kind of a crazy question...and I don't want to start the debate on Raw Vs. Kibble but I am curious about something.
No question is a crazy one :wink:
For those who went from Kibble to Raw...
How do your guys approach the RAW food? Do they just go nuts and bonkers over it and ravage the bowl?...do they rip off the meat and then start knawing on the bones?
I switched two of my dogs from kibble to raw about two years ago. At first they had no idea what to do with it. They had lost all concept of what it is to be a real dog and eat real foods. This is an innate behavior that every dog is born with but after years of eating processed kibble puffs they lose. It took about three days of the tough love approach for them to get the hang of it. It took a bit of tough love with every new protein we added in, its like they had to learn how to eat each and every RMB. The whole transition process took a few months. But even after just a few weeks they would go nuts for their food much more than they ever did with their kibble.
Every dog is different in the way that they eat. Akasha is what we call a "gulper" who basically chomps a chicken quarter two or three times and then swallows the rest. Then there are dogs like Emmy who will take her time to eat, maybe 10 minutes for a chicken quarter. I don't think that many dogs will sit there and rip the meat off the bones of a chicken quarter but would with a RMB that the bone isn't really "edible" or consumable like beef ribs or the head of a prey item (lamb or goat, etc).
Using bowls is the thing of the past when feeding raw. There really is no need for a bowl unless you feed something that needs to be in a bowl, like chunked stew meat or canned fish. We hardly use them anymore, maybe once a month tops. But when we do, they lick the bowl clean...
I know the times I've fed cooked real meat, my guys just woof it down so fast...their eyes literally almost bug out of their heads and its almost a frenzy....I'm not joking, they seem like they've never been fed before.
Its different with raw meat, because in the beginning you NEED to feed raw, bone in meat pieces and the part that boggles dogs is the bone in part. They are not used to eating bones like this so they have no idea what to do with it.
Cooking of meat brings out a lot of flavor, from the fat, etc. Eventually you'd get the same reaction over raw meats that you do with cooked meats. Dogs just have to figure it out LOL
I guess the only reason I posted it here was I want a comparison between the Raw/real food feedings w/ kibble.
Typical meal time at our house:
Take the container of meat thawed out from the night before outside on the patio.
All four of the dogs are at my heels waiting for it.
I hand out a RMB to each one, and they all take it to their corners of the yard.
They always come back looking for more, just depends on if I give them more LOL
Then they spend some time cleaning their paws and take a nap like they're completely satisfied :wink:
Why are you wanting to compare the two?