Different food mediums have different digestion rates and requirements. 'Co-feeding' a natural, fresh food type alongside processed foods (kibbles, freeze dried, dehydrated treats, canned food) can cause indigestion and wet stools due to the reasons listed below.
1)Moisture differences – Fresh foods (BOM BOM meals) typically have higher moisture content; processed foods have lower moisture content. When fed together, drier foods which are excreted more quickly, can lead to premature excretion and insufficient moisture absorption of natural fresh foods which require a longer gut transit time to be absorbed throughout the GI tract.
2)Different gut transit time– Natural, unprocessed foods (BOM BOM meals) typically require a longer time to transit through the GI tract to achieve optimal nutrient absorption. On the other hand, processed foods (kibbles, freeze dried, dehydrated treats, canned food) have a shorter gut transit time due to their lower bioavailability/digestibility (hence, the increased stool volume, gram for gram of food consumed, when your pet is on processed foods).
If you intend to co-feed kibble/freeze dried/canned food, we would recommend feeding them in separate meal sessions. For example, you may consider feeding kibble/freeze dried/canned food at breakfast and feeding BOM BOM meals at night. Feeding of dehydrated treats should be kept to a minimum (less than 10% of total daily food intake) as they are still secondary to meals in terms of nutrient value and digestibility. While a minority of pets can cope with the co-feeding of different food mediums, the majority of pets may face digestive difficulties and wetter stool texture when mixing.