- Joined
- Mar 13, 2014
- Messages
- 5
- Purraise
- 7
I'm new here.
This will be a long post, but I'm just so excited and hoping for results by taking this plunge.
We adopted Bijou, a white DLH, almost two years ago. She's around 4-5 years old, and an absolute love. She also has IBD. We've been trying to control it with daily prednisone and a prescription kibble recommended by the vet. But after her most recent flare-up - she was fine for 5 months, then spent three nights in the emergency hospital - I've decided to give raw a try. Luckily for me, cost isn't a big issue - although if we can avoid hospital stays then raw will pay for itself.
She isn't a picky eater (thank goodness), and prefers canned food to dry when I give it to her. I had only been using canned after an IBD flare-up since it's easier on her stomach. She prefers it blended to a paste-like substance and then mixed with warm water.
I've done a couple hours of research and feel like I'm finally ready to take the plunge. Any advice or suggested changes to this plan would be appreciated!
Transitioning her to wet meals
Our vet had us on 100% Royal Canin HP kibble. In retrospect I wish I had found this site and learned more about IBD before accepting that feeding plan, but it is what it is. Instead, I'm now planning a slow transition from kibble to daily wet meals (3x a day). (I'll eventually reduce that to 2 meals per day.) To start, I'm scaling back on the amount of kibble provided, and letting her run out of kibble between her new scheduled meals. Then she has to wait until the next meal for her dose of wet food, rather than getting more kibble. Planning to eliminate kibble completely over the next two weeks. Hopefully I can use up the rest of her expensive prescription stuff by then. Like I said, she prefers canned to kibble, so I'm only trying to break her of the habit..
Introduction
My pet store just started carrying Rad Cat, and they had little samplers of chicken and turkey flavor for free. I took a couple home to see what Bijou thought about them. I started by putting a little scoop of just the raw turkey in a dish. She sniffed it and just stared at me like I was crazy for switching to this strange new food. Then I mixed a little bit of her canned soupy paste in and she ate the entire bowl. Once it smelled familiar she seemed to have no problem with the raw. Later on I tried the same with the chicken, but she seemed to prefer the turkey (with the paste mixed in), so I mostly stuck to that.
Transition: Moving toward raw only
Over the next few weeks as I wean her off kibble, I'm planning to use up the rest of our canned food to provide scheduled raw/canned meals. As our canned supply draws down, I'll reduce the amount of canned until she's eating only the Rad Cat. I'll probably keep a little extra canned in case she decides to start refusing raw.
I can't thank everyone enough - all the amazing information and stories on this site have helped me make this decision. I'm really looking forward to seeing the benefits for Bijou. Any advice/support would be greatly appreciated.
We adopted Bijou, a white DLH, almost two years ago. She's around 4-5 years old, and an absolute love. She also has IBD. We've been trying to control it with daily prednisone and a prescription kibble recommended by the vet. But after her most recent flare-up - she was fine for 5 months, then spent three nights in the emergency hospital - I've decided to give raw a try. Luckily for me, cost isn't a big issue - although if we can avoid hospital stays then raw will pay for itself.
She isn't a picky eater (thank goodness), and prefers canned food to dry when I give it to her. I had only been using canned after an IBD flare-up since it's easier on her stomach. She prefers it blended to a paste-like substance and then mixed with warm water.
I've done a couple hours of research and feel like I'm finally ready to take the plunge. Any advice or suggested changes to this plan would be appreciated!
Transitioning her to wet meals
Our vet had us on 100% Royal Canin HP kibble. In retrospect I wish I had found this site and learned more about IBD before accepting that feeding plan, but it is what it is. Instead, I'm now planning a slow transition from kibble to daily wet meals (3x a day). (I'll eventually reduce that to 2 meals per day.) To start, I'm scaling back on the amount of kibble provided, and letting her run out of kibble between her new scheduled meals. Then she has to wait until the next meal for her dose of wet food, rather than getting more kibble. Planning to eliminate kibble completely over the next two weeks. Hopefully I can use up the rest of her expensive prescription stuff by then. Like I said, she prefers canned to kibble, so I'm only trying to break her of the habit..
Introduction
My pet store just started carrying Rad Cat, and they had little samplers of chicken and turkey flavor for free. I took a couple home to see what Bijou thought about them. I started by putting a little scoop of just the raw turkey in a dish. She sniffed it and just stared at me like I was crazy for switching to this strange new food. Then I mixed a little bit of her canned soupy paste in and she ate the entire bowl. Once it smelled familiar she seemed to have no problem with the raw. Later on I tried the same with the chicken, but she seemed to prefer the turkey (with the paste mixed in), so I mostly stuck to that.
Transition: Moving toward raw only
Over the next few weeks as I wean her off kibble, I'm planning to use up the rest of our canned food to provide scheduled raw/canned meals. As our canned supply draws down, I'll reduce the amount of canned until she's eating only the Rad Cat. I'll probably keep a little extra canned in case she decides to start refusing raw.
I can't thank everyone enough - all the amazing information and stories on this site have helped me make this decision. I'm really looking forward to seeing the benefits for Bijou. Any advice/support would be greatly appreciated.
