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Diet change

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totally agree. When we’ve changed dry to wet, or vice versa, the dry food is used as treats between meals, and then we gradually transfer the diet over. I’m never sure, with the amount of carbs in kibble, whether it could cause blood sugar level problems, so now I always feed wet, which has a small percentage rice and carrot and only use a little kibble for treats.
 
Yes I’m hoping it’s just because of his tummy being sensitive. Yes just chicken mix.
2 x 400g

I think you’re right. I’ll keep the portions smaller
 
Oh blimey! 2 X 400g is massive amount!!! He will be getting so much nutrition from this. I would suggest trying 1/2 that amount
You will find doing a straight change over to raw fine. 2 times daily is plenty.
 
How much does he weigh, @Josie ? And what would his ideal weight be?

2 x 400g is around what Jasper eats - he's about 35kg. So if he's a heavily built lab it could be OK, though it would also depend on his activity levels.

Arguments over whether it's OK to combine dry and raw, and whether to transition gradually or all in one go, continue, and I doubt there's clear evidence either way. After all, we combine food that digests at different rates in one meal without problems. FWIW, I transitioned J all in one go and it worked well. Of course, if you ask (or even if you don't ask;)) ten people you're likely to get 10 different opinions...
 
My lurcher is 27 kg and she has 200g 2x daily so 400g a day ....800g a day .seems alot for a lab
 
Wow, yes Murphy was 27kg at his last vet check and the vet says hes on the fatter side so we have cut his meals slightly..He is very active and had been getting 2 x 250gr now reduced to 2x 200gr
 
It just shows how they can differ. Jasper's weight is fine, despite the fact he also gets a lot of treats (or rather rewards). He's not a deerhound x, he's an expensivehound x! From what I gather, labs can put on weight just by looking at food.
 
We’ve got a different digestive tract to dogs,e.g., digestion times are way different, and we don’t have the ability to digest bone that dogs have, so it’s a bit like apples and pears, or maybe more like apples and bananas. When one of my previous dogs was digestive problems, the Hills nutritionist suggested that he was struggling to digest the amount of food he was getting, it was going through his system too quickly (he always struggoed to put weight on, and we had upped his feeding, but not a lot). She gave us advice on the combination of fibre/carbs/proteins and fats that would be best fir him, can’t remember it now.)

I don’t weigh my dogs, but go by how they look and feel. One’s a large sighthound, one’s a small breed, but they probably get about a pack and a half of Naturediet (390 g a pack) between them a day, and water in it to make a little soup on the bottom of the bowl.
 
The usual advice for raw feeding is that you should feed 2-3% of the dog's body weight a day, so a 30kg dog should have 600-900g a day. Though as the above posts show, there's a lot of variability, and it's definitely best to err on the side of too little at first, and monitor weight/how the dog looks.
 
@JudyN

He weighs 35kg and she put him down for 800g a day with the hope of getting him down to 33kg.

He’s a big lab so he’s not overweight ... well maybe by a couple of pounds!

I just had a call with her and she said to fast him for 24 hours then try him on a small amount and wait a few hours to see if he’s sick.

Currently he’s been sick after each meal (3 so far) about 3/4 hours afterwards.

It’s obviously a big transition for him as he had been on his other diet for 12 years - I just hope that eventually it will work out for the best and I’ll stop feeling like a horrible person :-(
 
I wonder if his gut is a bit unbalanced because of the antibiotics still, and if it might be better to use a probiotic for a while before reintroducing raw? Maybe something to ask her?

800g could be right for him given his weight, but that's not taking into account that he's a lab... Time will tell :)
 
He’s on probiotics also but maybe that should build up first. On slightly better news.. he hasn’t had any wind today and it’s been unbearable lately. He didn’t have his dry food at all yesterday or today so maybe that’s a good sign that moving him off of that is at least a good thing!
 
P.s cleaning up raw food sick is not pleasant. Especially when he decides to do it on our shag pile rug (wooden floors everywhere else!) :emoji_face_palm:
 
Yes, Jasper's farts went from weapons of mass destruction that you could slice out of the air and send through the post to completely odourless pretty much overnight!

Monty always preferred throwing up on carpet to hard floor too.
 
His favourite places to be sick are:

Under the dinning room table,
In the corner of the lounge usually up against the armchair leg and the small patch of carpet by the front door!
 
Stick with it @Josie , being sick is not unusual for first timers.. Denis's system is experiencing a HUGE change. It will get better o_O
 
He’s refused the meal completely tonight :(

Maybe raw is just one step too far for him. Maybe I need to try something like butternut Box that gently cook the food
 
Hello Josie. There's another cooked food that's pretty good its Nature diet . My dogs have this when they go to kennels. It has no additives or preservatives and you can buy a couple of single boxes from Waitrose to try. I hope you find something he will eat soon. It such a worry when our pets are not up to scratch.
 
Oh, that's a shame. You could try cooking his raw food yourself for a bit - I'd just give it a quick blast in the microwave and let it cool. Or fry it in a dry, or almost dry frying pan...

Or, as he seemed OK on what you were feeding him before he had his tummy troubles, you could go back to that, wait till his digestion seems calmer, and then give it another go.
 
My dogs have Naturediet. I like it for them because it’s a fairly plain food, and the dogs enjoy it! And tgeir digestive trat seems to, too. :D
 
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