Any thoughts?

I'm thinking of supplementing Oscar's raw meat diet with 1 meal of kibble a day. I have good intentions with feeding raw but I have to face up to the fact that I'm too busy/too disorganised/too something to really get it right and I don't want to hurt Oscar with good intentions that fall through.

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What's the ingredients?

I'd think wet would be better. I've fed wet am raw pm for a few months before switching to full raw.

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Wet would get my vote too. Something like Naturediet which is steam sterilised raw. If you're going for Franks, then for me it would have to be the varieties without the corn meal.
But I think I would be more tempted by the duck and potato here - Working Dog Food Adult Dog food | WorkingHPRs Better food and cheaper

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"Life is mostly froth and bubble, Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another’s trouble, Courage in your own”

I had a proper look at the complete raw blocks we are giving him and actually it's ok. I was slightly concerned we were giving him too much protein but since we've moved him onto the complete raw instead of the just meat raw blocks he's actually getting a good balance of protein and carbs. I was worried because I wondered if his diet might be bringing on this skin thing he's got but the vet didn't seem to think so - I just have to make sure I get to the shop and buy the complete raw instead of thinking the just meat/offal ones from the more local shop will do.

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You can't buy complete raw blocks in any shops I know off, even suppliers like raw2go and DAF need a little liver added.

Obviously you can get things from the shops to make up the needed 80/10/5/5 ratios needed.

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These;

Natural Dog Food and Natural Cat Food| BARF diet, Raw dog food, Natural Pet Food, Real Meat and Treats, Frozen complete blocks

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They don't seem to contain any offal, bone or liver, so unless its just not stated, they arent complete. And only 33% meat, seems like a raw version of dry food, more fillers than meat. A decent wet would surely be cheaper and contain less fillers.

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Just like to say carbohydrates are not needed by dogs. They are not included in any dog nutrient profiles that I know of. They are needed to make the "shapes" of dry food though. As far as raw meat goes approximately 70% of meat is water with the protein levels around 20-28% (28% I seem to remember as being ostrich). Not that protein %'s mean anything of course. I could add sawdust to reduce it which wouldn't make it a healthy food.

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Well since the benefit of raw is that it is raw I don't think feeding cooked food would be quite the same.

It's a complete diet - it contains what he needs. Hence "complete". It has vegetables and rice. Not maize or floor sweepings.

The BARF diet contains vegetables does it not?

ETA: And what's tripe if it's not offal?

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I'll try and answer this but bear in mind I believe dogs are carnivores first and foremost.

You are right. Cooking destroys some of the nutrients in food.

The BARF diet does contain vegetables which is why I don't feed BARF style so will not comment. What "complete" means on labelling is that it matches so called nutrient profiles. These nutrient profiles were put together by a team of vets under the supervision of the dog food companies. It includes minimum and potentially maximum levels of individual types of proteins, vitamins etc.

Although medically heart is classified as an organ it's also defined by raw feeders as meat. Put simply, the reasoning is the nutrients contained in it in relation to the ratio guidelines. Tripe is also classified as "meat" for the same reason.

I'll express my personal opinion here (I know I'm good at that ) and say this type of product is one of the reasons I hate the commercialization of the BARF diet. Feeding products like this, to me isn't feeding raw. It's feeding a commercial pet food simply with a BARF label as it can sell. You don't get any of the teeth cleaning advantages of giving something like a raw meaty bone or even large chunks of meat. I do believe they are better than a lot of other commercial foods though.

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