A Dog's Health

Sometimes when dogs initially switch to raw, you may notice they vomit a small amount of white foam or yellow bile most often in the mornings.  Don’t panic!  This can be quite common as your dog’s digestive tract adapts to processing a higher protein, lower carbohydrate diet.   This is often more commonly seen in dogs that have previously been on a kibble diet.  

We recommend supporting your pet’s digestive system with Natural Instinct’s Zoolac Propaste, and temporarily feeding a little food to your pet before it goes to bed to help your pet’s system adapt to its change in diet.    For more information on our Zoolac Propaste click here.

If you see continuous sickness or other health issues, please consult your vet. 

A sense of perspective should be retained; your dog is far more likely to acquire worms at the park checking out the pit-stops of other dogs!  

Obesity is a serious and growing problem in pet dogs in the UK.  

Good nutrition and plenty of appropriate exercise is the key to keeping your dog fit and healthy.  

Natural Instinct raw food contains no grains or fillers and the carbohydrates in the food are in the form of vegetables that also provide fibre in the diet.  

By avoiding rapidly metabolised and easily stored carbohydrates such as rice, maize and potato in the diet it is already helping you to feed a satisfying amount of food without your dog gaining weight.  

It is still important to avoid overfeeding.  

We recommend feeding your adult dog 2-3% of their ideal adult body weight daily but remember that different dogs can have a different metabolic rate just like humans and the amount of food needed also changes with the amount of exercise your dog has.  

Remember, feeding guides are just that, they give you a guide of where to start.   

It is important to monitor your dog’s weight and condition and adjust the amount you feed accordingly. 

Also bear in mind different recipes contain different levels of fat. If your dog does tend to gain weight easily, we would recommend using the lower fat recipes such as Natural Special Diet or Natural Tripe & Turkey.  All analytical constituents of our recipes are on our website and packaging. 

In winter it is tempting to stay indoors; you and your dogs will feel so much better if you keep up the exercise, no matter how cold or wet it gets! 

There is no reason why any dog with allergies cannot be fed raw.   In fact, feeding an unprocessed single protein, grain free diet can benefit many dogs with allergies that present either with skin disease and/or gut upset.  

Allergies are one of the most common issues dealt with in small animal practice and the diet is normally one of the first things addressed by vets.  It is important to determine what your dog is allergic too but remember, the tests are only as good as what they are testing for!

There are now good blood tests available for environmental and food allergy plus a saliva test for food allergy. Your vet will be able to help advise you about these tests.  

Where food sensitivity and/or allergy is involved then it is important to avoid any foods that have shown a strong positive reading in the tests.  

As Natural Instinct uses named protein and carbohydrate sources and has the Pure Range for super sensitive animals, it is easy to find a recipe that will suit your dog or cat.  

All our recipes are grain free and there is lots of evidence from years of testing that many food allergic dogs have sensitivity to grain. 

IMPORTANT - If your dog is already on high levels of immunosuppressant medication such as steroids or cyclosporine care must be taken during any transition period onto raw as your dog’s gut level immunity will have been compromised.  You should seek advice from your vet.  

There are many different reasons why a dog might have runny stools ranging from infections to dietary sensitivities.  It could also be a symptom of disease elsewhere in the body.  

The more severe the runny stool is (diarrhoea), the more important it is to have your vet check a stool sample from your dog.   Stool sample checks will pick up anything like parasites and infections such as campylobacter or salmonella.  Very serious cases will also need other tests such as blood tests, but your vet will advise you regarding these. 

Many cases of diarrhoea are simply caused by dietary issues and transitioning your pet onto a simple unprocessed food with no grains, artificial colourants or additives such as Natural Instinct can be a perfectly good alternative to a formulated dry diet.  

We would initially recommend selecting a lower fat variety such as turkey and using a protein that is different from the one usually present in your dog's diet.  New diets should be introduced slowly over several days otherwise loose stools might be temporarily worsened. Using a probiotic such as Natural Instinct’s Zoolac Propaste can help your pet through the transition and can help the loose stool itself.  See our transition guide here.