Switching Saluki to raw food — taurine advice

Taurine is exactly the right thing to be thinking about here — especially coming off grain-free kibble, which has been linked to dilated cardiomyopathy in some breeds, and Salukis as a sighthound are a breed worth being cautious with. Raw feeding done well can be genuinely excellent for a dog like yours, but done badly it creates nutritional gaps that cause real harm over time, and the difference is balance and sourcing. Before I point you in the right direction: is your Saluki male or female, roughly what weight, and are you thinking ready-made complete raw meals or are you open to preparing food yourself?

That's a sensible approach. Ready-made complete raw is the safest way to start because the calcium-to-phosphorus ratio and organ percentages are already balanced for you. For a 22kg Saluki, you'd be feeding roughly 400–440g per day depending on her activity level — Salukis can be surprisingly variable, some are couch dogs between runs, others are burning energy constantly. How active is she day to day, and has she had any cardiac screening or is this more a precautionary concern about taurine?

Good to know she's been checked and is clear. The reassuring thing about well-formulated complete raw is that beef, lamb, and heart muscle meat are all strong natural sources of taurine — far better than the processed legume-heavy grain-free kibbles that triggered the DCM concerns in the first place. The product I'd recommend for you is Nature's Menu Country Hunter Raw Nuggets in the Beef variety. They're a properly formulated complete raw — 80% meat including heart, 10% bone, 10% offal, no fillers, no legumes — and the nuggets make portion control very straightforward. For a 22kg moderately active Saluki, around 420g per day split across two meals maps well onto her existing routine. The beef formulation is one of the highest in naturally occurring taurine precursors you'll find in ready-made raw.

Gradually is still the right approach, even though raw is a different digestion model to kibble. Saluki digestive systems are generally quite sensitive — sighthounds tend to be. I'd do a 10-day transition: days one to three, roughly 25% raw mixed alongside the kibble; days four to six, 50/50; days seven to nine, 75% raw; then fully over by day ten. Some dogs show loose stools mid-transition as gut bacteria adjust — that's normal and settles. If she goes off her food entirely or the stools stay loose past day five, slow it down rather than push through.

With a properly formulated complete raw like Nature's Menu, you shouldn't need to add anything — that's the point of choosing complete over prey-model DIY. The one exception I'd mention given your specific taurine concern: some owners of cardiac-sensitive breeds add a small amount of fresh heart meat a few times a week as an additional natural taurine source. It's not necessary if she's healthy and on a complete food, but it won't do any harm and it's whole food rather than a supplement. Beyond that, keep it simple — over-supplementing a balanced raw diet can actually cause imbalances, particularly with calcium and fat-soluble vitamins. Let the food do the work.