# Switching from commercial raw to grocery store raw



## Tamra9991 (Jun 30, 2017)

Hi All,

So for the past two months my pup has been on Darwin's Pet Products Dog Food- the chicken meal. Here's a link to it's info https://www.darwinspet.com/product/raw-dog-food-ns/

Anyway, I wanted to switch my pup from their food to grocery store bought chicken. He's great with the chewing, but he ended up with diarrhea that's typical for changing food. However, I'm confused because I didn't expect his stomach to react so differently between the two meat sources even though it's the same meat parts! Right now I've been feeding him cooked right and chicken breast, with a little raw meat so he slowly adjusts. It's just taking a long time (a week so far). He eats about 3.5lbs of raw a day, so it's a huge amount of food to switch. 

Does anyone have any tips switching between these foods or an explanation as to why he reacted badly?

I'm not really worried about him, and may give Fortiflora to help ease the transition, but I would do anything to make it easier on him!


----------



## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

Grocery store chicken is sometimes injected with salt water and other flavor chemicals to plump it up. They're ought to disclose it, but it doesn't always happen.
What Are They Injecting Into Your Chicken? | Clean & Lean Revolution
What are they pumping into your chicken? | Consumers Union

Ironically, commercial dog food that's HPP-processed, antibiotic/hormone free, and "plumping-agent" free, maybe "cleaner" meat than what you find at a standard supermarket.


----------



## Femfa (May 29, 2016)

Magwart said:


> Grocery store chicken is sometimes injected with salt water and other flavor chemicals to plump it up. They're ought to disclose it, but it doesn't always happen.
> What Are They Injecting Into Your Chicken? | Clean & Lean Revolution
> What are they pumping into your chicken? | Consumers Union
> 
> Ironically, commercial dog food that's HPP-processed, antibiotic/hormone free, and "plumping-agent" free, maybe "cleaner" meat than what you find at a standard supermarket.


Do you think the gizzards, hearts, feet, and turkey necks are just as likely to be affected? Purchasing those from my one grocery store is cheaper than buying them from the local pet food store by a substantial amount.


----------



## voodoolamb (Jun 21, 2015)

Femfa said:


> Do you think the gizzards, hearts, feet, and turkey necks are just as likely to be affected? Purchasing those from my one grocery store is cheaper than buying them from the local pet food store by a substantial amount.


Much less likely.


----------



## Springbrz (Aug 13, 2013)

Agree with what Magwart said.

3.5 lbs of food seems likes a lot for a 5-5.5 month old puppy but I could be wrong. How much does he weigh now? Over feeding can also cause diarrhea. 
Also, It could be that the chicken you are buying may have too much fatty skin on it. You might try removing some of the skin if it has a lot of thick fat. 

Can you tell us exactly what a days meals include. There may also be an imbalance somewhere as well now that you are switching from a premade to home prepared.


----------



## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

For some reason my dogs have a problem with leg quarters bought at the store,which leaves me to believe there is something added that their bodies are not used to and it doesn't do not well with them.


----------



## karladupler (Mar 22, 2016)

Did you feed the fat and the skin? Maybe it was just too much fat for the pup and about the quality of the chicken just make sure doesn't have too much sodium => Sodium Content & Enhancements - Boxer Forum : Boxer Breed Dog Forums 
Try to buy everything fresh from a butcher makes the difference


----------



## Craig Caughlin (Oct 17, 2007)

Tamra9991 said:


> I'm not really worried about him, and may give Fortiflora to help ease the transition, but I would do anything to make it easier on him!


It's a great idea to give your dog a probiotic, but I would recommend ANYTHING other than Purina FortiFlora.

1.) It's weak. It's only 100,000.000 CFU (https://www.proplanveterinarydiets.com/products/fortiflora-dog-probiotics/)

2.) It's expensive compared to many, better quality probiotics such as Primal Defense® ULTRA (https://www.gardenoflife.com/content/product/primal-defense-ultra-probiotic-formula/ and https://www.amazon.com/Garden-Life-...ywords=primal+defense+ultra+216+capsules&th=1 ) Just 1 capsule of Primal Defense is 5 BILLION CFU so this would last your dog 216 days!

3.) The quality of Purina FortiFlora ingredients is awful. The first item is "Animal digest" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_digest) and it only has 1 probiotic strain!

Craig


----------



## voodoolamb (Jun 21, 2015)

A little tip: Check your area to see if you have any Hispanic or Asian grocery stores in your area. I'm often able to find minimally processed chicken there very cheap, also I can find a bunch of the organ meat that is needed to balance out the diet my regular grocery stores do not carry.


----------



## Tamra9991 (Jun 30, 2017)

Sorry for the delayed response, I should've updated this a little while ago!

It turns out the reason he couldn't smoothly switch was that Darwin's Natural Foods uses bacteriophages, which destroy the natural raw food bacteria. So when he switched, his stomach wasn't prepared to deal with all the bacteria in normal raw meat as I thought he would be. We took the transition slow and now he's all good eating all raw meat.



Springbrz said:


> Agree with what Magwart said.
> 
> 3.5 lbs of food seems likes a lot for a 5-5.5 month old puppy but I could be wrong. How much does he weigh now? Over feeding can also cause diarrhea.
> Also, It could be that the chicken you are buying may have too much fatty skin on it. You might try removing some of the skin if it has a lot of thick fat.
> ...


3.5lbs seems like a lot, but he's a hella big and active pup. Now at almost 5.5 months old he weighs 65lbs. Vet said the amount is good for him!


----------



## Tamra9991 (Jun 30, 2017)

Craig Caughlin said:


> It's a great idea to give your dog a probiotic, but I would recommend ANYTHING other than Purina FortiFlora.
> 
> 1.) It's weak. It's only 100,000.000 CFU (https://www.proplanveterinarydiets.com/products/fortiflora-dog-probiotics/)
> 
> ...


We used it for a little bit, but now just use yogurt!


----------



## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

I still think that grocery-raw is still preferable over commercial dog kibble. I feed half/half and she does well.


----------



## Craig Caughlin (Oct 17, 2007)

Tamra9991 said:


> We used it for a little bit, but now just use yogurt!



I think there's a lot of evidence that suggests that:



Yogurt cultures are very minimal compared to almost any probiotic and
They won't survive the stomach acidity of a dog to make it to where they're needed (the intestinal tract) where they'll be of any benefit.
*I* think it's just marketing so sell more yogurt.


Craig


----------

