Raw To Kibble Switch (Instinct Food)

[Guest taylorsmom]

Hello!

I have been raw-feeding my two greyhounds and one little IG for about 4 years now. In October we are going away for almost 2 weeks and leaving them with a pet sitter, and also travelling with the dogs (to Dewey of course!). For this reason, I have started to transition them to kibble to make it easier at that time. My dogs have done mostly well on raw--occasional diarrhea when fed too much of one thing or another, etc. But it is a lot of work for me, and I have played on and off with the idea of getting them on a high quality kibble and feeding them turkey necks once a week for their teeth. I thought that if they managed this little trial for the travelling in October, I would just keep them on the kibble.

So I started feeding Instinct, Rabbit Meal formula. I like that it has a "raw coating" (whatever that is--probably just good marketing to people like me who feel guilty about giving up raw feeding!) but I particularly like that it is No-Grain and seems to have pretty high quality ingredients.

I stopped the raw and have fed the Instinct for one full day now, with no add-ins (didn't want to complicate things). Taylor, one of my greyhounds (who frequently has some soft/diarrhea even on raw), and Buster my IG have both had very soft poops. Rita, my greyhound who always has great poops no matter what, had a great poop this morning.

What I am wondering about is:

--how long should I try the food before I can tell if they are tolerating it well? In other words, I expect some soft poops initially, but how long before one should expect them to firm up?

--Have others had good experience with Instinct? Should I try other types of protein varieties in the Instinct line before switching to another food entirely if the Rabbit meal formula isn't well-tolerated?

Thanks so much for any help!!

Nancy

Edited September 13, 2010 by taylorsmom

[Batmom]

As with all foods, I've had some who did great on it and some who had mooshy poops. I don't wait long -- @ 72 hours (3 days) to make sure that the poop I'm getting is from the new food rather than prior meals.

 

Make sure you aren't overfeeding as that can produce some looseness; it's a moderately high calorie food IIRC.

 

If they seem to be doing well other than mooshiness, could try substituting in a bit of food with beet pulp (such as IAMs) or adding a little metamucil to each meal to see if that will help.

[Guest taylorsmom]

As with all foods, I've had some who did great on it and some who had mooshy poops. I don't wait long -- @ 72 hours (3 days) to make sure that the poop I'm getting is from the new food rather than prior meals.

 

Make sure you aren't overfeeding as that can produce some looseness; it's a moderately high calorie food IIRC.

 

If they seem to be doing well other than mooshiness, could try substituting in a bit of food with beet pulp (such as IAMs) or adding a little metamucil to each meal to see if that will help.

That sounds like an interesting idea, mixing in a little food with beet pulp. My Lab is on Hypoallergenic Royal Canin, and I am pretty sure that has some beet pulp in it, maybe I will mix that in after a bit.

In terms of overfeeding--I am following the guidelines on the food bag to start with, but I seem to recall reading here at one point that this might be overfeeding. I will reduce it to some degree and see if that helps too.

[Guest happygrey]

I used to feed Instinct Rabbit. One of my dogs (Bentley) seems to have great poops no matter what he eats, so he did fine, but the other one (Tatam) is pretty touchy in the tummy dept. I tried to stay on the Nature's Variety (Instinct and Prairie) but I did end up switching to Taste of the Wild's Pacific Stream. However, I still sometimes give them some of the Instinct canned rabbit as a mix in. They LOVE it.

 

Both dogs have great poops on TOTW. I was sad to switch, because I think that Nature's Variety is a better food in general, but TOTW is also very good and it really seems to agree with them. I switched them over slowly and did see that Tatam's poop got better as he got to a mix of 1/2 Instinct + 1/2 TOTW. Maybe you want to give the TOTW a shot? It doesn't have beet pulp but it does have a lot of probiotics in it that do seem to help with digestive issues. Plus it's less expensive!

[Guest taylorsmom]

I used to feed Instinct Rabbit. One of my dogs (Bentley) seems to have great poops no matter what he eats, so he did fine, but the other one (Tatam) is pretty touchy in the tummy dept. I tried to stay on the Nature's Variety (Instinct and Prairie) but I did end up switching to Taste of the Wild's Pacific Stream. However, I still sometimes give them some of the Instinct canned rabbit as a mix in. They LOVE it.

 

Both dogs have great poops on TOTW. I was sad to switch, because I think that Nature's Variety is a better food in general, but TOTW is also very good and it really seems to agree with them. I switched them over slowly and did see that Tatam's poop got better as he got to a mix of 1/2 Instinct + 1/2 TOTW. Maybe you want to give the TOTW a shot? It doesn't have beet pulp but it does have a lot of probiotics in it that do seem to help with digestive issues. Plus it's less expensive!

That is a good suggestion--TOTW Pacific Stream is the food I was planning to try next. All three dogs have had decent to good poops on the Instinct Rabbit, but then I got adventurous and switched to Instinct Chicken. Not great poop on that, for some reason--I thought the Nature's Variety were meant to be rotated, but maybe not quite so soon as I did it, perhaps. Anyway, I am now switching them back to Instinct Rabbit, but now my IG Buster is turning his nose up on the food. He has never been an enthusiastic kibble eater but always LOVED the raw food. I am not sure if he is upset that it is not raw food, or if he really just doesn't like the Instinct. I am going to try the TOTW to see if that works better soon, and hopefully he will like it better.

[Guest happygrey]

I used to feed Instinct Rabbit. One of my dogs (Bentley) seems to have great poops no matter what he eats, so he did fine, but the other one (Tatam) is pretty touchy in the tummy dept. I tried to stay on the Nature's Variety (Instinct and Prairie) but I did end up switching to Taste of the Wild's Pacific Stream. However, I still sometimes give them some of the Instinct canned rabbit as a mix in. They LOVE it.

 

Both dogs have great poops on TOTW. I was sad to switch, because I think that Nature's Variety is a better food in general, but TOTW is also very good and it really seems to agree with them. I switched them over slowly and did see that Tatam's poop got better as he got to a mix of 1/2 Instinct + 1/2 TOTW. Maybe you want to give the TOTW a shot? It doesn't have beet pulp but it does have a lot of probiotics in it that do seem to help with digestive issues. Plus it's less expensive!

That is a good suggestion--TOTW Pacific Stream is the food I was planning to try next. All three dogs have had decent to good poops on the Instinct Rabbit, but then I got adventurous and switched to Instinct Chicken. Not great poop on that, for some reason--I thought the Nature's Variety were meant to be rotated, but maybe not quite so soon as I did it, perhaps. Anyway, I am now switching them back to Instinct Rabbit, but now my IG Buster is turning his nose up on the food. He has never been an enthusiastic kibble eater but always LOVED the raw food. I am not sure if he is upset that it is not raw food, or if he really just doesn't like the Instinct. I am going to try the TOTW to see if that works better soon, and hopefully he will like it better.

Funny you should say that about the chicken. I started Tatam on that, and then tried the duck/turkey before getting him onto the rabbit. His poops were definitely best on the rabbit out of all the flavors I tried. I don't know if the TOTW helps because the fish formula is a little lower in protein or if it's all the special probiotics they put in it, but something works!

 

I'm surprised your IG doesn't like it -- my boys go crazy for anything rabbit. Recently I got some dehydrated rabbit feet for them from Hare Today and boy does that make the meal when I put on on their kibble.