New Season, New Pet

Spring is the perfect time for fresh beginnings—give your new puppy or kitten the nutrition they were born to thrive on!

More daylight hours signal spring growth and new beginnings, making it an ideal time to welcome a new pet into your home. The warmer temps entice us out of hibernation and a new, playful companion can jumpstart us into the natural rhythms of the season.

Growing bodies and minds need optimal nutrition, which is essential for proper growth and development as well as long-term health and wellness. We prioritize whole, unprocessed foods for ourselves, we should do the same for our pets. There is no better time to start a fresh, complete and balanced, species-appropriate diet than right now.

Tips for making the transition

Even though your new puppy or kitten has not previously been fed a raw diet, transitioning gradually can help ensure a positive experience. We suggest:

• Begin with a poultry protein, such as chicken or turkey, as it is easier to digest.
• Serve food at room temperature to bring out natural aromas and entice picky eaters, and discourage regurgitation from pets that aren’t used to eating cold food
• Incorporate goat milk into meals for additional probiotics and enhanced palatability.

Some of the benefits of a raw diet become evident very quickly, even in the first few days. Stools become firmer and smaller, the skin and coat look and feel healthy and smooth, and fresh breath and clean teeth.

But that’s just what’s happening on the outside! Fresh food nourishes from the inside out and it all starts with the ingredients – meat, organ meat, some bones for calcium, and some low-glycemic vegetables and fruits. The key is the bioavailability - the nutrients in food that the body absorbs and uses. Fresh meat-based diets have significantly higher digestibility (93%) compared to extruded dry kibble diets (76-82%) due to processing and carbohydrate content. It’s easy to see that our carnivore pets are designed to eat fresh meat-based diets because it’s where they get the bulk of their nutrition.

When pets eat what they’re designed to eat, their gut microbiome flourishes. As a result, the immune system stays strong reducing the risk of allergies and illness, pets feel good and stay healthy.

Determining Food Portions

Relative to their size, puppies and kittens may seem to need more food than expected. But playing, learning, and growing place a high demand on their energy and they need calories for fuel. Unlike kibble, that is condensed and processed nutrition, fresh food requires larger portions to meet their nutritional needs. Usually around 5 or 6 months old, appetite decreases as growth slows, and your new pet settles into their expected adult food portion – generally about 2% of their ideal adult weight for dogs and 3% for cats.  

Every pet is unique and food portions need to be adjusted when necessary. Any food portion guide can simply offer a suggested portion. Using our Body Condition Score chart, and objectively evaluating your pet’s frame, is the easiest and best way to determine food portions. If there is noticeable “padding” in areas it shouldn’t be, it’s smart to decrease treat and food portions. Or if your puppy or kitten is in a rapid growth phase and seems ravenous and overly lanky, add some extra into the bowl for a time. Keeping pets at their ideal weight supports healthy development and cares for organs, and joints in the long term.

Chewing: A Natural and Necessary Behavior

Puppies have an inherent need to chew—it’s an outlet for mental stimulation, stress relief, physical exercise, and to help relieve teething pain. whether on shoes, furniture, or fingers. Providing raw bones, in place of shoes, furniture, and your fingers (ouch!), satisfies their instinct, benefitting their overall health and wellbeing and helps to maintain their oral and dental health.

While cats do not exhibit the same level of chewing behavior as dogs, bones are equally beneficial for their dental health and overall enrichment.

Selecting an appropriate size and type of bone for your pet, and supervising all chewing sessions, can help to ensure a safe and effective meal or chew bone.

Are Supplements Necessary?

A diet made solely of animal ingredients, such as an 80/10/10 ratio (80% meat, 10% bone, 10% organ), may lack essential micronutrients that contribute to overall health. Selecting a nutritionally complete meal ensures your pet receives the optimal balance of nutrients necessary for long-term well-being. For these types of diets, just adding vitamins and minerals isn’t enough. Creating a balanced diet requires specialized, scientific knowledge, quality ingredients and laboratory testing.

For dogs and puppies, Big Country Raw’s Dinner or XL recipes provide a balanced foundation, while for cats and kittens, Fare Game is the best choice that aligns with their unique dietary needs.

When their nutritional needs are met, there may still be times that certain supplements can offer benefit.

Here are a few that a new puppy or kitten owner might consider having on hand:

Safety is Equally Important as Complete

All raw pet food is not created equal. The lack of governance in pet food manufacturing means it is essential to look beyond the labels that claim “complete” and “balanced” and examine the ingredients, recipe formulations, manufacturing processes, and the quality of every step in the process. Here at Big Country Raw, we submit to an annual third-party audit to maintain our HACCP certification to ensure our products are safe for pets, and their humans.  

All Big Country Raw recipes are always human grade with no added hormones, antibiotics, or fillers (nutrient-void ingredients). Every recipe is third part laboratory tested to validate nutritional completeness, and each ingredient is thoughtfully chosen for the nutrition it brings to the bowl, providing the most natural way to nourish pets.

Final Thoughts

Spring is a season of renewal, making it the perfect time to start your new pet on a path to a vibrant, healthy life. The quality of their food directly impacts their growth, energy, and overall well-being. By choosing fresh, nutrient-rich meals made with real, high-quality ingredients, you’re not just feeding them—you’re investing in their long-term health, happiness, and longevity.

A thriving pet starts with the best nutrition. Welcoming a new puppy or kitten this spring? Tag us in their journey—we’d love to celebrate their milestones with you!

For Further Reading:

Apparent total-tract macronutrient digestibility, serum chemistry, urinalysis, and fecal characteristics, metabolites and microbiota of adult dogs fed extruded, mildly cooked, and raw diets https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6127788/