For the first time since we started raw feeding, we have had our bitch mated and (finger crossed!!) she should be having puppies. We plan to wean them on to raw food, but we also know that some potential owners may not want to carry on raw feeding. What do you raw feeding breeders do? Do you mix in a complete food right from the beginning to get all the pups used to it? Or do you stick with purely raw and let the new owners gradually introduce a complete food later on?

I rear my litters on complete food and then start mine on raw as soon as all the others have gone.  I also occasionally feed mine a complete when travelling.  Not many people are happy with me turning up on their doorstep with a bin bag full of raw meat!

I started my pups on raw mince then mixed in some puppy complete so that when they went to their new owners they could choose which way they wanted to feed, some went down the raw road and some went to complete.  It seemed to work for my puppies and owners.

a friend of mine did this but used a good quality complete - orijen

My raw feeding friend went the complete with some raw with her first litter.  Most pups will prefer raw, but the majority of new owners don't, (especially once their vet has poo poohed it) so it is better they are really happy to eat complete, but get some raw too.

More owners are happy to supplement with a bit of raw, and thsoe that reserch ti more may then move onto it if it suits them.

We wean onto raw and then start giving any pups going to complete fed homes the odd meal of complete from about 6 weeks

I wean onto a mixture of both raw and complete and puppies leave me with a mixture of the two then the new owner can decide what suits them best, i have never had a problem with the owners that decide raw is not for them and the puppies adjust quickly because they are so young.
Raw is definately best imo but of course i do respect the fact that it is just not practical for everyone. You can only advise on feeding and then hope the vets dont put the fear of god into people (which they normally do!)

I would feed a mixture of both, that way the puppies can adapt to their new homes easily.

Thanks everyone for the replies. Just need to decide what complete food to give them now!

if you want to keep it to as close to raw as possible then orijen is probably the best bet as it is no grain 70% meat 30% veg/fruit

The price of origen and the difficulty in obtaining it might push new owners to change foods quickly though,  I would go for something middle of the road which is easily obtainable such as JWB .... not as good as origen but cheaper and easily obtainable and new owners might stick to it which would be better for the pups.

I fed my bitch raw and continued through pregnancy and weaned the pups onto a 100% raw diet. All pups were healthy and thrived, they loved the raw and were of course built for the job, i will never again feed my pups mush as i believe that they should be back to nature and fed how wolves are. Luckily everyone was happy to feed 50/50 of complete and tripe carcass etc . They are not babies without teeth and at 5 weeks old stripped and devoured a chicken wing in minutes!

I have overseen 2 litters recently both who have been fed complete bikkys ( the bitches) no raw diets. In both litters at least one pup has faded away and one litter had sniffles and was on antib's for a week, im unsure whether the raw diet has any affect on pups during pregnancy? Or if its just one of those things, my own litter was very strong and hardy. This could be down to many factors, husbandry etc but id be interested to hear from anyone who has had a litter with a bitch fed on complete then gone on to have another litter from the same bitch then fed on raw and seen a difference.

> id be interested to hear from anyone who has had a litter with a bitch fed on complete then gone on to have another litter from the same bitch then fed on raw and seen a difference.

No difference here.  My Tula was raw fed with her second litter and there was no difference to her litter when she was fed entirely complete with just the adding of leftovers from our meals that the dog get if there are any.

> The price of origen and the difficulty in obtaining it might push new owners to change foods quickly though,  I would go for something middle of the road which is easily obtainable such as JWB .... not as good as origen but cheaper and easily obtainable and new owners might stick to it which would be better for the pups.

This is exactly what I thought. I think we will feed a good quality food but maybe something not quite as expencive as Origen.

> id be interested to hear from anyone who has had a litter with a bitch fed on complete then gone on to have another litter from the same bitch then fed on raw and seen a difference.

When our bitch had her first litter she was fed a mixture of complete fod and meat such as Natures Menu or meat we cooked at home. She has been raw fed for about 8 months now. Her first litter of puppies were all healthy, had no problems at all with any of them. But I do believe that a raw diet is much better.

Orijen isn't that difficult to get hold of - plenty of online companies stock it. It may be expensive in comparison to other completes but the quality is second to none, and generally less needs to be fed. I am hoping to have a litter fairly soon and that will be raised on a combination of Orijen, raw meat/bones and Naturediet, the same as are all my current dogs.

Join the Orijen breeder scheme, you get a discount and food for the new puppy owners. You can do it from their website

Thanks Karen, I have done already They still haven't send me any password details though.

Right well I have changed my mind again! We bought a bag of Origen at LKA today so the pups will be weaned on to that along with raw. What makes it even better, they were doing a 13.5kg bag for £15!

Does anybody know how soon we should start giving it to the bitch? We have never really had to switch foods before!

> What makes it even better, they were doing a 13.5kg bag for £15!

What an amazing price.  The cheapest I have found it is in the £40's.

It was a special offer on for anybody signing up on the day for the breeders scheme. I signed up about a week ago but luckily the very nice man at Origen let us have a bag for the special price anyway!