11/25/2025
We frequently get asked about raw weaning and feeding...here is a thumbnail on the topic and you'll find links to two of my podcasts in the comments (and also a link to our breeder course where we teach raw weaning).
We feed raw and wean on to raw.
Long story short, even if the puppies will be fed kibble in their new homes, it's still worth it to wean onto raw. The boost they get to the colonization of their gut biomes when they are fed raw will have lifelong benefits and they will even be able to get more nutrition out of the kibble they are fed, if they are weaned onto raw.
Not all of my homes feed raw. Many feed some kibble, very few totally feed kibble. I send them home with a commercial raw mix and some fermented foods that I make myself, and it's rare that they are not sold on raw after that first week or two.
But I no longer make it a requirement that my puppy owners feed raw, there are just too many things that are DQs in our breed, adding kibble feeding to that list makes the list of qualified homes impossibly small.
Benefits for us...long life, almost never have any GI upset or stool problems, completely different body odor, more like a horse than a dog, clean teeth, less stool volume.
I do not eat processed food, I know how it immediately makes me feel terrible, I would not feed a processed food to my dogs. But that's not an ideology, that's just me.
If you're a kibble feeder and you've read this far, you'll enjoy the podcasts as I am not a kibble basher. I understand the benefits of kibble in our modern society and I do talk about that, as well.