# Mixing raw and dry



## Nev Allen (Feb 17, 2010)

Somewhere in another thread I read that it was wrong to mix raw meat with dry kibble.

Is this just an urban myth or can someone direct me to a scientific report or research program that spells out the wheres and whyfores.


----------



## kafkabeetle (Dec 4, 2009)

Personally I think it's an urban myth. I don't mention it much here because I think it's kind of a harmless idea, but it doesn't really make sense to me. Humans can eat raw and cooked foods together just fine and many different foods that are more and less bio-available or whatever else. I'm also interested to see what kind of evidence we can dredge up on this topic.


----------



## Losech (Apr 5, 2011)

I feed raw and kibble all the time with no adverse effects whatsoever. Now, it can cause problems for the Shiba if I mix certain food types together, but for the most part, almost anything goes. Every dog is different and some can handle it just fine, others not.


----------



## mashlee08 (Feb 24, 2012)

I do this every day with my Indie and I have never had an issue with it. Then again, every dog is different.


----------



## boxerlover876 (Dec 31, 2011)

It digests at different rates. Raw digests much faster. Some dogs are fine others are not. I would do kibble in the morning and raw in the evening personally.


----------



## InkedMarie (Mar 11, 2009)

I've been told that you should feed them at least 8hrs apart. I don't know if it's true so while I am currently not feeding kibble with raw, when I did, I fed kibble for a day or two then raw for a day or two. I do that now, with pre made raw and The Honest Kitchen.


----------



## PackMomma (Sep 26, 2011)

Its not going to kill any dog to mix them together, its just not recommended as some can get digestive upset from it. Some dogs tolerate it just fine, and some may not, and it may also depend on what your mixing together. 

The theory behind it is that raw and dry processed food digest at different rates, and this may or may not be totally true (I'm not too sure, but it does make sense, and raw does digest fairly quickly), and that if raw and kibble are mixed into the digestive tract at the same time, the kibble can hold the raw in the system longer, thus causing more bacteria to build up which will either cause diarrhea or vomitting, but I doubt you would experience any severe side affects if any at all. I've also done further reading on the matter and learned something about it throwing off the digestive enzymes and PH levels, but I can't quite remember exactly.

Now, while I have never mixed the two together at the same time personally, I've heard of many on here that do without any ill side affects. However, my experience in the past with my dogs is that when eating kibble immediately after raw (not mixed, but eatin within an hour or so after eating kibble), there was no side affects, however one of my dogs got very explosive diarrhea when eating raw shortly after eating kibble. I didn't conduct this experiment on purpose, I used to feed a partial kibble, partial raw diet and it happened to be an accident more or less which was most definitely my fault, but my dog never became ill, just got really bad diarrhea.

I personally also would not mix, just to avoid any possible digestive upsets if in fact your dog would not tolerate it, if you wish to feed raw I would feed it as a separate meal but that's just a personal preference, and I don't see much point to mixing. If you prefer to mix then you will find out wether or not its a good idea or a bad idea based on your dogs digestive immunity.


----------



## Nev Allen (Feb 17, 2010)

Thanks for the responses. Ideally I would like to hear from a lot more of you so I can get a better handle on this.

Personally I have always fed some shape or form of raw with the dogs kibble, and always add some water so the dogs have some liquid to help digestion. Raw meat is usually in the form of a spoon full of beef, chicken or kangaroo mince. Size of the spoon full differing depending on the size of the dog.

After preparing 1000,s of meals like this I had one dog with a bad gut and I mean really bad. I am now guessing it was an allergic reaction to chicken mince. I had been using other stuff until the day before this happened when suddenly only this one dog was affected. All other dogs in the kennel were fine.


----------



## sassafras (Jun 22, 2010)

I feed raw and kibble together at every meal for Squash. In fact, Squash does much better if I do this than if I feed them separately. (Pip is on all kibble and Maisy is on all raw, so they are N/A.)

I don't buy the digesting at different rates thing as an across the board thing. It makes no sense whatsoever to me that it would make enough of a difference to seriously affect digestion as a general rule. If an individual dog doesn't do well, then by all means that dog should be fed them separately. But I feel like it's more of an urban myth than anything else. 

Many, many mushers routinely feed a mixture of raw, kibble, and water at every meal and report no problems. I've heard other people swear their dogs do much better when they are fed separately. So there are anecdotal accounts on both sides of the issue, so I'd just do it the way you want to and see how your dog does. *shrug*


----------

