# Is it bad to feed dry and raw food?



## lutzy (Apr 20, 2006)

I Feed my female that weighs about 65 pounds a raw chicken leg in the morning, I then give her 2 1/2 cups of Fromm gold with about 1/4 lb raw ground meat mixed in at 5:30pm, followed by a chicken thigh at night at 9pm.. her stools have been so much better and she looks like she put on a few needed pounds...Is it bad to mix the raw and dry? Her dry food feeding sugestions is 4 cups of dry food for her weight..but I only give her about 2 1/2 since im giving her the chicken and ground beef...Is this ok you think? she looks so much better though!


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## JerzeyGSD (Jun 26, 2008)

There is nothing wrong with mixing the two, as long as your dog does well on it. However, I would suggest starting to weigh out your dogs raw to get a more exact idea of how much you should be feeding your dog daily. If you're willing to measure the kibble then you should be measuring the raw!

Generally, you're supposed to fed between 2 and 3% of your dog's ideal weight in oz. Since you're not feeding all raw I would suggest feeding half of that, so between 1 and 1.5% of your dog's ideal weight (note that this is not specifically your dogs *current* weight.)

Feeding RMBs (raw meaty bones) for breakfast and dinner and the MM (muscle meat) with the kibble is totally find, especially since your dog's system can handle it well. You will want to add in some OM (organ meat) to make a balanced raw diet.

Check out rawdogranch.com as a good starting point about raw diets.

Feeding about 50% RMBs, 45% MM and 5% OM is what is generally suggested as the breakup of the total amount you should be feeding. 

You can't really feed one chicken leg or one thigh. The weight of the items is what is important, not the number. Invest in a kitchen scale (I have an analog one that I got from Bed, Bath and Beyond for $12.) It doesn't have to be anything fancy, it just has to be able to weigh out the food.


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## Barb E (Jun 6, 2004)

If you're feeding about half and half you'll want to make sure the raw portion of the diet is nutrionally (sp) balanced as well.

I've read both 20 and 30 percent does not impact the nutrional balance of a kibble diet.

I feed both but in less than a 50/50. Sometimes they're fed seperatly and sometimes together









Like who ever that was that posted before me (already forgot who it was







) check out Raw Dog Ranch and of course the raw section here on the board.


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## natalie559 (Feb 4, 2005)

Like mentioned feeding raw and dry together isn't a problem if your dog tolerates it well. Glad she is!

Also like mentioned it has been advised that if feeding dry food that no more than 30% of the kibble calories be replaced with fresh foods or you risk unbalancing the diet. Depending on which kibble formula you are feeding you are reducing the calories 37-40% which is a little over advised but I don't think will harm.

My concern would be the increase of calories long term. If you were feeding 4 cups previous and now 2.5 cups plus the fresh foods you listed you have increased the calories by quite a bit. Just something to keep an eye on in case of too much weight gain.


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## mkewish (Sep 2, 2008)

I fed both for awhile, all the research I've done says along as you don't feed more than 30% raw over the kibble you're fine. If you feed more then that you have to mak sure of the nutrional balance, like Barb E. said.


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