Making the change

Transition to Raw

The transition to Natural Instinct raw diet should be gradual, phased transition spanning between 7-10 days. Not only is this important for the wellbeing of your dog, but it will also help to avoid periods of excessive wind, diarrhoea or constipation.

Introduction to raw

Initially start your dog on one protein source for a three week period. This allows your dog’s digestive system to adapt and makes it easier to spot if your dog has a particular intolerance to a certain protein. Ensure overtime you introduce a range of different proteins to your dog to maintain variety in their diet.

 Easing your pet into a high protein raw meat and bone diet is easy and convenient. Simply follow the steps below:

• Day 1 – We recommend a gradual transition on to our food diet over a 7-10 day period, whereby you replace a small spoonful of your dog or cat’s current food with a small spoonful of the raw per meal, gradually increasing the amount of raw and decreasing the current food until fully transitioned over. The spoon size will depend on the size of dog or cat, for example, a teaspoon for a toy breed dog and a tablespoon for a large dog. 
• Day 2 Onwards – Following on from day 1, each subsequent day more of the raw diet should be added until the full transition is achieved. 

Things worth noting;

• If your pet has a loose stool at any stage, we recommend reducing the amount of raw food for three days to stabilise the stool prior to returning to increasing the raw food levels. If your pet is elderly or dealing with any complex chronic disease e.g. end-stage cancers, animals on antacids or high levels of immune-suppressive drug therapy, then we would recommend you get expert help prior to beginning the transition to a raw diet.
• For the first month of feeding raw, digestive enzymes and probiotics can be added to the diet for dogs or cats that have any dietary issues or that have been prone to diarrhoea or constipation. Natural Instinct’s Zoolac Propste can be used for this.