Answer: It is never too late to start your dog on a raw diet and It can help prolong their life. Dogs who have been on a kibble diet for many years may experience a longer transition period and will experience a prolonged detox as I mentioned in another post.
There are a some physical condition we need to consider. For example, older dogs may be missing a few teeth. If this is the case, then give them softer bones such as: chicken, duck, quail, and turkey. Avoid harder bones like: beef, lamb, and pork, but you can still feed them the meaty parts. A few time per week I recommend giving them meat and bone ground. There are a few options do do this:
1. Get a meat grinder and grind the meat and bones yourself . Some meat grinders could be very expensive, but you can get a good one in the $150-$200 range
2. If you don’t want to grind the meat yourself you can join a local co-op for raw feeding. Many of the co-ops offer Prey-Model Meat Grinds (which mean, meat, bone and organs finely ground together)
3. You can also give them bones that are higher in cartilage content than bone content. An excellent source is turkey neck which are very popular among raw feeding groups.
The only time I do not recommend immediately converting to a raw diet is if you just introduced a new dog to your household who has previously been on kibble. In this case I suggest feeding your dog kibble for couple of weeks and then introduce them to raw foods. The reason for this is that dogs are very habitual animals and a new environment is always stressful on them. Introducing a new diet while stressed might not have a very good results from the beginning. Many dogs that suddenly changed their environments may vomit or experience diarrhea despite their diet. You don’t want to confuse these symptoms of stress with the those of detox from switching to a raw diet.