Transitioning to Raw : Darwin's Natural

[taltolson]

I've looked at feeding raw off and on for the last few years and for various reasons finally decided to give it a go.  Thought you might like to know how it's working, 5 days (9 meals in). Oh, it's Darwin's Natural Pet food, a local (to me) Seattle company, has an organic and a human grade line. meat and veggies from local farms, veggies vary with the seasons somewhat. Because we are local, it's free delivery heehee.  They were at the Pet Expo in Puyallup and had a special, 10lbs for $10! What better way to give it a try. Variety of flavors: Duck, chicken, beef, turkey, from the human grade line, there are others in the organic line.

So, Delivered Thursday morning by FedEx overnight,  frozen solid, in styrofoam container (with pre-paid return shipping label so they can re-use the box) with dry ice and a small air-tight plastic container (I assume for storage when thawed in the fridge) defrosted in fridge for the day, still slightly frozen at dinner.

Meal 1: Dinner Thrusday. Mixed cold 3oz-ish raw Duck and Veggies with 1/4c kibble (she'd been getting 1/4c caned food and 1/4 kibble for bfast, 1/4-1/2c kibble for dinner).  Result: She picked it all up out of the bowl and spit it out on the floor.  Consumed maybe a quarter, or less, of what was out. Not sure if she was trying to eat just the raw or just the kibble. Occasional sneaze/snort/funny tongue. I'm guessing exploring the texture or disliking it was very cold.   I left some fresh kibble out, just in case she was starving, which she never ate.

Meal 2: Friday Bfast: Lightly cooked the duck/veggies (still some pink), mixed with kibble.  Similar results, though I think she ate more, again left some fresh kibble out, which she didn't eat.

Meal 3: Friday Dinner: Lightly cooked duck, put on one side of the bowl, kibble on the other, no mixing.  She ate some, like 30% of the cooked "raw" by spiting it out on the floor, and going back 10min later and eating it, and hardly touched the kibble. At this point I'm wondering if she's just protesting and holding out for the caned stuff she loves....Also moved next pkg of raw from fridge to freezer for tomorrow dinner.

Meal 4: Sat Bfast: Same prep: even-more-lightly cooked duck (mostly pink), put on one side of bowl, kibble on the other. She ate more, 60% maybe 80%, again via spit on floor, wait, eat. Ate a little kibble.

Meal 5: Sat Dinner: Same but ate 90% (barely cook/warm, served alone, no kibble available). Oh and thus far , no digestive rumbles, gas, or extra soft or firm poop, though it's smaller.

Meal 6: Sunday Bfast. Have used up 1lb of Duck & Veggies, Moving on to Chicken & Veggies.  Barely cook, serve in bowl alone. Ate 80 or 90% of the 3-4oz after spiting on floor first (no waiting time though) (must clean floor really well!!!) Again put some fresh kibble in a side dish in case she's starving but she doesn't touch it - I'm slightly concerned as she hasn't eaten a full meal yet in 2 days! But she (historically) likes the kibble and hasn't touched it so...she probably isn't perishing for sustenance....

Meal 7: Sunday Dinner: Same. Barely cook, no kibble, 90% eat (misc, small pieces on floor and bowl, doesn't seam like she's spitting out anything in particular, like bone or ligament, just random stuff) Still, I think this is less food than she should be eating but she's eating it! perhaps she just didn't like the duck, chicken seams more positively received.

Meal 8: Monday Bfast : Hardly cooked, maybe just warm. No kibble. Ate 95%.

Meal 9: Monday Dinner: Gave her a spoonful raw while I "cooked" the rest, she licked it, started at me for a bit, then ate it, raw! whaoo! therefore "cooking" was stopped at hardly warm, still mostly pink and served up, no kibble.  She ate it all! And kept walking around like she was hungry, so I served her up 2 more spoonfuls raw which she ate completely. Yippie!! (This while we were eating dinner, so she must have liked it in order to give up begging for food she wont get)

Either she's decided she likes the raw, or she just likes the chicken and not the duck. Up next is beef, then turkey. We shall see.....

[Kathy]

Love your timeline and descriptions!

Mine don't particularly like beef, so I stick with other meats like chicken and bison and venison and rabbit!

So funny that she spit it out. Mine gobble every last bite and lick the bowls and wish there were more. They think they are starving, but Kola is actually a little pudgy. Time for a boy diet!

[taltolson]

Well Sara has been on Darwins for about 2 months now and I'm pleased.  She is very enthusiastic about it now! 

We also adopted Khuno in early August. I had planed to slowly transition him from the Orijen he had previously been only (only because I didn't want to deal with two different feeding types) but he fairly refused to eat the Orijen when he saw what Sara was getting so he switched almost imediately .  No tummy trouble for him at all but Orijen is a high protein to start with. And he loves it!

Part of the reason for switching Sara is that she has a mild allergy to something unknown.  I think its something like kelp meal or peas or some such. Haven't isolated it yet.  Darwins (and most of the raw meals) have much shorter ingredient list so there was a better chance of eliminating the allergen, which I think we have done with her primary food. Though she might still be getting it through the "treats" which are the leftover Orijen we had from Khuno's first week here or ZiwiPeak treats. Her symptoms are significantly reduced - thats why I think the mystery "it" is in her treats.

The very best part of this (or any raw) is the poop!! or lack there of! it's sooo much smaller and hardly any smell! whaoo!!  A nifty side effect is that the poop turns bright white after a day or two which makes finding it in the yard much much easier.  And rock hard, so if you happen to be walking the yard and don't notice it, it's not a problem, you step on it not in it, like stepping on a pebble.  Very cool.

It's also very easy to vary the diet. Chicken this week, turkey next week, duck the next, etc.
Anyway, I'm very pleased. I did do a cost comparison for feeding both dogs on Darwins vs Orijen, and it was about the same. The Darwins is half the cost of any of the other frozen raw diets I can find and I live close enough I get free shipping.