 'for workign dogs only' in order for it to be vat exempt.

Wendy

I spoke to my supplier recently about this as I had heard through friends that some companies were charging vat on raw meats and they told me that as far as they were concerned all raw meats (like the butchers) were vat exempt (zero rated). UNLESS there was something added to the raw product that was not raw eg, grain etc!

I have used dried complete foods for my dogs over the last 17 + years but having lost a number of dogs at an early age (5 years and below) to cancer I have decided to switch to a complete raw diet and I have to say my dogs are In great shape, but only time will tell.