Transitioning Your Pet to A Raw Food Diet

Transition is the most important element of a healthy and safe switch from dry kibble or canned wet food to a raw food diet. We recommend implementing a slow transition to raw food to avoid upset stomachs, diarrhea, and endless trips outside. Your pet’s digestive system is a vital part of this process. Give your pet a minimum of one week for your pet to properly adjust from a highly processed diet to a new diet of human-grade raw foods.

1. For the first 1-3 days of the transition begin by mixing one raw protein or one of our raw blends into your pet’s current food at a ratio that your pet will endure. You can start with as little as ¼ Raws for Paws to ¾ of your pet’s current food. Please note that your pet may show some adversity to the temperature of the cold raw food at first.

2. If your pet accepts the raw food during days 1-3, feed your pet raw foods only for the morning meal, and their current food for the evening meal for days 4-7. When your pet has successfully started consuming raw foods readily, and has healthy firm stool you can begin feeding raw foods for both meals and try introducing a new protein into their diet.

3. Many pets will transition quickly and consume the raw food with vigor. To determine how your pet’s digestive system is accepting the new diet, monitor your pet’s stool. When consuming a raw diet, your pet’s stool size will be greatly reduced and the color will be lighter. Stools will become smaller, firm, and will not have any offensive odor. If your pet’s stool is soft or loose as a result of the transition, introduce raw food at a slower rate to give your pet some time to adjust.

Please note that pets with known digestive issues and or/gastrointestinal disorders should transition to raw food more slowly. We recommend the addition of a digestive enzyme to aid with the transition for pets with sever digestive and/or gastrointestinal upset.