r/rawpetfood

we changed him to bones and co last month, he has been ok for a while and started with loose stool and diarrhea. any ideas what could be the reason, I’m at a point to stop raw altogether but he has been on raw for over 4 years, dog is 5 yrs old, we did rice and chicken for a couple of days and he did ok on that. once back to raw the loose stools started again.

Just wondering if there is any correlation between diet and bloat. I have a breed that is prone to bloat. Would her risk theoretically be less on a raw fed diet since there is less filler, carbs, etc?

I don't know how to store wet food for my cat,do you have some advice?

Hi! I have a 4 yr old American pit bull and a 5 year old miniature Australian shepherd. Right now they are both eating the nutri-source trout mix kibble, I know kibble is not great for dogs and I’d absolutely love to put them on a raw diet, I’ve just been hesitant due to the prices. Also, our pit has struggled with allergies and chronic ear infections and pretty much the only thing left to do is switch to a less processed food. Her allergies do tend to flare up when she eats chicken/beef, and I’m worried other meats will be more expensive. I’ve heard homemade recipes are cheapest I’m just not sure where to find trustworthy information so hoping someone can point me in the right direction!

Having to use either single ingredient or limited ingredient treats and beef liver treats are highly recommended to avoid my pup having a reaction(apparently single ingredient treats have a much lower cross contamination rate). But I'm switching to raw soon(literally picking up the last ingredient in a week) and kinda nervous about overdoing liver if I use the treats for training. Beef heart and liver were recommended I know heart is EXTREMELY calorie dense so I think that math is harder.

I'd make my own but don't own a dehydrator or freeze drier.

If so, are you happy with them and their products? I currently use EZ Complete, but I'm looking for a rabbit source (in addition to ckn, turkey, pork). I'm also thinking it may be a good idea to rotate in a different flavor profile so my animals don't get tired of EZ. I find HT's site somewhat confusing, so please also tell me if you add any supplements in addition to Alnutrin. And one last thing, I gently cook dog's meat, as she is quite elderly. TIA.

I’ve run out of ideas and am worried I’m doing more harm than good. After a bout of triaditis a few years ago, our vet suggested our cat (now 14 years old, male, neutered) might have a food allergy. At the time he was eating higher-end crap - Gourmet Perle mainly. (Located in the UK).
After a long time trying to understand what he could be allergic to, we switched to raw food. He’s still never been fully healthy gut wise though. I’ve spent literally thousands of pounds on various novel protein, mono-protein, or hypoallergenic food. Sometimes I think I’ve found an acceptable one only for him to have completely liquid feces. Chicken, duck, turkey, tuna, salmon, lamb, beef, veal, quail, venison, insect, goat, pigeon, rabbit, horse, kangaroo… I’ve yet to find anything he can tolerate consistently. Sometimes he’ll have two or three days where he forms a log shaped stool but then will start getting softer and runnier again. In the UK I’ve tried (not all raw but an idea of what I’ve tried) Katkin, Scrumbles, Untamed, Lilly’s kitchen, Marro, Bella and Duke, Mjamjam, Vivendi, Luna and Me, Purrform (their rabbit seemed to be the best option recently but that is also causing diarrhea now) and probably a load more I’ve forgotten.

Probiotics don’t seem to help but then they seem to have chicken or fish in them which won’t help if that’s something that irritates his gut?

Been back and forth to the vets a few times, they have no issue with raw food in general though have suggested Hills previously. Tried that, vomit and diarrhea ensued. Latest thought is that he might have IBD. No obvious worms (he gets monthly treatments, otherwise seems relatively healthy, not dehydrated at last visit.

I know that switching foods is bad for cats generally, and more so for those with sensitive tummies. I’m really struggling to work out how to ever get to a point where I feel a food is safe. Lots of talk about slow transitions, but from WHAT? I have no food that doesn’t seem to cause diarrhea so have no idea if a new food has been transitioned too quickly or if the old food is just causing the issues still. When he gets diarrhea my instinct is to stop feeding that food immediately.

Sometimes when at its worst the feces is like a watery milkshake, other times there will be some chunks in it, though not hard ones. On a relatively good day at the moment it will be more like sausage and gravy - a well-formed log in a pool of thicker liquid. I’m struggling to understand if it’s a good sign when there is ANY lumpy bits in it that suggests he’s at least pulled SOME nutrients from the food?

He’s hovering between 3.6 and 3.9kg consistently, so he doesn’t have much room to play with.

I’m looking for advice on what healthy transitioning looks like because I feel I might be overreacting. If the stool isn’t ENTIRELY watery, is it safe to keep going with that food?

I found a good source for chicken hearts, chicken livers, and chicken gizzards in my local area. I am looking for a cat food OR treat recipe that uses all three plus maybe bone-in chicken thighs, fish oil, supplement powders. I am having the darnedest time finding good info.

Before starting my girl on small amounts of raw, I‘m going to get a probiotic supplement for her tomorrow to make things easier on her stomach. What bacteria should I look for in probiotic blends.

I’m not asking for specific brands mainly because I’ll be picking some up right after work as it’s the only time I can this week, and so the exact brands people use may or may not be available at the big-box pet-store that is open late. And I refuse to use Purina products on principle, so no FortiFlora. There used to be a brand that used the exact probiotic in the same amounts as FortiFlora, even saying to compare them lol, but they mysteriously never got any more shipments of it in. Basically a cheaper “generic” version. Definitely no suspicious meddling there.

Anyways, what are the good digestive bacteria to look for? Some supplements also have added fibers like pumpkin or psyllium husk- are those also helpful? Hoping this isn’t too odd of a question for this sub. Any info or even studies, if you want to go that far or have any on-hand, would be greatly appreciate.

Edit: Ended up with Fera Pet probiotic, which seems pretty well-regarded from what I can tell.

My kitten (ragdoll) has been on raw food (Luna & Me) for nearly 3 weeks and was doing completely fine on it until Friday when she suddenly started vomiting a few hours after eating. The vomit was basically just the raw food. So on Saturday I switched her to only Orijen kitten dry food and she stopped vomiting completely, has been playful, energetic, all throughout and actually started drinking water again (she barely drank while on raw).

Yesterday she was totally fine on the dry food only.

Today I tried giving her a tiny bit of the raw again and within minutes she vomited. Afterwards she also brought up some yellow foamy liquid.

Other than the vomiting she seems completely normal playful, active, affectionate, normal energy etc.

Has anyone experienced something similar where a kitten suddenly stopped tolerating raw after doing well on it for weeks? Could this be an intolerance/sensitivity developing, gastritis, hairball irritation, or maybe even an issue with the batch itself?

She also has probiotics with her morning meals as well (forti flora).

Would you stop raw completely for now or try another protein/brand later on?

Just looking for similar experiences or advice while I monitor her closely.

Also please do not come for me for the dry kibble 😂 I want my kitten to be on raw but on occasion when i can’t feed her safely, we resort to dry.

I think I am sold on raw although I am still transitioning. I appreciate all the help and support from my first post. After more than a year of soft (and massive) stool, my sweet pup's stool is smaller and consistently firm. This feels like a miracle to me. I gave her her first chicken foot last night which helped SO much for me to get over the fear that she would choke. I think I will get some necks for her also. She was fine and loved it! I have often thought, but now think I have been wrong, that she has some food insensitivities. Because of this, I am going slow. Here are my questions:

Treats--she is a food-motivated and very rambunctious lab (1 1/2 year-old field lab). I use A LOT of training treats and for low value treats, I probably use about 1 1/2 cups of kibble every day. I have started to cut down on this as she gets a lot of treats for just being cute (sitting and staring at me with adoring eyes that I find hard to resist.) What do you all use for low value treats? I could cut up apples and carrots, I suppose. I am using freeze-dried chicken, tripe and turkey giblets for higher value treats. She is starting up a good manners class and they want me to bring 3 CUPS of treats for each class! I plan to use kibble, in addition to the high value stuff, for a while but am looking for other ideas.

Overall plan: I am using a base of a local chicken product (Vermont Raw Petfood) which is about 85% muscle meat, 11% bone and 4% mixed organs. I was thinking I could do about 3/4 this and then add 1/4 other proteins (prepackaged raw w/bone and organ) for breakfast (I started with lamb this morning and so far, so good (she loved it), and rotate through 1/4 tripe, egg, oily fish, organ mix, mussel and meaty bone at night. I got some Oma's pride mixes to try out (are they any good?). I can also get local organic beef liver and kidney and, if she tolerates it, could add this daily. Vermont Raw also has a turkey mix so I could swap out the chicken for turkey sometimes. I could also do a veggie mix with kale, pumpkin ets. Do I need to add kelp powder or chia seeds or other stuff to make it balanced? The Vermont Raw is NOT a complete food, just meat, organ and bone.

Thanks so much! It has been really inspiring to read all the posts on this sub and I am feeling really good about making this move!