Why Not Raw + Dry Kibble?

Hello Everyone!

(TL-DR can just check the questions below )

A little background since this is my first time posting here:

I have two kitties I adopted a few months ago, the girl (Zephyr) is around 8 months old and the boy (Tarn) is around 6 months old. I started off feeding Zephyr Halo wet food with Orijen dry kibble (both grain free) and she loved both. When I adopted Tarn a month later he turned his nose up at the Halo but devoured the Orijen. I switched them to Wellness canned food since they both enjoyed it. Then Zephyr developed awful stinky diarrhea. It went on for a few weeks, and the vet did tests with no results. I gave her probiotics and that didn't help. I ended up finding out online that some cats can have an allergic reaction to carrageenan, which is in Wellness and most other pate style foods, the only kind both kitties will eat. Halo doesn't have it but Tarn won't eat it and Zephyr turns her nose up at it now after having had the Wellness.

I took both guys off the Wellness two days ago and have been giving them plain cooked chicken with their Orijen kibble, and the diarrhea has completely disappeared. However, I made the mistake of giving them each a taste of raw chicken before I cooked it and neither has really eaten much of the cooked stuff (they still enjoy their Orijen kibble though), they keep circling in the kitchen waiting for more raw! After reading a few books and websites about raw feeding I've decided to try it out for these guys.


Now for my questions!

I've been searching the forums and all over different web sites to see if this was mentioned, but I don't see it anywhere. Many raw food supporters are 100% against dry kibble, and I understand their arguments, but all of them are made against low-quality, grain-riddled dry kibbles. What about high-quality, grain-free ones, like Orijen? Would it be terrible to keep feeding this kibble to my guys while also feeding a diet of raw meat/organs/bones? In one book I read ("Natural Nutrition for Cats" by Kymythy Schultze) she mentions that raw bones are incompatible with dry kibble, but doesn't give any reasons. In the future if my kitties take to the raw food diet (which they seem like they will!) I might drop the kibble altogether and just give them raw food, but they really enjoy the kibble, and it doesn't have any bad ingredients in it, the only negative is the low moisture content (which goes for any dry kibble), but they'd be getting raw food with it.

Anyone know if dry kibble (even the high quality stuff) is incompatible with raw food, or just raw bones, and why?

Thanks!

Raw food digest s at roughly two to three times the rate of dry ... When both are fed together you risk a bacterial bloom occuring because the dry food slows down the raws exit....

Many people do feed dry ( grocery to super premium)and raw.... Most separate them : ie dry in the morning and raw in the evening ....

If you do a sensible raw and dry feeding , you ensure that proper nutrition is given.... If the raw is going to be more than 10% of diet , Please have a chat with a vet( many are not well educated in raw or nutrition in general but many( myself included)on here have never met one not willing to help with questions)... Ask about possible supplementation

I think most people avoid feeding raw and dry kibble for the same reason you don't run 20 miles a day training for a marathonjust to go eat at McDonald's. Raw is usually considered the best diet for carnivores, and dry is usually considered the worst because of the non-necessary additives. You either go all in or don't bother at all. I don't know, I have never raw fed before, this is all just conjecture

My Kody eats 4 oz. of RadCat (a commercial brand) raw chicken and about 1/4 cup Taste of the Wild kibble everyday.

His breeder feeds all his cats a raw diet that he prepares himself with supplements in it and Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul kibble.

I found the prepared raw closest to what the breeder prepares and changed the kibble to a grain-free after I started checking out the different foods.

Kody loves the raw, but I think he would go on a hunger strike if he didn't get his TOTW everyday---he demands both.

Thank you for the responses!

Kody's Mom do you feed the kibble at the same time as the raw or are they at separate meals?

I think that's what I'm going to try doing with my guys - raw in the morning and night, and kibble at lunch

When we first got Kody and I started reading on the various sites I saw several places that said it needed to be fed at different times--something to do with the amount of time it takes to digest the different foods -- I think it was that the kibble would slow down the raw and possibly result in Salmonella--I can't really remember now--but it did make perfect sense.

I tried to make sure I didn't give him any kibble within maybe 1 hour of the raw food--but no matter what I did, if my husband or kids came through the kitchen and there was a empty bowl they would put some Taste of the Wild in it. It was a constant struggle, so I finally gave up. I also noticed many of the breeders said they just left the kibble down all the time for free-feeding and had two servings of Raw--one morning and one night--so I decided it must not be that critical. You just have to be careful that the raw is eaten and not left out at room temp.