My dog or cat doesn’t seem to be pooping as much or their poops are much smaller in size.
Yes, this is normal! Your dog or cat’s body is absorbing and utilizing most of their food, which decreases the amount of waste passing through. This results in smaller, firmer, less stinky, sometimes pellet-like poop.
You can always tell when a dog is on a very low quality food. It is voluminous, soft-serve consistency, and very stinky. Poop from a raw fed dog is the complete opposite of that.
Think about it, have you ever found poop while hiking in a forest? The animals are eating species-appropriate diets and therefore absorbing most of their food. What is leftover is minimal and crumbles back into the earth as nature intended.
Raw fed poop also won’t get stuck to your shoe if you accidentally step in it. In fact, it typically will dry out, turn white or tan, and crumble back into the earth… unless it immediately turned into a “poopsicle” during frigid Chicago winters. 😉
My dog or cat isn’t drinking much water since feeding them raw.
Raw diets naturally naturally are high moisture. Moisture = water, so dogs and cats will naturally drink less water because they are getting water from their diet.
Kibble has zero moisture in it. Due to this, it is taxing to the body and chronically dehydrating to the kidneys, so dogs and cats on kibble tend to be much more thirsty than raw fed dogs.
However, if you’d like to be certain your dog or cat is not dehydrated, there is a simple test to check this. Lightly pinch your pet’s skin up into a tent. If it bounces back, your pet is hydrated. If it stays up in the tented position, they are dehydrated. You can also check their gums. Gums should be pink. If they are almost white or white, your pet is dehydrated.
If you find your pet is dehydrated, you can add water to their meals. You can also switch to a ceramic bowl or a pet drinking fountain. Both ceramic bowls and moving water entice pets to drink more.
I just switched to raw and my dog’s stool looks strange.
This is normal. The body is using the beneficial live nutrients from raw to get rid of anything accumulated over time from processed food. This will normalize.
I just switched to raw and my dog’s skin has white flakes or they seem itchy.
This is normal. The skin is the largest eliminative organ your pet has. If the body has anything it needs to purge from feeding processed food over the years, the skin is one way they will eliminate. This is a good thing. It will normalize.
My dog is vomiting “yellow stuff” in between or before meals.
Bile vomiting can also be known as “hunger puking.”
If a dog vomits a yellow to greenish colored discharge, this is bile produced by the gallbladder. Raw food is digested at a faster rate than kibble. Kibble is turned into a sludge and sits in the stomach for an extended period of time. Raw foos is digested quickly and efficiently. This can be a different feeling for your dog’s system.
When a dog’s stomach is empty and they are anticipating their next meal, they may vomit bile. This happens more often when a dog is fed on a set schedule because your dog knows when it is time to eat and therefore the gallbladder starts to produce bile.
If you have a dog or cat that vomits bile, some possible solutions are the following:
• Feed on a random schedule. If you feed between 8-8:30a, feed between 7-10a.
• If feeding on a random schedule doesn’t work, feed a midday and/or bedtime snack (about a teaspoon or tablespoon of food, depending on your pet’s size).
• If a snack does not work, feed a smaller meal in between the normal larger meals.
My dog is now waking me up early, yodeling for joy before my alarm, and dancing in the kitchen for their food when they used to stay in bed all morning.
This is normal. Dogs LOVE raw food. Your kitchen may possibly turn into a circus over their joy. If they are waking you up due to their new found love of raw food, an easy way to solve this is to switch their meal time(s). Feed them a few hours after waking up or in the afternoon. Initially with this switch, they will pester you MORE to get up (ignore this) because in their minds, you are wrong and they should be eating. Go about your morning as normal until the new time. Soon they will learn their new meal time and it will no longer be patterned with waking up… which allows you to get your sleep.
Questions about which proteins to choose? Email us at info@farm-2-bowl.com. Click the button below to place your order