If your puppy was weaned onto a raw food diet, you can generally transition straight to a 100% Big Dog diet.

If your pup was weaned onto cooked or processed food (canned food, dry food or cooked rolls) then we recommend to transition more slowly.

A raw food diet is very different to a processed cooked diet and any sudden change of diet can create stomach upsets and gradually transitioning helps to minimise this.

Please follow these guidelines, whilst monitoring your puppy’s stools. You should begin to notice smaller, less smelly stools as you transition towards a 100% raw food diet. Loose stools are OK during the transitioning period, but do make sure there is no persistent, watery stools.

Day 1-3: 20% New Diet 80% Old Diet

Day 4-6: 40% New Diet 60% Old Diet

Day 7-9: 60% New Diet 40% Old Diet

Day 10-12: 80% New Diet 20% Old Diet

Day 12+: 100% New Diet

Additionally, we recommend the following amounts to be fed based on the weight of your puppy:

Puppy (3 – 12 months or until fully grown): 4% dog’s body weight

Adult (12 months or when fully grown): 2% dog’s body weight

Keep in mind that feeding guides are general and optimal feeding amounts may vary with age, size, breed, and activity level. Increase or decrease the calories your pup consumes daily to ensure a healthy weight is maintained.

If your puppy has no known allergies or health conditions, then you can start them on any flavour from our core range (Beef, Chicken, Combo, Tasmanian Salmon, and Lamb.). Most people choose chicken as it is highly palatable, especially when starting off on raw food for the first time.

Alternatively, our Small Dog Combo diet may be most suitable, especially for smaller pups. Our small dog recipe is minced more finely and is portioned into smaller patties which can help reduce wastage in the transition phase or in smaller breeds.

If your puppy does have allergies or skin conditions, we recommend either our Single Protein Allergy Diet – Turkey or our Scientific Diet – Sensitive Skin. We do not recommend our Kanga or Wellbeing diets due to their low fat content. Fat is important in a growing pups diet.

For more information on each product, see our products page for dogs.

Transitioning puppies to raw food with Chris Essex

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Puppies and kittens should be fed more regularly than adults, we recommend feeding three-four smaller meals and up to six meals a day for larger breeds. Regular small meals should continue until the animal is about 6 months old, then we recommend reducing your pet to being fed once or twice per day. Allowing pregnant and lactating pets to feed as often as they want is ideal.

Puppies and kittens require more food, more regularly than an adult dog or cat due to the amount of growing and developing they will be doing in the first 6 or so months of their lives. Making sure they get adequate nutrients regularly in this life stage is essential.

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We generally recommend our food is suitable when pups reach 1kg of weight or 12 weeks of age, whatever comes first.
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A few breeders who use our food, do things a little differently and we have heard of a few ways this can work. 

1.      Transitioning from feeding exclusively from Mum to introducing puppy gruel, then raw mincemeat to get the pups tummies used to raw food, then transitioning to our food from about 8weeks of age.

2.      Transitioning from feeding exclusively from Mum to introducing cooked meat before then introducing to raw, then our food from about 12 weeks of age.

3.      Transitioning from feeding exclusively from Mum, straight to introducing a BARF-style raw diet such as ours.
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The 3rd way is actually how our charity of choice, Smart Pups, transition their pups to our diet. Smart Pups dogs tolerate this approach really well.  
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It also helps when the Mum is fed raw and her immune system will be used to a raw food diet and she will be passing this innate immunity onto the pups through milk. They too will then be more likely to switch to raw and tolerate it really well.
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If you notice any loose stools or vomiting, back off the transition and go a little slowly with the addition of a probiotic supplement.
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We make a Small Dogs Combo recipe witch is minced more finely and is better for pups when they are young.

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We always recommend slowly introducing raw diets over 2 weeks. The reason for this is to minimise any potential for stomach upsets which can happen if a change in diet is sudden. Some pets will have no issues with a quick changeover in diet, however to be sure, we do recommend slowly introducing the new food.

Day 1-3: 20% New 80% Old

Day 4-6: 40% New 60% Old

Day 7-9: 60% New 40% Old

Day 10-12: 80% New 20% Old

Day 12+: 100% New Diet

Simple transition to raw food with Chris Essex

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Yes! You absolutely can co-feed kibble and raw. In fact, if your dog was on a kibble diet beforehand, mixing kibble and raw is how we recommend they transition over 10 - 12 days. This helps to ensure they have time to get used to the introduction of raw food into their diet. If you wanted to read more about transitioning your pet, read this.

We believe that any inclusion of raw food into your pets diet will benefit them however, if you’d prefer to feed a mixture of diets on an on-going basis, also known as co-feeding, ensure to adjust the feeding portions to reflect this.

For example if you choose to split your pet’s diet into 50% of a Big Dog diet and 50% of another diet, we advise to only feed half the recommended feeding portion for each diet.

For dogs and cats that have more sensitive stomachs, their diet can still consist of a raw diet and a kibble diet however if you notice any issues it could be advised to feed these two diets at different time, for example feed raw in the morning and their other diet at night, or vice-versa.

Raw food diets by definition are diets comprised of nothing but raw food. These can take many forms and the most popular of these is a BARF diet. BARF stands for biologically appropriate raw food or bones and raw food. This dietary model is based on the evolutionary diet animals would have eaten in the wild. Evolutionary raw diets are made up of fresh raw meat, offal, crushed meaty bones, vegetables, fruits and other healthy ingredients.

For more information on a Raw food diet for dogs – visit, “Evolution for dogs and a species appropriate diet”

Raw food diets are different for dogs and cats as they have different and unique dietary requirements.

Big Dog has a range of raw food diets in our range for dogs. You can view them all here.

Core Range – this is a flavour based raw food diet comprising of many different protein types. Using different protein sources allows for a wide variety of amino acids and is the range that best mimics an evolutionary diet where animals would have consumed varied types of prey.

Single Protein Allergy Range – this range is for pets with allergies to certain proteins including beef or chicken and each product is made only from one protein source.

Scientific Range – these products are for pets with specific health requirements and contain specific proteins and additional ingredients for pets with health issues.

Small Dog – smaller portion sizes and finer mincing for smaller digestive systems make this product perfect for puppies and small dogs.

Our Cat range has been specifically designed for cats with higher protein levels and taurine, an essential amino acid for cats. You can view these recipes here.

All Big Dog raw diets are 100% natural, no synthetic vitamins and minerals, artificial chemicals, colours, flavours or preservatives are present. All Big Dog diets are raw and uncooked to best preserve the quality and nutritional value of the proteins.

For more information on our dog range, see our products for dogs here.

For more information on our cat range, see our products for cats here.

Our patties are safe to use for two years after their packaged date as long as they have been correctly stored and frozen for the whole duration. After thawing the patty, we recommend they be kept in a sealed, airtight container and used within 2 - 3 days. Discard any thawed product that no longer looks or smells fresh. If you have a small dog and find our patties are too big for you to get through in time, check out our Big Dog for Small Dogs product.

No. Big Dog food is based on an evolutionary diet so all of the products in our range contain crushed bone as a source of important vitamins and minerals. Because of this, our food cannot be cooked.

Not only does cooking reduce the nutritional value of the fresh healthy ingredients, cooking bone results in it becoming brittle, potentially splintering and should not be digested by your dog in this state.

Absolutely not, at Big Dog, when we say 100% natural we mean 100% natural. This means no added preservatives, no modern preservation methods like irradiation which impact the nutritional quality of the food nor do we add any synthetic additives such as vitamins and minerals, colours or flavours.

Our preservation method for our food is freezing and once our product has been thawed ready to serve to your pet, it will last up to 3 days when kept in the fridge.

Whilst our food may last longer than 3 days, be sure to keep an eye out for signs of deterioration of the product like ballooning of the packaging. If this occurs, do not serve your pet and dispose of the product.