Food assistance

In three weeks I will be collecting my 10-week-old miniature Australian Labradoodle puppy. When she is old enough she is going to be trained by a charity to be an alert dog for me... to tell me when my blood sugar is getting low, as I have no warning symptoms.
I would like to be able to feed her a raw food diet as it seems the most natural to me... but as she will be with me everywhere, it would be awkward giving her raw meaty bone when away at a conference or somewhere like that!
Is it possible to feed her both cooked and raw? Would this upset her digestion? My friend's Labs, fed on dry food, get diarrhoea when given too many meaty bones.
I read the article on organic food in your magazine this month (we ourselves eat organic food ). I was thinking of the Orijen pet food plus some chicken wings and meaty bones.
Perhaps you could advise me also about Nature's Choice. Would that be easy to feed not at home?
Thank you!
Liz Brownlee, by email

Richard Allport, alternative vet, says...
While I am a strong advocate of a healthy raw food diet, there is no reason why you shouldn’t sometimes feed a good quality commercial food. Orijen. Lily’s Kitchen, Fish4Dogs, Prize Choice, Nature’s Menu, Darlings Real Dog Food, are all good examples (there are others).
Some of these (like Lily’s Kitchen, Orijen and Fish4dogs) are wet or dry processed food, but of sufficient quality of ingredients to be totally acceptable as a back up to a raw food diet. Some (like Darlings and Prize Choice) are packs of raw food, either ready to be frozen or already frozen. As long as you have access to a fridge when you are away, these would be ideal.
Natures Choice is a kibble with quite a high proportion of rice; the protein source is turkey meal. While better than many dry foods I’m not certain I’d recommend it as a suitable alternative. I’m not sure if you are confusing this with other similar named foods such as Natural Choice, Prize Choice, Natural Balance and so on. The only complicated thing about natural feeding is the confusing names of the various foods out there in the market place!

Catherine O'Driscoll, Canine Health Concern, says...
It’s wonderful to hear that you will be repaying your service dog with real food. This will keep her healthy and extend your partnership for many years to come – and you’ll be unlikely to waste a lot of time at the vets, treating illnesses that come from malnutrition.  So good choice!
Depending on how long your conferences last, you could put frozen chicken wings in a cooler box and they’ll be good for a few days. When we travel with Edward, we also include blocks of frozen Darlings pet food – this is good quality raw meat mixed with some vegetables, herbs and vitamins, so it’s ready to go (http:www.darlingsrealdogfood.com). 
Some hotels will allow you to put frozen food in their freezers, so it’s worth asking. We also find that most places have a supermarket or butchers nearby, so if you run out of the frozen stocks you’ve brought with you, it’s possible to nip to the shops. 
However, if your conference is in Timbuktu, Nature’s Choice is a good stop-gap. You only have to open the package and tip
it in a dish. Although feeding dogs raw might seem daunting at first, it seems very easy once you get in the swing.
As for changing the food and upsetting your dog’s digestion, I have always fed my dogs a variety of foods, including
leftovers from my own meals. Maybe getting them used to a variety of food when they’re young has helped. Some dogs,
though, are allergic to certain foodstuffs, which might be the case with your friend’s Labradors (although this is unusual
for Labs). I’d want to know more about them before drawing any conclusions on this.
Good luck, and wishing you many happy years with your new friend.

Jackie Marriott, UK Raw Meaty Bones www.ukrmb.co.uk, says...
It may well be tricky for you to feed your dog raw food, because I suspect that those who train the dog will refuse to feed her raw and may well insist that she isn’t, once she’s handed back to you, her guardian.  I suppose that depends on the organisation - I have been informed that Canine Partners for Independence will not allow their dogs to be fed raw, neither will Guide Dogs for the Blind.
However, to give some general advice. It’s best not to mix raw with cooked/processed, because of possible digestive issues.  As our name implies, we recommend feeding raw meaty bones...that is, large lumps of meat wrapped around a small amount of bone, plus some organ meat. 
We recommend feeding large pieces, so that the dog really has to work at the food and in the process, gives the teeth and gums a good cleaning at every mealtime. Clean teeth and gums are paramount to the health of pet carnivores.
Chicken wings are very boney, offer very little teeth cleaning as they are eaten in seconds and may pose a choking hazard for larger dogs. They are only really suitable for cats and toy dogs. For larger dogs we recommend joints of meat, rabbits, whole chickens, turkey drumsticks, cuts of pork, lamb neck, lamb shoulder etc  plus some organ meat, especially liver and for smaller dogs chicken quarters, chicken drums, lamb shanks and smaller joints of meat, again with some organ meat.
Natures Choice and Orijen are just brands of processed pet food and in our opinion no better or worse than any other. The ingredients are cooked, so in our opinion are entirely in the wrong form and consistency -  and particularly with Natures Choice, many of the ingredients are completely unsuitable to feed to a pet carnivore.
I think you need to do some research before jumping in at the deep end! I would suggest you read either (or both) of Tom Lonsdale’s books - “Raw Meaty Bones’ and “Work Wonders”.  I’d also recommend you have a look at http://www.rawfed.com/myths/index.html as that site provides a huge amount of knowledge and information which you may well need at some stage, to answer the doubters and to defend your feeding choices, especially to members of the veterinary profession! Obviously check our site out too:)
http://www.ukrmb.co.uk
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/RawMeatyBones