Raw feeding a Springer Spaniel and cats together

A multi-pet raw household is very doable, but I want to be upfront with you: dogs and cats have genuinely different nutritional requirements — cats are obligate carnivores who need taurine, arachidonic acid, and preformed vitamin A in ways dogs don't — so while you can use the same supplier and the same feeding principles, you cannot feed them identical food and call it done. Raw feeding done well can be excellent for both species, but done badly it creates real nutritional gaps over time, and the difference is balance and sourcing. Before I point you anywhere specific: is your Springer a healthy weight, any known sensitivities or health issues, and are you looking for complete ready-made meals or are you happy to assemble meals yourself from components?

Perfect, complete ready-made is absolutely the right call for a setup like yours — it removes the guesswork and means both your dog and your cats are getting properly balanced meals without you needing a spreadsheet. For a 4-year-old Springer, you're feeding a medium-to-large active breed, so you want something with good protein density and ideally named, quality meat sources rather than generic 'meat and animal derivatives.' Can I ask roughly how much he weighs? Springers vary quite a bit — somewhere between 18kg and 25kg is typical, but I want to make sure the portion guidance I give you is accurate.

22kg and active is a useful number, thank you. For him I'd point you squarely at Natures Menu Complete Nuggets — the dog range. They're frozen nuggets made from named meats with added veg, fruit, and supplements to make them genuinely complete, and the format is very practical for a dog his size. You defrost what you need, weigh it out, done. At 22kg with good activity levels you're looking at roughly 440–480g per day, split into two meals. The reason I like this brand for a multi-pet household specifically is that Natures Menu also does a complete cat range in the same frozen nugget format, so you're shopping from one supplier, using the same freezer logic, and the quality standard is consistent across both. Your cats get species-appropriate complete raw, your Springer gets his, and you're not juggling three different feeding systems.

It's a fair question and the honest answer is: raw feeding often does help with hairballs, indirectly. Cats on high-moisture, high-protein raw diets tend to have better gut motility and pass hair more easily than cats on dry kibble. There's no specific 'hairball formula' you need to buy — the switch to complete raw can make a meaningful difference on its own. If after a few months on raw the hairballs are still frequent, adding a small amount of psyllium husk or a salmon oil supplement to that cat's meal is the next sensible step, but I wouldn't front-load the setup with extras before you've seen how he responds to the diet change itself.

Yes — transition slowly, especially with the cats. Cats are notoriously conservative about food changes and can develop hepatic lipidosis if they go off food for more than a day or two, so don't make the switch sudden. Start by mixing a small amount of the raw in with their current food and increase the proportion over 2–3 weeks. Your Springer will likely adapt faster, but even with him a gradual swap over 7–10 days reduces the chance of loose stools, which are the main transition side effect. Keep meals slightly smaller than usual in the first week. And one practical note: handle raw pet food with the same hygiene you'd use for raw meat for your own kitchen — wash bowls, don't let it sit out, and store it properly frozen until 24 hours before use.