Hey folks,

our puppy (a gsd) is coming home in just over a week. Our breeder currently feeds a raw feed diet to all of the dogs young and old. We've looked into following the same but to be honest we just don't think we can do it practically.

We've researched various dog foods and are planning on feeding Arden Grange - I'm not sure if anyone has any views about how good this food is but it seems to be pretty good?

Two questions really...

1 - What is the best way to swap from raw feed to dry food? Do we mix a bit of each and gradually reduce?

2 - Could we give him say a raw food day once a week or something as we would still like him to have bones etc for his teeth and things?

Ta very much in advance!

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My Bernese was raised on BARF by his breeder and sorry, but it was an absolute nightmare getting him to eat dry food We feed 50/50 raw/dry - my dogs have dry food one day, and raw food the next.

If they've been fed on raw food from the get go then dry food is obviously completely alien for them - and raw and cooked foods should never be fed together so it wasn't even as if we could mix some raw food with his kibble.

What I did was just cook his raw food for a little while and give it to him like that (no bones obviously) - just cook all the meat and offal because he’d eat it like that, and mix it with some soaked kibble. Over the course of a few weeks I lessened how much I soaked the kibble so it got gradually harder and decreased the quantity of cooked meat. We got to the stage where he would eat near dry kibble with just a spoonful of cooked meat and then completely stopped again for no apparent reason so we had to start back from the beginning. I didn't have him on the 50/50 diet like the other dogs at first because I knew if I gave him any raw food then he'd completely shun kibble all together.

He's now coming up to 11 months and only in the past 3 months has he been on the 50/50 diet like the rest - he will eat dry food now, but only with a little bit of something mixed in, so I mix quarter of a tub of Naturediet in and add a splash of hot water to make a gravy.

Hopefully your boy will be easier - mine just didn't want to give up his BARF, and I can't say I blame him. Couldn't have been much fun going from eating fresh meat and bones everyday to being expected to eat plain, dry pellets - but I'm afraid he had to, we go caravanning alot and the dogs eat dry food whilst we are away, so we needed him to be able to eat it without any problems.

The dry food we used was Arden Grange large breed and I was pleased with it – like I say, Harvey wasn’t keen but it was just dry food he didn’t like, not necessarily the AG.

Good luck – sorry to be negative but I think you’ll need it!

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''Dogs are like chocolates, you can never have just one!''

Thanks for the reply SixStar and also for the honesty and realism!

Like you we go camping a lot and so he needs to be able to eatthe dry food - but I do like the 50/50 idea and will certainly look into that some more!

Will take your advice on board and be prepared for a sloooooow change over....

Thanks again!

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Kongs - Crates - Puppy Toys - Beds and loads more!

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If it's the prep etc you're concerned about you can by pre prepared raw, natural instinct, prize choice do meals you just defrost and serve up. Just thought I'd mention in case you weren't aware.

Arden Grange is a great food, my friends GSD had never looked better now he's on AG. Maybe you could do 50/50 with raw or even 50/50 wet and dry food as obviously the dry will be completely alien to the dog and some dogs just don't take to dry. Arden Grange do wet food too.

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We used to feed Holly raw in the morning, then her dry (Skinners) in the evening, so you can go 50/50. It's just that dry food takes longer to digest than raw.

AG is a good brand, don't get me wrong, but Holly wouldn't have any of it

Natural Instinct, is right around the corner from you I use it, and walk there, so if you at all concerned about getting the proportions right, they can help you out.

However, I think it may be easier for you to change him from raw to wet maybe?

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